The Hypothesis of the Online Distance Learner

A thought occured to me whilst reading the Week 2 scenarios over the weekend. Am I being slow on the up-take here or what?

During Week 1, we got to know our fellow virtual class mates by breaking some ice together and turning them into buckets of Pina Coladas and generally gelling very well as a group of online students. In the second week, we are looking at how discussion board activities “go bad” and identifying some of the modus operandi of the culprits who give everyone else a bad and unsatisfying experience.

While I appreciate that the exercise is to look at the scenarios from different perspectives and offer how it could have been done differently or better and how some of the students or groups could have been handled. This thought still niggled away at me. Has the last two weeks been aimed at trying to make us better digizens and to be respectful to eachother whilst operating in cyberspace? Is this an intended or unintended outcome of the programme leaders?

Answers on a postcard to…