Harvard study

Coming from an international education background, particularly that of developing nations, the potential with using new technology to meet the growing and unmet demand for students of all ages is tremendous. The focus on using low cost technology offers even more opportunities to explore and expand educational access and quality. Yet as the article (Designing and Studying Learning Experiences) enumerates, the challenges can be quite strong.

An instructor even in a face-to-face classroom must be able to balance a wide variety of learning styles. With CMC this balance becomes more pronounced as the direct personal interactions are reduced and in many cases, eliminated. In this hybrid class offered at Harvard, the optional lab sessions as well as the classroom settings filled the void left by the impersonal nature of CMC by allowing shared experiences and reflections on all the mediums.

Time management is always an issue, one that can be exacerbated by the flowing nature of this type of class. The goal to “support each student in developing an effective balance of external guidance and internal responsibility” seems admirable. Yet, part of time management is the difficulty of reading long and repetitive posts, of scrolling and scrolling down causes many students to tune out.

Among the challenges are overcoming sense of disconnect, technological discomfort and skills and posting on discussion boards ‘early’; trying to get your comments on before others so as to be seen as proactive, not just reacting to others’ thoughts and ideas.

The main challenge is the need for people to connect with each other on a direct face-to-face level, to see reactions, hear nuances, to explore ideas using all the senses. Using a variety of CMC methods counters that, but never negates the need for socialization.