I will resist from giving any plot spoilers, but everyone ought to go see Catfish. It's not a perfect documentary, but it is worth seeing. See A. O. Scott's New York Times film review if interested. What I will say is that the documentary reveals what kinds of perfectly convincing fake identities the average person can make on the internet. When I think about the online classroom, I question the authenticity of the student/teacher relationships as well as the final grades.
Dr. Rice related an interesting incident in class about a situation where an online classroom and a face-to-face classroom were both assessed by online graders, and that the online students resulted with better grades than the face-to-face classroom. I question this situation, and I admit that without further details, I can't determine my own conclusion about this circumstance. I question the teachers of the face-to-face classroom as well as the curriculum of the face-to-face classroom vs. the online course. My beef with online classrooms that I have experienced is that many (not all) online classrooms are designed to learn only specifically what they are going to be tested on (or graded for). I wonder if the face-to-face classroom from the story above had different strengths and weaknesses in their writing than the online students. Then again, perhaps it was only the online students who did their readings, since the readings WERE the class.
Perhaps I feel defensive because if online classrooms do end up being the better choice, there will be even less job opportunities for me tomorrow.
But ultimately, I can't get this film Catfish out of my mind. If online classrooms, online assignments, and online grading become the status quo, won't it be so much easier for students to have their friends or partners write everything up for them? Won't plagiarism be so much easier? How would anybody be able to ensure that what was posted was posted by the student getting credit for the assignment? Perhaps we haven't seen (or caught) much fraudulent behavior in online classrooms now, but if they became the status quo, I think we could be in trouble. Someone's mom who worries about her sons' successes may do all of their homework for them. Someone who learns a fellow student's password will find a new way to torment them by hacking into the victim's account and spouting embarrassing, offensive phrases into their essays. Friends will cheat for each other. Online friendships will be formed only to result in confusion when the 19-year-old boy ended up being an 80-year-old woman. I'm drifting into hyperbole, but the possibility remains.
I'm dubious that a face-to-face classroom is less effective.
It isn't that I hate technology, either, or that I don't know how to use it. I met my husband in person, but our courtship was almost entirely online--David was going to school in Athens, Ohio, and I was teaching in Rexburg, Idaho. We had Skype dates and sent emails every day. We talked on the phone and read each others' blogs. I understand the opportunities that the internet can bring.
However, even in our courtship, David and I were very careful. We made great sacrifices of time and money to take turns flying out to each other and remembering who we were in person. We realized how easy it was to appear different via the internet. We agreed, repeatedly, that our relationship wouldn't be fully realized until we lived in the same town. It is too easy to fill in the blanks for someone you never meet in person.
But perhaps it is okay to have blanks in student/teacher relationships. I'm dubious.
I DO understand the opportunities available for a classroom that is both online and face-to-face. I mentioned in an earlier blog that when I incorporated a class blog in my literature survey course, some students who had difficulty chiming into class discussions found it much easier to comment on the class blog. However, I question how our classroom blog would be different had the students not met each other twice a week in class or met up outside of class to watch films together.
I will say this: grading my students' participation on the blogs for that survey course was much more gratifying than grading these 1301 freshman students who have no faces. And I'm almost positive that my comments meant more to them than my comments here mean to the 1301 students.
I have to think about all these things for much longer. In the meantime, I am going to be haunted by the science fiction futures as portrayed in Surrogates, Blade Runner, Not Quite Human, and Alien. And I swear to all of you right now that if universities become solely online realms, I'm starting my own educational commune in the woods where we will study in log cabins and dance to banjo music around a fire at night. And then we'll see who's the most intelligent! Then we'll see who survives the zombie apocalypse!
Enjoyed, again, reading your post Emily. You are working through ideas in the course in your own way, sincerely and wholeheartedly.
ReplyDeleteI certainly agree with your point that most students go through the motions. There are fake identities--fake learning, fake interest, fake identities--with every situation. Trying to get students to have a real voice is one thing; trying to get teachers to try their best, always, is also something to contend with.
I like your notion of sacrifice. That is, with everything the decisions you make mean you're not following other possible paths. And, if you're not, then you have to be sure that other path isn't better. It's important to think about different types of assignments, always, for instance, as well as different strategies for grading, always. Best thing that can happen is that the teacher chooses NOT to use something for a specific reason, reinforcing the benefits of the status quo.
We're in exciting times--I think there are solutions in hybrid realms, personally. But, we get to frame and test and figure it all out.