Hello Larry (I am not sure we are past this semi-formal salutation etiquette, so I will err on the side of politeness),
I read your article on-line and I agree with much of what you say. Learning is fundamentally a personal journey and no amount of social interactions will ever change that. Furthermore, technology may change the tools we use to learn, but it will never change the underlying processes. In addition, technology (like the internet) can introduce new and unexpected barriers to learning. Years ago (in the 80s) when "distance learning" was the new and trendy educational paradigm, I taught a course on operating systems. I was a lecturer in the computer science program of the U.C. Department of Applied Science, which was a collaboration between Lawrence Livermore National Labooratory (where I worked), U.C. Davis and Chico State University. The students for the course were located at LLNL and U.C. Davis. My lectures were carried by a video/audio link to the students at Davis, while those at LLNL were in the room with me. The first time I taught such a course, I experienced an impediment that I did not foresee. During the lecture I could evaluate whether my students at LLNL were following the material by simply watching their facial expressions and body language. If I was going too fast or if some point completely snowed them, I could stop and go back over the mystifying material. However, the link to U.C. Davis was one way. I had no idea whether the students at Davis were following the material. So, the students at LLNL were given preferential treatment simply because I could see them. The internet has this distancing property. In fact, some of the elaborate rules of netiquette attempt to mitigate the loss of intimacy when everyone is "at a distance". You have to be very formal sometimes (e.g,. the salutation procedures alluded to above), because you can't read the facial expressions and body language of those whom you are addressing. This formality is necessary because without that feedback we have no reason to stop and consider what is the effect of our writing on its recipients. Dan --- On Thu, 4/15/10, Larry Sanger <[email protected]> wrote: From: Larry Sanger <[email protected]> Subject: [Citizendium-l] FW: March/April 2010 EDUCAUSE REVIEW To: "'Citizendium general project announcement list'" <[email protected]> Date: Thursday, April 15, 2010, 2:03 PM From: Teddy Diggs Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2010 4:38 PM Subject: March/April 2010 EDUCAUSE REVIEW The March/April 2010 issue of EDUCAUSE Review, featuring work by all of you, is shipping this week. Your complimentary print copies should be arriving soon (if they haven't already). In the meantime, the electronic version -- both PDF and html formats -- is up on the EDUCAUSE website: <http://www.educause.edu/er/>. The new issue will be announced on the EDUCAUSE home page as well. Thanks again for your hard work and contributions. We are in your debt! --Teddy D. Teddy Diggs Publisher/Editor, EDUCAUSE Review "Why IT Matters to Higher Education" www.educause.edu/er/ [email protected] -----Inline Attachment Follows----- _______________________________________________ Citizendium-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.purdue.edu/mailman/listinfo/citizendium-l _______________________________________________ Citizendium-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.purdue.edu/mailman/listinfo/citizendium-l
