The Virutal Classroom

Through the advent of the internet, multiple societal norms have changed to be digitally congruent with our advanced times. One of those changes has to do with the way academics, learning and teaching is conducted (and by what medium). Of course learning will always require a "teacher, a student, a subject to teach, and a place to teach it (p. 215)" but the efficacy of the traditional style of learning and teaching is trumped by the technologically enhanced methods of the 21st century. This post will discuss soley the advantages to online, interactive learning.

"Imagine a classroom equally available to anyone, anywhere in the world--or, for that matter, off of the world--with a personal computer and connection to a phone system. Think of a classroom whose discussions, proceeding asynchronously, went on continuously, 24 hours a day, with no absolute limitation on how many people could participate at any one time. And picture yourself with access to a library comprised of papers that could be read by thousands of people, all at once, and yet these texts would still be there for you whenever you wished (p. 216)."

Our Intro to New Media class is a genuine testament to this statement. By use of social media and social networking (blogging, Google groups, YouTube, etc.), every student in the class has resources available to them at any hour of the day and can instantly read and comment what other students have written, by means of our blog. However, the class blog is not limited to only students in our class. Thousands of people (hypothetically speaking...) can read our blog, question our thoughts, use an entry as a source for their own means, and even comment on our work. This type of interactive learning could never have been achieved without a "virtual classroom" or the boom of social networking/social media over the past few years. Although the blog has only been subject to comments and interaction from class-members, for now, the basic principle behind this type of interactive, digital learning environment is still exemplified. Discussion can potentially go on 24 hours a day and there is literally no limit to the amount of people who participate or add to it.

Communication and Cyberspace also brings up the advantage of earning a degree online. The idea of earning college credits online surfaced with the New York Institute of Technology, offering a few online courses for a modest tuition, in the mid 1980s and only flourished from then on. "The process of online education works like email, except rather than one person communication to another or a group of people, many people communicate to many, with the website or external computer system playing the crucial role of keeping track of who in the group has read who else's messages (p. 217-18)." The important component of learning, usually lacking from the traditional classroom setting, is students interactively learning from other students. One of the major advantages of online learning is the ability to actually learn from what other students have read in an interactive way. In a traditional classroom, professors tend to "inject or spoonfeed information into passive student minds (p. 222)."

Although there are downsides to virtual learning, the advantages prove to trump them. Learning by means of a digital medium opens up vast amounts of opportunity for those with time constraints, computer or internet based classes, or the desire to gain a degree while working full time. As explained before, even a traditional class setting can benefit from putting an aspect of the course material online, in an interactive format.

I've included this chart, which does a great job of visualizing the advantages of online learning.