When you are in a face-to-face setting, many times you might be tempted to go into the, what I call, sit-n-git (or take notes until your hand hurts) mode. You (student) sit (don't move except for your pen or pencil) and get the information that comes out of my mouth. And that will be what we call learning for today's class.
The distance course instructor cannot fall back on that method of instruction. The students are probably better off in the end. Never having been an instructor for a distance course I imagine the experience being very different. No lectures to prepare for, no classwork or homework to create. The instruction side of the course has already been posted/hosted. You are simply the learning architect.
I see an architect as someone who plans and designs a building and then oversees the construction to make sure it is being built properly. I see a learning architect (not a new architect) in much the same way. The instructor monitors the building (or student) to make sure the learning is happening properly. If a student does not reply to discussion questions or post blogs or submit papers on time, then the education/learning will be poor.
I try to do this in the F2F setting as much as possible. That is one reason why I am a project based teacher. I show my students where the information is and design a project around that information that shows the level of research and content knowledge that I require.
I'm just an architect of learning. Viewing my job in this way kind of gets me out of the way. So many intellectuals I know actually want to stand there and pontificate about their area of expertise. The students want to start building and they can't if we never let them hold the hammer.
The distance "classroom" is designed to let students hold the hammer. A distance education student will have a higher level of student-content interaction. Rarely will the distance instructor insert him or herself in between the student and the content.
And that's a good thing.
I see an architect as someone who plans and designs a building and then oversees the construction to make sure it is being built properly. I see a learning architect (not a new architect) in much the same way. The instructor monitors the building (or student) to make sure the learning is happening properly. If a student does not reply to discussion questions or post blogs or submit papers on time, then the education/learning will be poor.
I try to do this in the F2F setting as much as possible. That is one reason why I am a project based teacher. I show my students where the information is and design a project around that information that shows the level of research and content knowledge that I require.
I'm just an architect of learning. Viewing my job in this way kind of gets me out of the way. So many intellectuals I know actually want to stand there and pontificate about their area of expertise. The students want to start building and they can't if we never let them hold the hammer.
The distance "classroom" is designed to let students hold the hammer. A distance education student will have a higher level of student-content interaction. Rarely will the distance instructor insert him or herself in between the student and the content.
And that's a good thing.
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