formed a famous Renaissance painting . What was the educational purpose of this task ? The student , by completing the task , came away with no better grasp of the history of the painting , its painter , its context , its subject , nor of the artist ’ s use of color , space , or perspective . So far as I could tell , the purpose of this task was simply to give the student a task . This example shows how some educators have capitalized on new computer technology to come |
become good pedagogy simply because it is delivered through a computer .
Other interactive courses are better . They drill students by quizzing them on key terms and concepts . Welldesigned questions can add clarity and focus to the lesson , and they can reinforce concepts through review . Most of these tasks are computerized versions of worksheets , though by clever graphic design and creative formatting , online providers can mask
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up with new forms of pointless busywork . The lesson may have been “ interactive ” in some sense , but it displayed poor pedagogy . Poor |
Such courses are “ self-paced ” only because students and teachers will never interact with one another , leaving no need to set deadlines or coordinate calendars . |
their fundamental similarity to oldfashioned paper worksheets . Besides their clever design , these quizzes have an additional advantage |
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teachers have been assigning pointless busywork in conventional classroom settings for generations ; now some of today ’ s online educators have joined their ranks . Unfortunately , some customers of online education rightly criticize the busywork that can degrade a conventional classroom , yet they cast aside their better judgment whenever video monitors and graphics are involved . Poor pedagogy does not |
over paper worksheets in their capacity for providing immediate feedback : a computer program can immediately inform a student whether he answered a question correctly or incorrectly . These interactive courses , when designed with well-crafted prompts , overcome the problem of student passivity that besets video courses of the performer-spectator type . They can be especially helpful for the type of |
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