The formats for
distance education are reflecting the degree of closeness in a global world. People are becoming assessed in the work that
they do, but also in the degree of participation within that group. Someone who “does all of the work” cannot
hope to become promoted because they are
showing that will do the work, but won’t work with others in the group. In order
to assess the productivity of an individual
in a collaborative environment, they can assess their peer by rating
contribution, quality of work and
assistance. In addition, their supervisors
and educators can assess their students and subordinates by assessing the time
on task. In an online environment this can be determined by how many times they
log into the community.
However, as in the real
world, some people do not want to participate.
They feel much more comfortable “lurking.” They would rather read and
contribute only as much as they need to meet the requirements of the
course. A way to help them overcome this
is to respond to their posts and encouraging their answer by asking questions
or asking from more information.
Distance Education
requires individuals to change their way of thinking in regards to collaboration
and response to assessments. This is difficult.
I can relate to this situation because even though I find technology
very exciting, it is difficult for me to participate because I like to see the
reaction of the person and based on that I can gauge their reaction and I like
a response so I know the quality of my response. .
References:
Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2007). Building online learning communities: Effective strategies for
the
virtual classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Michelle,
ReplyDeleteI agree that distance education requires people to change their ways of thinking, and this a very difficult task. Students are very used to face-to-face interaction, but change is good. How would you respond as a teacher to a group that has a student that will not participate in the online learning community?
Kasey