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I think your last paragraph is most applicable. And I see this becoming a larger problem in the years ahead. What do I tell my now-5-year-olds when they're in h

by cpher 14y ago

I think your last paragraph is most applicable. And I see this becoming a larger problem in the years ahead. What do I tell my now-5-year-olds when they're in high school? Is there a "low cost" way to marry the social/community aspect of college with the immediacy of online learning? At 40 yrs old now, my most valuable lessons from college are not specifics; rather, they're the general ability to reason/perform logic, work hard at a singular goal, and communicate effectively (in English). I'm left wondering if they all can't be done virtually.

ChuckMcM 14y ago
I don't doubt for a minute that developing skills in reasoning, investigation, resource/time planning, and effective communication can all be taught via a remote system. And your 5 year old may very well choose to do things that way, assuming you've managed to communicate to them why these things are important to know. My eldest child is pretty smart, she basically tested out of the public high school curriculum at age 12, however most of that was due to a voracious and wide ranging reading habit fed out of a pretty strong curiosity drive. College taught her to discipline her efforts toward a specific goal. Sort of like Luke Skywalker learning that even if the force is strong in you, being unable to apply it effectively makes you weak. The primary difference between the "we're all here together" college and doing it remotely, is the exposure to other people having similar/different challenges and meeting them around you. Since folks are rarely good at everything having people around who are good at things you aren't good at lets you learn from them, and they from you. People deal with stress, and failure, and challenge in different ways. In a college community you get to see how others do that and decide if its going to work for you. That stuff you can't get remotely and that is unfortunate.

by cpher 14y ago

ChuckMcM 14y ago

I don't doubt for a minute that developing skills in reasoning, investigation, resource/time planning, and effective communication can all be taught via a remote system. And your 5 year old may very well choose to do things that way, assuming you've managed to communicate to them why these things are important to know. My eldest child is pretty smart, she basically tested out of the public high school curriculum at age 12, however most of that was due to a voracious and wide ranging reading habit fed out of a pretty strong curiosity drive. College taught her to discipline her efforts toward a specific goal. Sort of like Luke Skywalker learning that even if the force is strong in you, being unable to apply it effectively makes you weak. The primary difference between the "we're all here together" college and doing it remotely, is the exposure to other people having similar/different challenges and meeting them around you. Since folks are rarely good at everything having people around who are good at things you aren't good at lets you learn from them, and they from you. People deal with stress, and failure, and challenge in different ways. In a college community you get to see how others do that and decide if its going to work for you. That stuff you can't get remotely and that is unfortunate.