Discussion Questions – Vieregge
1. Many of the articles we have read note the inherent tension between the socializing and the isolating tendencies in online distance education. For instance, Anson writes, “In all their activity as creators of their own knowledge, students remained relatively passive, no receiving deposits of knowledge from automatic teller machines that supplemented the more direct, human method” (265) and later writes, “Although many studies and testimonials affirm the ways that Internet chat lines, listserves, email, and other “virtual spaces” can actually increase the social nature of communication, there is no doubt that the physcial isolation of each individual from the others creates an entirely different order of interaction” (269). So which is it? Does technology bring us together or tear us apart? Does it matter if the class relies of synchronous or asynchronous conversation? Does it matter if the instructor forms the curriculum or merely conducts the class? Would it matter if it was a hybrid class? Or, does it even matter if it binds classmates together? Is that why people come to college?
2. Much was made out of these various articles about how online classes constitute a threat to traditional higher education institutions. However, these articles indicate the threat is different depending on which institution one speaks of. For instance, the “re-education” article mentions that “For-profit colleges compete in particular with smaller, less-well endowed conventional schoolsthat cannot protect themselves with generous scholarships” (209). The articles also discuss the socio-economic status of students who decide to take online classes, mentioning both “upper-middle class” students, minority students, and financially challenged students. So my question is how would the purpose of an online class differ - if at all – from a community college, to a small liberal arts college, to a land grant university, to a Ivy league school (provided it was the same course)? Also, if the “re-education” article is right about education being partly about the undefined, the “misdirected,” then do online classes bridge the gap or widen it between what students in traditional and online classes have access to? If misdirection is eliminated from education, then what is the difference between a trade school and a university?
3. In what ways are English classes possible fodder for the digitalizaiton of the universtiy? To what degree can composition classes, creative writing classes, and literature classes be taught online? Sullivan discusses how some classes take a tremendous amount of time to set up but then are run on auto-pilot, so to speak. Is this possible with English classes? More to the point, how would our pedagogy change, assuming it is possible? Why not have someone in Washington teach USF students? Canada? India? Why not record one professor for every class? Why employ graduate students, who are by definition unexperienced, when there is another way? – Quentin Vieregge
