Face-to-Face Learning
January 22nd, 2008 by sam
Somewhere atop the list of least meaningful forms of communication is the Facebook wall message. My personal favorite is the Facebook Happy Birthday. After all, nothing says thoughtful like “Hey, it’s 7 pm, just checked my mini feed, saw it was your birthday and decided to write you a two word message. In other words, I don’t care enough to send a card or to call, but Happy Birthday!!!
Picture: CreativeCommons kk+
This got me thinking, in addition to birthdays, what other messages will become commonplace in Facebook feeds. Here are a couple that I hope I never see on my own wall.
- It’s been five years and I just don’t see this going anywhere. I think it’s time for us to see other people.
- As your proctologist, I regret to inform you…
- The available balance in your Wells Fargo checking account is $3.27.
- Honey, guess what, it’s a boy!
The reality is that no matter how much Facebook becomes what we’re used to and no matter how many hours we spend online, we’ll always have a need for face-to-face interaction. Nowhere is this more true than it is with learning.
Rather than talk about TeachStreet here (I’ll save the shameless self promotion for a blog post closer to launch), I want you to think for a second about the best class you’ve ever taken. What is the first thing that comes to mind: a subject or a teacher? For me, it is definitely a teacher. Take a look at the following questions.
1) Have you forgotten who taught the class?
2) If you had taken the class online, would it still be the best class you’ve ever taken?
I’m confident your answer to at least one of these questions is no. In fact, I’m so confident that if I’m wrong, and you comment telling me so, I’ll respond to my next 10 Facebook birthday notifications with Happy Birthday messages on those friends’s walls. Though I really hope I don’t have to do that, I’d love to hear any comments people have about the best classes they’ve taken and/or teachers they’ve had.
January 24th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
My favorite college course was History of the U.S. to 1865. The class was set up for failure with 300+ students in a lecture hall with what should have been dry subject matter. Instead history came alive as Ol’ Professor Fred Anderson clipped on his lapel mike, straightened his bowtie and fired off one captivating lecture after another. His lectures would often draw applause from students at the end of class. The teacher makes all the difference and I am excited to see you guys are committed to bringing quality teachers together with eager students!
-David
January 24th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Hey David, thanks for the comment. Sound like History of the U.S. was a pretty great class. For me it was intro to psych: Ol’ Professor Berta. We’ll be launching in Denver soon enough. And when we do, we’ll have to talk Prof. Anderson into teaching a class on TeachStreet!