It occurred to me that real learning requires the removal of classroom walls in the sense that students need to be made to feel empowered in their ability to learn independently, as well as in the amount of information they learn. This realization was triggered after reading Alex’s blog about her recent NUTN conference. In her entries she talks about the use of Twitter and other Web 2.0 technologies in the online classroom. My initial thoughts were that teaching online was, of itself, enough of a technological integration for students to expand their thinking. But I now believe that the online environment, while substantially more engaging to me than a f2f classroom, can still leave one – at the end of the course – with novel ideas and knowledge gained through exchange with only a handful of students, an instructor, and a few texts. Now I understand why Alex is so interested in the integration of other web 2.0 technologies into the online environment. Suddenly, the student is propelled to think clearly and critically, as now their core ideas have the potential to be shared with anyone, anywhere. Although blogs, VoiceThread and other technologies can be privatized for only in-class use, their real potential emerges when they are shared with the academic world-at-large. This is how we team up with others of similar interests, talk with experts, and make those all essential ‘connections’ in the professional world. I guess it is time to consider more seriously the application of these tools to my own online course.
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