I was talking to a fellow educator today about student engagement in an online learning environment and referred to Dee Fink's book I finished reading a couple of weeks ago "Creating Significant Learning Experiences". As we both shared some of the significant learning that we have experienced I realized that not many educators have experienced significant learning in an online learning environment or even formal educational setting. I personally can think of one or two during completing my masters online. But what about the educators that have not experienced online learning as learners or they have but they have not been lucky to have a significant learning experience as I did. The questions that lingered in my mind after that conversation and motivated this post are:
- Is it fair to ask of educators to design significant learning experiences for their students online if they have not experienced such learning themselves?
- Can they just 'transfer' expertise and significant learning experiences they have designed for the classroom to the virtual online learning environment?
Will be interesting to hear what others think.
Hi Vasi - thanks for your comments and the link. The issue you raise here about educators being expected to create wonderful online learning experiences without having been online students, and without support, is a big one for me. I can't help thinking there's a great opportunity out there.
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