Comments on: Distance education: the bad http://nirak.net/2008/09/12/distance-education-the-bad/ Karin Dalziel Wed, 10 Feb 2010 05:14:16 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: JAMB http://nirak.net/2008/09/12/distance-education-the-bad/comment-page-1/#comment-75714 JAMB Sun, 16 Nov 2008 21:20:12 +0000 http://www.nirak.net/?p=289#comment-75714 Oh and by the way, I dropped out of that program. I don't believe in paying tuition and teaching myself. I expect and hold a university accountable, to provide me with and Instructor and Instruction in an interactive real-time learning environment. I am a person, not a computer. A computer is a tool that may be used to enhance certain aspects of learning (like, writing a paper, or searching for articles) but cannot replace the empirical wisdom that a tenured industry savvy human being can impart verbally and directly imprint upon a willing mind of a student, a living person, face to face. That leaves a lasting impression an provides ground for building a personal relationship between student and teacher, which may even result in a recommendation or personal reference, something that cannot be realistically fostered in digital course delivery. Because you lose the other 80% of human communication, upon which our impressions about others are based. Sizing someone up. Eye contact, tone of voice, inflection, breathing pattern, energy, excitement, enthsiasm. Empirical Wisdom communicated to me, by a person who has sized me up and has figured out how I learn, how to teach me what they know. That is what is missing, and I do not believe it can be substituted online. I am not a computer and I don't wanna get to know my computer any better than I do now. So I'm going outside now, to connect with people. Good bye. Oh and by the way, I dropped out of that program.

I don’t believe in paying tuition and teaching myself.

I expect and hold a university accountable, to provide me with and Instructor and Instruction in an interactive real-time learning environment. I am a person, not a computer. A computer is a tool that may be used to enhance certain aspects of learning (like, writing a paper, or searching for articles) but cannot replace the empirical wisdom that a tenured industry savvy human being can impart verbally and directly imprint upon a willing mind of a student, a living person, face to face. That leaves a lasting impression an provides ground for building a personal relationship between student and teacher, which may even result in a recommendation or personal reference, something that cannot be realistically fostered in digital course delivery. Because you lose the other 80% of human communication, upon which our impressions about others are based. Sizing someone up. Eye contact, tone of voice, inflection, breathing pattern, energy, excitement, enthsiasm. Empirical Wisdom communicated to me, by a person who has sized me up and has figured out how I learn, how to teach me what they know. That is what is missing, and I do not believe it can be substituted online. I am not a computer and I don’t wanna get to know my computer any better than I do now. So I’m going outside now, to connect with people. Good bye.

]]> By: JAMB http://nirak.net/2008/09/12/distance-education-the-bad/comment-page-1/#comment-75710 JAMB Sun, 16 Nov 2008 21:09:07 +0000 http://www.nirak.net/?p=289#comment-75710 Hello. I enrolled in San Jose State University's SLIS a couple years ago. I had a dreadful experience. I felt like a student id number, not a person striving to make great changes and learn wonderful things and grow. I grew to have an unfruitful relationship with my computer, alone in my living room, just me and the computer. If I called the university to ask a question requiring subjective reasoning to answer it, I was asked first: Did you check the website? Every single time I called. I wanted human contact, and opinion, some feedback, some advisement, some direction from a human who had experienced what I am going through. I got nothing. I never even met with an advisor and although I sent half a dozen emails to my 'assigned advisor' I never received a reply. To me, "online distance education" represents the digital diploma mill of the decade. I pay tuition, and I teach myself. I am told, "You are graduate students" (no kidding, I didn't know that) "You have these resources, go there to get your questions answered, dont' contact me until you look there". (so what the hell am I paying tuition for?) Gone is the Professor who teaches me. I am told that the "Instructor" is a "Facilitator". I shudder to think what the pay is for a facilitator. Considering that all they do is check to make sure you posted a comment on the reading, at least say, maybe three times this week. But wait! Nobody is grading my comments... gone is the heated classroom discussion, where the "Professor" corrects and inaccurate uninformed misguided student, and redirects us properly toward the light. I could conceiveably go through this entire degree program, blogging, posting, loggin in, logging hours, acquiring points and getting grades and still, not know how to be a Librarian. Because they hire "Faculty" (aka Facilitators) who do not work as Librarians, some never have. Down the toilet goes credibility. It reminds me of correspondence courses in the 1970 s. I even have to send away for my textbook, from Amazon, EBay, the publisher, wherever I can get my hands on a copy of the boot, and I better hope I get it in time to begin my assignments. What in the hell happened to the University's accountability in this equation? When in the heck did obtaining an education become a determination on how able a particular student is able to sink or swim in an electronic digital online environment? How does this type of determination about digital compatibility or temperament apply to the profession one is planning to enter? Will we all go to work online in the coming decades? I think not. So why does it make sense for all degree programs to be delivered and accredited in an electronic online format? It doesn't. The library is a center of the community, and a community is the people it is comprised of, not a building, not a computer, not an IP address. People make up communities, not computers and people need to interact directly in order to communicate effectively, and never is this more important than in delivering higher education. Every sales person knows that 80% of human communication is in body language and non verbal means. So, gee, I guess that black and white words on a digital document are only good for about, 20%? If a Librarian needs those skills in their profession shouldn't they be employing those same skills while obtaining their degrees? So if that's true, then how effective can a digital education be? How credible is a digital degree? Hello. I enrolled in San Jose State University’s SLIS a couple years ago. I had a dreadful experience. I felt like a student id number, not a person striving to make great changes and learn wonderful things and grow. I grew to have an unfruitful relationship with my computer, alone in my living room, just me and the computer. If I called the university to ask a question requiring subjective reasoning to answer it, I was asked first: Did you check the website? Every single time I called. I wanted human contact, and opinion, some feedback, some advisement, some direction from a human who had experienced what I am going through. I got nothing. I never even met with an advisor and although I sent half a dozen emails to my ‘assigned advisor’ I never received a reply. To me, “online distance education” represents the digital diploma mill of the decade. I pay tuition, and I teach myself. I am told, “You are graduate students” (no kidding, I didn’t know that) “You have these resources, go there to get your questions answered, dont’ contact me until you look there”. (so what the hell am I paying tuition for?) Gone is the Professor who teaches me. I am told that the “Instructor” is a “Facilitator”. I shudder to think what the pay is for a facilitator. Considering that all they do is check to make sure you posted a comment on the reading, at least say, maybe three times this week. But wait! Nobody is grading my comments… gone is the heated classroom discussion, where the “Professor” corrects and inaccurate uninformed misguided student, and redirects us properly toward the light. I could conceiveably go through this entire degree program, blogging, posting, loggin in, logging hours, acquiring points and getting grades and still, not know how to be a Librarian. Because they hire “Faculty” (aka Facilitators) who do not work as Librarians, some never have. Down the toilet goes credibility.

It reminds me of correspondence courses in the 1970
s. I even have to send away for my textbook, from Amazon, EBay, the publisher, wherever I can get my hands on a copy of the boot, and I better hope I get it in time to begin my assignments.

What in the hell happened to the University’s accountability in this equation? When in the heck did obtaining an education become a determination on how able a particular student is able to sink or swim in an electronic digital online environment? How does this type of determination about digital compatibility or temperament apply to the profession one is planning to enter? Will we all go to work online in the coming decades? I think not. So why does it make sense for all degree programs to be delivered and accredited in an electronic online format? It doesn’t.

The library is a center of the community, and a community is the people it is comprised of, not a building, not a computer, not an IP address. People make up communities, not computers and people need to interact directly in order to communicate effectively, and never is this more important than in delivering higher education. Every sales person knows that 80% of human communication is in body language and non verbal means. So, gee, I guess that black and white words on a digital document are only good for about, 20%? If a Librarian needs those skills in their profession shouldn’t they be employing those same skills while obtaining their degrees?

So if that’s true, then how effective can a digital education be? How credible is a digital degree?

]]> By: My Library School Experience: Distance Education « Life as I Know It http://nirak.net/2008/09/12/distance-education-the-bad/comment-page-1/#comment-68100 My Library School Experience: Distance Education « Life as I Know It Thu, 02 Oct 2008 20:21:21 +0000 http://www.nirak.net/?p=289#comment-68100 [...] to increase revenue. However, it is awfully difficult to avoid this conclusion when faced with accounts of bad experiencesin the online [...] [...] to increase revenue. However, it is awfully difficult to avoid this conclusion when faced with accounts of bad experiencesin the online [...]

]]> By: links for 2008-09-12 | Ed Tech Hacks http://nirak.net/2008/09/12/distance-education-the-bad/comment-page-1/#comment-66255 links for 2008-09-12 | Ed Tech Hacks Fri, 12 Sep 2008 23:14:58 +0000 http://www.nirak.net/?p=289#comment-66255 [...] nirak.net - Musings of an LIS Student » Distance education: the bad Schools need to wake up and realize that distance education is not just a novelty anymore… (tags: distance_learning online_learning) [...] [...] nirak.net – Musings of an LIS Student » Distance education: the bad Schools need to wake up and realize that distance education is not just a novelty anymore… (tags: distance_learning online_learning) [...]

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