THE CLASSROOM AND THE COMPUTER SCREEN Online Education | Page 12

learning that calls for drill and They can grow their student
memorization. enrollment without growing their
The downside to this sort of
faculty. The tradeoff comes at
interactive lesson—even the better- education’s expense, for canned
designed ones—is that the interaction courses—automated and “self-paced”
they boast of is robotic and impersonal. courses—do not foster either sympathy
These lessons still lack the living or fellowship. Sympathy and fellowship
presence of a teacher (or computer are qualities of human interaction, but
programmer) who
For example, in flipped-
invests in the classroom settings, students
success of particular might complete a self-paced
students known to lesson in preparation for a later
him. Promoters of activity that demands
these automated
interaction with the teacher and
courses expose their
with other students.
lack of meaningful
not of robotic
interaction.
While canned
lessons deliver a
weak education by
themselves, they
might serve as
helpful components
teacher-student interaction when they that skilled teachers fashion into great
advertise that students can progress at lessons. For example, in flipped-
their own pace. Such courses are “self- classroom settings, students might
paced” only because students and complete a self-paced lesson in
teachers will never interact with one preparation for a later activity that
another, leaving no need to set demands interaction with the teacher
deadlines or coordinate calendars. and with other students. Here,
Self-paced courses do fit with a automated interactive lessons function
profitable business model. Those who much like conventional reading
build them can make a one-time assignments or problem sets: they
investment in a teacher (and direct a student’s preparatory work
programmers) to create lessons on the outside of class, work that sets the
front end; then they sell their canned stage for personal interactions in class.
product to buyers without having to Canned, automated lessons—like
bother with the teacher ever again. conventional textbooks and
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