From the mouths of babies ....

So, here is something interesting. And, unlike the previous one, this actually relates to online teaching and learning :-)

Students in my intro class have to blog about something from the class discussions that made them think about for a little more. Well, the topic that we covered in class this week was globalization, and outsourcing. The following is what one student has posted: (Yes, students can address me by my first name if they choose to.) Note her remarks on online classes.

Perhaps the worry that eventually their jobs might be on the line is also an unstated reason for faculty to oppose expansion of online teaching and learning? But, if that is even remotely a point, then all we have to do is look across the industry and see what is happening with the automakers, right? Not being flexible enough to adapt to changes is now threatening the very existence of General Motors, whose CEO once reportedly uttered, "what is good for GM is good for America" ....

outsourcing: when will it stop?
I am not sure how Sriram says that teaching a a job that will not be outsourced, it already has been. I, myself have taken classes online with teachers across the country. I didn't like it very much, so I will not do again, but I know many of people who do like it and have taken alot. It is not like nobody has heard of it either, because universities are constantly advertising online. If something like teaching can be outsourced, where will outsourcing stop? I can just imagine our world turning into something like what was portrayed in the movie Wall-E, where humans don't have to physically do anything anymore. We will eventually advance technology enough that we can do everything from a computer and it won't matter where we actually are at all.

Divorce in "Second Life"

Ok, I agree this is not about online teaching and learning. But, at the same time, it is yet another marker on how much online activities and cyberlife have become complex.
Against such a background, it becomes obvious how much we could come across as the metaphorical dinosaur if we keep resisting online teaching and learning. It is there; deal with it, is the message, I suppose :-)

CNN:

A British couple who married in a lavish Second Life wedding ceremony are to divorce after one of them had an alleged "affair" in the online world.

Amy Taylor, 28, said she had caught husband David Pollard, 40, having sex with an animated woman. The couple, who met in an Internet chatroom in 2003, are now separated.

"I went mad -- I was so hurt. I just couldn't believe what he'd done," Taylor told the Western Morning News. "It may have started online, but it existed entirely in the real world and it hurts just as much now it is over."

Second Life allows users to create alter egos known as "avatars" and interact with other players, forming relationships, holding down jobs and trading products and services for a virtual currency convertible into real life dollars.

Taylor said she had caught Pollard's avatar having sex with a virtual prostitute: "I looked at the computer screen and could see his character having sex with a female character. It's cheating as far as I'm concerned."

The couple's real-life wedding in 2005 was eclipsed by a fairy tale ceremony held within Second Life.

But Taylor told the Western Morning News she had subsequently hired an online private detective to track his activities: "He never did anything in real life, but I had my suspicions about what he was doing in Second Life."

Pollard admitted having an online relationship with a "girl in America" but denied wrongdoing. "We weren't even having cyber sex or anything like that, we were just chatting and hanging out together," he told the Western Morning News.

Taylor is now in a new relationship with a man she met in the online roleplaying game World of Warcraft.

It felt so strange reading this at the CNN website, and not at the Onion's :-) Truth can be stranger than fiction, indeed.

e-Learning: any different from "regular" learning?

Penn State has gone one huge step with online learning: now online classes are increasingly offered as regular alternatives to tradition resident instruction. I.e., as more and more faculty offer courses online, Penn State students will be able to take online classes even though they are right there on campus. Cool, eh!

Naturally, online teaching itself was met with questions and reservations. Here is an excerpt from their report:

Of utmost importance is a concern that the report is framed around a distinction that is increasingly invalid: “e-learning” as distinct from “resident instruction.” Several years ago, e-learning was largely identified with the World Campus, which is directed to offcampus, nontraditional students. However, today, e-learning plays a significant role in teaching traditional students--on campus and inter-campus, as well as at a distance. For every Penn State student, learning is now a blend of curricular and
co-curricular experiences that take place online and face-to-face. The issues need to be framed in this emerging context. The basic questions that we must ask as an institution are: In what ways are the differences between teaching and learning online and in a classroom consequential? How can we ensure that the consequences do not affect quality adversely?

As I noted earlier, online means that the focus will be only on learning, and the course objectives. Now, how about we begin to emphasize that for regular face to face instruction too?