In one of my online classes, a few of us have been having a sidebar discussion on the human interaction that we feel as "missing" in an online learning environment. We've had some great back and forth "conversations" in the asynchronous discussion forum that began when a fellow online classmate made the statement, "I can't help but think someday no one will attend class and there will be no 'campus'." This was followed by a thread of posts noting the human interaction that some feel can't truly be replicated in an online environment. Here is a partial list of of missed interactions noted by members of my class:
- hearing people laugh (and I'll add, without net lag),
- watching people discover things,
- having a whole group of people excited about something at the same time (I'll add again, without net lag),
- real handshakes, winks, facial gestures (I'll add, not emoticons)
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Potlucks: great coffee, popcorn, whatever you like to eat or drink
I pointed back to my "Being Spaces" posts from back in June which prompted a referral to the book The Ape in the Corner Office: Understanding the Workplace Beast in All of Us. So, even for us distance students who are putting our hearts, minds and hard earned tuition dollars into this new learning environment, there is still a longing for what I often refer to as "the water cooler". This theme will be part of a free webcast today hosted by the folks at Innovate with Robert Sanders, the author of "The 'Imponderable Bloom': Reconsidering the Role of Technology in Education" (see details below). In the article, Sanders notes:
" … my students are apprehensive of technologically mediated interaction, arguing that communication and collaboration in an online learning environment is simply not the same as in a F2F environment. While they do not necessarily expect the experience to be the same, they are frustrated by the disconnect they sense between themselves and the other students. My students realize that what they see and hear in an online world is something like a real classroom, but it is not the same as a physical classroom space. Virtually being there is not the same as physically being there. As a result, these students sense a void in what could otherwise be a rich learning environment."
Catch the webcast today at:
The “Imponderable Bloom”: Reconsidering the Role of Technology in Education
Webcast: September 11th, 2:00pm ET
Author: Robert Sanders Moderator: Liz Hawthorne
complete article…