November 27, 2012  Can Online Education Work?  G. Donald Allen
Can Online Education Work?       Here are a few factors that
speak against the purely online format, bare and un-enhanced.
1. Sociability. Students need to work together in a collective
way, exploring new ideas, challenging or agreeing on premises,
clarifying key or muddy points, reflecting with colleagues on
the day's work, working with colleagues on assignments - not to
cheat but to consider and enhance meaning. This is just like in
my college days. Online learning creates or is sustained in a
venue of isolation.  2. Multiple channels of learning.  The
traditional lecture is not all that bad, though it has obvious
defects.  Boring, or poor presentations, unsuitable class times
and sizes are just a few.  One true values of the lecture is in
the note-taking of students.  Why? Because note taking
stimulates at least two channels of memory, writing (tactile)
and hearing.  Also, and this is most important to some, there is
the visual impact of the