Dreyfus tackles "Distance Learning" in the second chapter of his book. He states that distance learning will never be able to exist independently of the traditional classroom setting because to master a topic or field, students need more than a computer screen and keyboard.
I agree with this statement. I am a transfer student from a rather large university. At my previous college, I took a class that was almost entirely online. We were strongly encouraged to come to lecture, as per college policy, but all tests, quizzes, and assignments were to be completed on the computer and sent to the professor via blackboard. There were quite a few problems with this method. The professor used lecture time to go off on tangents and talk about her children. We were left to do assignments and tests with no direction and to, basically, teach ourselves the information from the textbook. Assignments were difficult to submit because the internet was not always functioning properly. And tests...Since we were not taking tests in the classroom and were not monitored, all tests were open book, open notes, which sounds great. However, since this was the case, the professor thought it appropriate to choose very hard questions and place a time limit on the exam. Since cheating was also a problem between students, all tests had questions in different orders (which is perfectly understandable, but hard to follow).
In the very beginning of the course, she told us we would either love the online exams or hate them. She used the fact that we could take it from the "comfort of our own home" as a perk. I love that phrase, "comfort of your own home". At that point in time, my home was not a very "comfortable" environment for test taking. I lived in an apartment with unreliable Internet, 3 roommates, 2 small puppies, and very rowdy neighbors. With all that going on, it didn't matter how comfortable it was to sit on my fluffy couch as opposed to a hard, wooden chair in a freezing classroom. While my hind end preferred the couch, my brain (and grade) preferred the quiet classroom.
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In class when we were talking distance learning I is a very interesting thing to think about but how good would distance learning be? When trying to learn from a computer is a rater difficult thing to do. There are feelings in words that a computer can never understand the way in which you are trying to put it. The live face to face class room will never be taken over by the computer DreyFus says that the computer can not understand because the computer cant use the human body to reflect on. I believe that distance learning would also hurt kids with there social abilities for the real world in the class room you get that face to face interaction that is essential to life. But distance learning could be good for some situations for kids that live on farms that at are so far away that they would have to use it.
-Keith Lageman-
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