The more I think about it, the more uncomfortable I’m feeling with the notion of ‘online pedagogy’.
At the moment, I’m having trouble figuring out how ‘online’ pedagogy is any different from ‘ordinary’ pedagogy. I’m even thinking that it might be slightly beguiling to suggest that learning online qua learning requires special consideration, intellectually speaking, that is.
Naturally, the things we can do as online learners are different from the things we could do as pre-internet learners, but is it the doing of it that’s important in this instance? The doing is essential to how we use web tools (wikis, blogs, social networking, videos, slideshares etc.) in a educationally sound fashion in our daily teaching, but to suggest that there’s something special going on privileges the notion that the internet actually changes learning and gives learning online properties that it doesn’t necessarily have. So let’s not talk about ‘online learning’ but ‘learning online’.
Pedagogy is pedagogy, and the type of pedagogy you deploy will depend on the outcomes you’re seeking. Let’s not privilege the technology too much.
Tags: Internet, Learning online, Opinion, Pedagogy, Technology
