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Can Online Education Work - II

See: http://disted6.math.tamu.edu/newsletter/newsletters_new/2013_5_01.pdf

This is a thorny problem plagued with cost, convenience, and quality issues, all on the same page, all with advocates for and against.  Webinars, MOOCs, editorials, and commentaries all speak to this advent.
One point is truly significant.  If a student cannot learn independently, and this means cannot read or listen for content at minimum, learning online is impossible.  The sole caveat is that the online course is so seductive that it will compel the student to learn regardless of any previous disposition.

This, the seduction, is the brass ring for online learning.  The set of tools needed toward this end is not well understood.   This set of tools is an amalgamation of technological, psychological, probably sociological, and pedagogical methods.  We know very few expert at all.

But... What is needed from the very beginning of a student's learning is reading and language skills.  Moreover, and possibly as important is learning to read for content from an online source.  Any student not mastering the rudiments of these skills will have great difficulties in the brave new world of MOOCs.

You may counter my argument by falling back on videos.  Cannot our students learn through videos, you may inquire?  After all, isn't the classroom teacher little more than a live video?  Yes and no.  Yes, because the video can visit students with a fully polished discourse.  No, because the video cannot perceive student understanding.   Also, the video can only transmit certain types of knowledge.  Other knowledge requires actual reading and writing. 

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