Making Online more F2F...

When I started this course, I thought online schooling was in direct opposition to face-to-face learning.  You could have one or the other.  You were either going with the flow of technology or holding onto the past.  Which side are you on? I see now that this is not the case with strong third-place and blended educational environments that take advantage of the benefits of each mode of learning.  This is wonderful!

In reality though, I still think the extremes, f2f vs. online, are going to be directly compared for budgetary, administrative, and policy reasons.  Is this right?  Probably not, but there is a lot at stake for a lot of people and we are not just talking about for future students.

This realization got me thinking again about some of the problems that I originally had with online learning and the quality of student life and development.  Schooling and development is more than just book smarts.  It extends beyond academic standards to the development of students in other ways.

The OpenCourseWare initiative out of MIT supports this idea as they have made much of the content from their courses available online for free.  As altruistic and egalitarian as this program sounds, I think MIT is comfortable with this move because they know that the real value of an MIT education reaching far beyond lecture notes, readings, and assignments.  

• Athletics
• Clubs - Computers, Chess, Drama, etc...
• Student interaction
• Teacher interaction
• Interships and research
• Socialization
• Physical education
• Cambridge, MA and Boston 
• Other extra curricular activities

I've loved technology my entire life, but I am a skeptic when it comes to application and penetration.  I find that technology is too often portrayed as the much hyped panacea for everything... and I mean EVERYTHING.

This week I will be turning my attention to exploring whether purely online students can really make up for the loss of these extra curricular activities and see what people are currently doing.  I am going to concentrate on athletics and physical education since they are two things that I only have a vague understanding of how you might pull them off remotely.

I thought this was an interesting online fitness program.

“The difference between combat and sport is that in combat you
bury the guy who comes in second.”
Unidentified Navy SEAL on the Discovery Channel’s “U.S. Navy SEALs II” 1999

SEAL FIT Online Coaching Program

" ... Access to our Online Training Platform and Online Journal"