THE CLASSROOM AND THE COMPUTER SCREEN Online Education | Page 9

remains the same, regardless of of students assembled into an
whether it is played back for one undifferentiated, faceless mass. Such
student or for thousands. Student- impersonalism may suit a keynote
viewers contribute nothing to the address, but it fares poorly as the
lesson; they are entirely passive. How mainstay of a classroom routine. I have
could a prerecorded teacher even know also experienced instructors who
if a viewer is paying any attention, let possess the charisma of a doorknob;
alone grasping the lesson? This teacher they plodded through their well-worn
cannot read her students’ responses to notes with no apparent awareness that
the lesson, much less adjust to those other humans are present. These
responses. examples show that the internet is not
Any
education that
gives a central
place to
prerecorded
Even though video
recordings, by themselves,
cannot do the sympathetic
work of great educating, they
can serve as useful tools in
the hands of effective
teachers.
videos—where
the only educational
medium where sympathy
and fellowship can be
hindered
Even though video
recordings, by themselves,
playback is the primary mode of cannot do the sympathetic work of
instructional delivery—is one that great educating, they can serve as
replaces teaching with performing to a useful tools in the hands of effective
camera, and treats students as unseen teachers. A “live” teacher might assign
viewers. The relationship between a prerecorded videos to her students as a
recorded performer and his unseen precursor to meaningful interaction.
viewers does not provide the This is the “flipped classroom”
sympathetic interaction that is central approach, where student-to-teacher
to a sound education. and student-to-student interaction
Admittedly, live classes in
occurs after the students complete
conventional brick-and-mortar settings preparatory work on their own.
can succumb to the same problem. For Instructional videos supply fodder for
example, I have spent entire semesters the students’ preparation. In so-called
in large lecture halls where hundreds flipped classrooms, an effective teacher
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