Your student was very brave to express his opinion. I think the most important aspect of his concern is that there must be a proper blend while incorporating Web 2.0 into the curriculum. There must be a mix of both intimate contact and digital communication. Social skills are a huge part of education and I do think there should be some concern that digital tools could hinder social growth.
The fact is that today's students really do need to be fluent at both face-to-face communication and digital methods. Teaching for real life experience students need to be prepared for many modes of communication.
The reason you don't notice as much difference from your online learning to classroom learning is because at the University level I think that most students have already developed their social abilities.
reply to Soyeon
"When a chief uses a knife, it is a master's tool to cook.
When a killer uses a knife, it is a murderer's tool to kill."
-Soyeon Kim-
My action research topic is on "maximizing art-making time through online critique using digital portfolio." As I was collecting Cycle 2 data from my students, one mentioned in his response.
“...However, I sometimes do not agree with this new online system because even though it may be a great new method to help each other out, this whole online thing isolates us from reality. What does it matter if we critique online, in our future careers most of us will have to learn to talk in person most of time. The online critiques might decrease our ability to confidently speak in front of another.”
It made me think and I really appreciated his honest concern when he mentioned “online thing isolates us from reality.” I had a similar concern with this student before I took Full Sail Online Program. I sometimes saw on newspaper articles that virtual world or online games influenced people in negative ways. I saw chatting were blocked in work places because people constantly chatted online and got distracted by it. If I were the boss, I would be mad and blocked them too when my workers got distracted by personal chatting.
In contrast, I have observed many times online tools were used in promoting better communications. I have been in the United States for 16 years and I still have contacted my old friends through social networking sites. My friend update their lives and share with other people all the time. My fiancé is in Grand Rapid, Michigan and I am New York but I talk to him all the time. As soon as I go home, I start video chatting with him and spend time talking and even watching TV together. This is a good communication tool for us till we get married. Can you imagine us doing it even after we get married without seeing each other in person at all? That sounds terrible. What is the whole point of seeing each other online if we are not going to see each in person at all? I mean we see each other in person and online.
My point is that online tools cannot be the only communication tool when one really is trying to have a close personal relation with someone. It is an asset to whatever existing. However, depending on how one uses it, one can really communicate in depth for business and educational purposes.
When I compare traditional college with online college that I attended, I see rare difference on how they impacted my learning. Even though I have never physically met any of my Full Sail University faculty or classmates, I felt as close as I was with traditional college classmates and faculty. The way Full Sail faculty and classmates interacted was as valuable as the other way around. There were specific feedbacks, videos, synchronous class, project sharing, social networking and games. I have learned my thought clearly with more people through blogs and discussions. Ironically, I have gained confidence of speaking in front of people because of so many media presentation projects.
In conclusion, I realized that it is not so much about technology that decrease the ability to speak in front of others or isolation from reality. It is the way people uses technology as tools. Tools have no value until people put positive or negative value in it
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