These are all obvious positive points to different style of learning and education that Deakin University provides . However there are also negative implications when looking at virtual education. The online world prevents students from having that face to face interaction with the lecturers themselves, if someone doesn’t understand the unit then an explanation through this virtual system can be less audible than it would be if the students were face to face with the lecturers. Long distance education encourages laziness, students can easily carry out work when it suits them best. This means that the quality of work maybe reduced, as Stephenson puts is virtual education “it’s not the be-all and the end-all.” (Stephenson, 2001: 215). With real life lectures and seminars there is the greater pressure to meet deadlines and go to lectures and seminars. The ability to monitor who is turning up for the lectures and seminars is easier to to establish than seeing whose online and gathering important information materials. Some people and especially young students in their first year often have other distractions like TV, so they need that push that is often taken from lecturers. Not only this but university is about experiencing the world to learn to become independent such as cooking and taking care of your own money, which if your working from home there isn’t that experience.
There has often been debate as to how new New media essentially is. This virtual education isn’t as radical as may have been originally anticipated again like Remediation virtual education isn’t simply “avante-guarde” (Lister, 2003: 40) or radical but an imitation of previous systems. The radio and television were educational systems before the Internet and virtual education has built upon these previous systems and now the Internet simply allows individuals to “write back” (Lister, 2003: 21) and ask any queries
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I think you're probably wrong about virtual contact being less audible and distance encouraging laziness. I think it's probably the opposite. Getting feedback in writing -or verbally directed directly at oneself (on the phone? By podcast?) is more likely to be thought through in my experience.
ReplyDeleteDeadlines are no less fixed in distance learning and people are usually trying to fit studying in to an otherwise full and normal life, so laziness is definitely not encouraged.
However, I think you're spot-on when thinking about the 'remediation' of education. Brian Winston is a good source of insight into why this might happen when it isn't just about familiarity of format, but also vested social interests.