Online classes

There was a story in the New York Times about online classes and programs this morning. It was interesting but mostly predictable. The teacher, it featured, taught from her dining room table in sweatpants and fuzzy slippers. Many of her students were international and the online format accomodated them. The article did mention that many students in many online programs spend more time on their classes than those in traditional settings because "class time" was not limited to a couple of hours per week.

The article also talks about the downside of online classes that students are limited to reading and discussing online and used an example of Irving Howe reading poems by Robert Frost in a class that the author had once had. I am not sure how many students have experiences like that but it does seem to be a limited view of online education. Students can download videos, audios and communicate via podcasts. For that matter, the limitations are mostly imposed by the teachers or students and not technology. Teachers have many options that they can use to communicate. For that matter, I still remember a grammar school class in which I first heard the words of Shakespeare spoken. It was 1959--I was 8 and the voice was Dorothy Tutin and the technology was a 78rpm record. When I think of Shakespeare, I still hear Tutin's voice.