Reading Reflections~ week 4

Anderson article:

Key ideas and reaction

In this article Anderson explores the different ways and reasons of distance education and what types of interaction are available through distance education. First he emphasized the need and importance of collaborative activity in all types of education, including distance education, and more specifically for the purposes of this course, language education. First Anderson specifies what he means by “interaction” and he defines it as “reciprocal events that require at least two objects and two actions.” He reminds us that the idea of interaction is not new, as nearly one hundred years ago, John Dewey described a internal interaction as the part of the learning process “when the student transforms the inert information passed to them from another, and constructs it into knowledge with personal application and value.”

A main idea of the article were the modes of interaction: first the three more common types( student to student, student to teacher, and student to content) and then extended to the other three types( teacher to teacher, teacher to content, and content to content). He offers his theorem of equivalency, which basically says as long as one of the three main modes of interaction is at a high level, there will be deep and meaningful learning, even if the other two are very minimal or even nonexistent. High levels of two or even three of these modes will secure a better overall learning experience.

I thought that Anderson's theorem was interesting-- that only one type of interaction is necessary for learning to occur, but when there are more forms of interaction the enjoyment increases . He stated that currently people perceive that the most valuable type of interaction is student to teacher and thus it receives the highest market value. This shows it self in the way that schools and universities advertise what there student to teacher ratio is and what the average class size is.

I agreed with his critique of the lecture format, but I had never realized the historical reason why this was the only feasible method previously, but now there are so many others. He explained that it originates from the fact that books were rarely available, often hand-scribed. It was necessary for the teacher to read aloud these things to the others. Many students here are still taught in this format, as the teacher has the information in a book or notebook and then the students are to copy it into their personal notebooks. This is because the class has no other resources, textbooks, or matierals. However, as more resources become available, the need for this type of interaction, which is minimal, can be reduced, as other effective delivery modes are given in its' place.

Peyton article:

Peyton outlined several of the challenges that come with “computer-mediated interaction”. The first results from the newness of the medium, giving the students the feeling that they are anonymous and can say anything. The dialog can then quickly degenerate into confrontation and insults. Secondly, a problem can result from the “immediacy of the medium”. Much like the first challenge, the students are thinking about what is being said but are saying things flippantly that they probably would never try to say in a regular classroom. A third challenge comes from the way the networks discussions can quickly digress and it is difficult for the teacher to establish the authority to determine the direction of the discussion. It can be difficult for the teacher to maintain the authority when students are allowed write anything at anytime I do agree with the author that , even despite these challenges, the opportunities for learning through this type of interaction are wide and varied.