Post 4

"When is 'Virtual' Real Enough?" By Kate Conley

In her article, Conley tackles the idea of online education, and ultimately decides that the term "virtual," or as Merriam-Webster defines it as " being such in essence or effect though not formally recognized or admitted." Conley contends that this is the state in which online education is in, not *quite* real yet, for most educators anyway.

Conley goes on to reflect on her own education in the 1970s, in which she was expected to do work both in, and outside of class (though obviously not online). Her school also used no grades, and instead used written self and teacher evaluations. This was of course a radical method of he time, and parents were skeptical about how well this prepared their students for college. As it turns out, the colleges were happy to take these students.

It was from this experience with more "radical" education techniques that Conley proclaims that she sometimes becomes irritated with those who have negative reactions to online learning. As she points out, students are already attaining much of their information from online already, with or without formal education making use of it. Conley believes that using online resources is an excellent way to expand on more formal education, and should be embraced.

Personally, I am a big proponent of online education. A large portion of my own learning has come from online sources as of late, whether it be from an online only course, or utilizing the campus library through their online article database. Even something as controversial as wikipedia provides a nice place to start if nothing else. This is not to mention the ever increasing amount of news sites, blogs, and websites specifically dedicated to student learning. In this era of computers it would be folly to NOT have our students make use of this resource.

I would make sure to present projects in my class which would require an online source (not that it would likely be needed as a requirement.) However, it would also be part of the learning process to teach students which sources of online information are credible, and thus source-worthy. Just as one needs to be careful about using magazines or books when doing research, these same skills are all the more important to online learning due to the ease of publication. Educators should thus embrace online learning, not only as a fabulous tool, but to teach our students how to properly navigate the online environment.