Real time vs. On Your Own Time 4.1.1

The face of classrooms across the world have changed drastically since the explosion of technology. I think that those of us around and approaching 40's have seen the best of all worlds, for the most part. Those in my generation know what its like to grow up without a cellphone being our link to the world. We know what it's like to do research by hand. We know what the contraption called a typewriter is, how it works, and even how to type without looking at the keys. During our high school careers households didn't generally have computers and if you lived in the country as I did, didn't even have cable. It was considered an awesome opportunity for our high school to begin to offer a new elective...computer programming, and we learned the basics of BASIC-A and Pascal. We used dot matrix printers and thought that we were up and coming in the world. In college we began to learn how to use EBSCOhost to research and joined online chat rooms via AOL. We are a product of the "you've got mail" generation.

That being established we are a generation that went through high school as well as college in a synchronous classroom environment. In our lifetime we have seen the majority of the curriculum changes that those of us still in the education world are familiar with. Some of us in getting additional professional degrees have gone through our masters, specialists, or doctoral coursework in alternative forms of environments. In the basic forms of early education, I feel that a synchronous classroom environment is necessary to provide for the foundations of learning.

As we get past the high school stage...even though high schools now that are offered online offer synchronous as well as asynchronous environments, we as adults are in need of flexible learning environment. I have been through all of these types of learning environment. I feel that each has its virtues. I feel that total asynchronous learning environments require strict internal motivation for students. This seems to be doubly hard for the general population of high school students. I think this can be attributed just simply to a lack of maturity or understanding of the importance of education. But within that we cannot control life around us and see that sometimes life just happens. Things happen now to students that are out of their control or even within their control that an alternative environment becomes necessary. That to me is where a synchronous element of an asynchronous course is needed. The synchronous elements such as a conference call, video chat, or other element allows for accountability. I think that accountability is a strength in motivation.