Blog #8

I think that online/distance education is very useful because it allows for people who would not have the chance otherwise to get an education. But, I am afraid that the content and quality of the education may suffer. With distance education there is no place for classroom discussion between your peers and professor. A lot of material that I remember from past classes comes from classroom discussions that really drive the point the professor is trying to make into my mind.
While TOPIC/MOO is a form of bringing classroom discussion to distance education I don't think that it fully accomplishes its job. If I was in a distance education course and had to use MOO, I don't think that I would leave the class remembering anything because it was so fast paced. Anytime I did type something that I thought added to the conversation, I felt like it was lost in the mix of the comments from 30 other students...which is discouraging because I felt like what I typed didn't really matter. So I would have to say that the MOO was a confining classroom moment because the ideas that came across were less important than talking about food.

Blog 7

I think that technology, internet in particular, already provides teachers and students with many advantages in the classroom. In the middle of a class discussion, lets say a students asks a question that you can't fully answer...simply google it. Or you add a youtube video to lectures just to make the idea really drive home. It is also a good research tool that provides quick and most of the time accurate responses.
However, I do think that too much technology in a class room is distracting and it takes away from the personal relationships and teaching that can be done. Like I already said, in high school, I was one of the few students that actually read the books that were given to us. Everyone else either went on Sparknotes.com or Cliffnotes.com. It is sites like these that make students think that they don't have to read literature in order to pass a class or write a paper. Also, if we lean too much on technology, we will lose the student/teacher relationship that for me as a student is one of the reasons that I enjoyed English so much. I liked getting personal feedback that the teacher gave me because she knew me and my struggles.