[Air-l] Technology Transforming Education--EE-Learning

[Nancy Baym]

Steve Eskow writes:

>Nancy Baym writes:
>
>
>,,One thing I haven't seen mentioned in this interesting discussion is that
>e/distance learning is really poorly suited for unmotivated students. For
>them, coming to a class where their physical presence is observed (even if
>they are checking email or doing crossword puzzles) may be the only thing
>that keeps them engaged in academics at all. >>
>
>A central and critical issue.
>
>Somehow many unmotivated students have learned to forego purchasing the
>required texts, presumably do not read them, and yet are somehow able  to
>earn a grade. How this is done baffles me.
>
>That is: there seems to be evidence that the unmotivated student is able to
>beat the system without doing much of the academic work one would think
>necessary.


A few thoughts:

- Not all do make it through. In fact, many fail out or drop out along the way.

- Many who do make it through get lousy grades. That is, they may 
pass, but they don't thrive. They also know darn well that future 
employers may require that they have a degree, but will likely not 
care in the least what their grades were.

- Many are bright enough to do a mediocre yet passing job by paying 
attention in class some of the time, cribbing off their peers, 
skimming the book the night before a test, and so on. I wouldn't 
claim they learn nothing and should fail. I don't think that's the 
case. Most of my least motivated students demonstrate enough learning 
in my classes that they deserve passing grades. These are not 
students who do *nothing* - they are students who figure out what the 
minimum is that they have to do in order to get the mediocre grades 
that will get them a degree. They are students who avoid any excess 
learning.

Your point about mixing oil and water by combining on and offline 
components in education is intruiging. I don't know and am curious 
what others think. I am not one to argue that a university education 
should be job training, but I do think that learning to function in 
multiple media to get a job done is an essential piece of modern life 
for most professionals, and I would hope students are given the 
opportunity to work on those skills in their education.

Nancy