The Increasing Face of Education

I was gone Monday and Tuesday from classes at IWU because I was in San Diego.

So to recoup the loss of class time, I set up several blog discussions. How much you want to bet they will learn more from these than from me standing in front of them lecturing?

I'm convinced that the best model for education is one in which things like textbooks (substitute for an expert), information disseminated by the prof beforehand (when the prof is also an expert), as well as video and podcasts (in lieu of lectures) will be done before "class time."

In other words, lectures will not take place during "class time"--and shouldn't. "Class time" is time for unpacking the reading/viewing students have done prior to class, including the evaluation, analysis, synthesis, and appropriation of it.

Eventually, the very idea of "class time" becomes squishy. Participation in a blog discussion, if done correctly, creates a higher average appropriation than in class. In class, only a few students usually make comments. Online, everyone has to participate or else they're not there. Coming video technology will make it easier for such discussions to involve faces.

Indeed, we have already reached a point where online classes do not have to be asynchronous (not done at the same time), although there are advantages to asynchronous posting too.

Anyway, the blogs I've set up in lieu of my classes are not state of the art, but they work. Here are a few:

Intertestamental Literature: http://www.intertestament.blogspot.com/

General Epistles: http://www.generalepistles.blogspot.com/

Inductive Bible Study: http://www.integratedbiblestudy.blogspot.com/

Happy Thanksgiving!