I want to share some more thoughts on the subject of personal connections. We were talking about whether those personal connections with people or in this case authors either helped or hindered us in our learning. If we have met the author of a certain book, and they have made a good impression on us, are we more open to reading their material? Do we try a couple more times to read and comprehend the subject matter? Personally for me, if I know about the author, or have met them I am definitely more open and excited to read what they have written. When we read Bernice McCarthy's book in Critical Pedagogy II, I was so excited to begin learning about her ideas because I had heard so much information about her. That's not to say that I can't pick up a book and read it without knowing the intimate details of an author. I do that in most of my other classes, and I did it with Peter Block's book. I knew nothing and actually still know nothing personal about Peter Block. I really like and admire his ideas and because I was able to get so into what he was writing about, the personal details are not something I really even care about anymore. I definitely think the mindset we have laid onto Paul Woodford's limits us from learning as much as we can from his book. I look at his book as a resource I need to read, but not something I particularly am excited to read. I realize that this is a problem and one I need to personally fix. I want to get the most out of what I read, and if I need to Google search Paul Woodford to feel a deeper connection to him, maybe that is what I need to do.
I found an article that talks about online courses and whether learning suffers because of the lack of face-to-face contact. This was really interesting to me because of the things I've heard about the online course that we are required to take. Does our learning suffer because we are not experiencing the information first hand in a personal teacher/student connection? Or does it matter that a class only has limited discussion and interaction. Personally I find that I learn more if there is dialogue going on between other students and the teacher at the same time. Some people say that we need to keep with the times and progress toward learning through technology. I find online courses a valuable resource for people who work full time jobs or that cannot get the information anywhere in their area. However I wonder if we are not willing to try as hard because that personal connection hasn't been made. It's possible to learn about people through email but does that really give a good full impression? Can you really make a good judgment call based on correspondence? Personally I prefer face-to-face encounters.
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I'm the kind of person that needs that teacher/student relationship in order to do well in a class. However, I took the online course this past summer and I didn't find it too challenging. I think this is because the course was taught by Professor Haltmeier, who I know well from my other classes at WCC. If the course was taught by someone I didn't know or had never met, I feel it would be a lot harder to learn things--especially without the connection with the teacher that I rely on.
I certainly agree that personal qualities and human contact aid the learning process. As Vygotsky said, learning is a social experience. I always think about this when teaching. Why should the students always remain quiet and seated when they can learn so much from each other and experience so much together.
Regarding online classes, there are positives and negatives. That personal feel is lost when people are not able to meet at the same time and share moments together. Last summer I took an online sociology class. Much of the course was spent reading and writing reactions to very controversial questions in our blogs. We had to read everyone's blog and respond to three for each question. It was very discussion based in this way but without the one on one interaction. Because I didn't know the people I was disagreeing with and knew that I would probably never meet them, I felt comfortable expressing my views, many of which are controversial, and blatantly disagreeing with them. The conversations were very heated. I felt that this was a positive aspect of the class. Nevertheless, at the end of the course, I wished I could meet all the people who I had got to know through their writing and opinions.
Also, I find it silly that the only online course offered in the education program is Assessing Music Learning, a course in which I think students need to discuss issues and experience examples in class. I know Dr. Abrahams likes to have an online class that is mandatory in order for us to experience different kinds of learning, but what if the course Music and Special Education were offered online. Most of the material is straight-forward, addressing symptoms and behaviors of certain students, and there could be some mandatory observations required.
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