A good lecture or seminar has its foundation in words but gains its texture and flow from countless other subtle cues and interactions in the classroom. These include the body language of the students that an alert instructor will observe and use in modulating the pace and content of the discussion, the pauses and inflections in student questions that would escape capture by a microphone, and the dynamism that occurs because each student, sitting among different neighbors at a unique location in the room, experiences and engages with the class slightly differently.
A course is also made effective by the unscripted interactions that occur as students gather before and after the class, and by the simple fact that the physical act of getting to class requires at least some investment of time and energy.
A UCLA professor says the obvious about trashy online ed.
September 28th, 2011 at 4:21PM
[…] I think the UCLA professor Margaret Soltan has quoted at University Diaries, putting the boot into videoconferencing as a failed version of authentic or skilled human […]