I was fortunate enough to attend seminary in class, and only had one electronic interchange with a professor: He wanted me to e-mail him the font I used in a research paper on whether Mary contributed an egg in the conception of Jesus. (Yes, this was my idea. No, he wasn't sold on the conclusions of my paper. And, no, I don't recommend you ask me my conclusions either.) However, my professor did like the typeface, and there's a good chance he's using my paper as an example of bad theology tastefully packaged.I digress. Recently, friends of mine who are pursuing graduate studies through distance programs have told me that the experience is in many ways superior to their experiences in class. They have more interaction with other students and professors, the assignments are tougher and they feel more engaged with the educational process. I'm not sure what I think of this, because when it comes to education, I'm an old-school traditionalist.
Anyhow, I'm interested in hearing whether what other people think of this. For your next degree (I'm talking about education, not your ascendance in the ranks of Freemasonry) would you pursue distance or in-class education?
4 comments:
Hi Matt,
Hmmm...yup, the ad is good.
Um....egg? Dunno. Never thought about it, I guess.
Education? I have done classroom, extension w/ online component for interaction, and intensive modulars. I think I prefer intensive modulars. Sitting in the classroom with a bunch of fellow-travelers 8 hours a day, going out to dinner together and thinking through a body of knowledge in an intensive way just works for me. Then, after that, there is usually a project after class, which continues to drive the point home. For me, that works. :-)
Blessings!
Well, looking at college degrees and everything, there's a lot offered in distance learning that isn't offered near where I live. So, distance learning doesn't seem like such a bad idea, however, I've always been a "homework slacker" and if that's all distance learning is, I may fail miserably.
I will admit, that I'm a sucker for good ads and that is one heck of an ad. There is definitely something to be said for face-to-face learning, but I guess it has everything to do with your personal learning style. If you don't need hands-on or lots of visual references, then reading and hearing your teacher's lessons could work out really well.
Like I said though, most of what I would want to take isn't really offered at too many schools nearby, so distance learning may be my only options when the time comes, or perhaps a combination of the two... We shall see.
Hi Matt,
I'm old school so I would pursue in-class education. But, the following is an important caution to the old school method.
A quote from Adler's "Teaching, Learning and their Counterfeits."
"Everyone knows, or certainly should know, that indoctrination is not genuine teaching and that the results of indoctrination are the very opposite of genuine learning. Yet, as a matter of fact, much that goes on in the classrooms of our schools is nothing but indoctrination.
How can this have come about? How can we have so misunderstood the nature of teaching and learning that their counterfeits rather than the genuine articles are rampant in our schools?
The answer lies in the loss of three insights about the nature of teaching and learning, in consequence of which three mistakes are made.
1. It is mistakenly supposed that the activity of teachers is always the principal and sometimes the sole cause of the learning that occurs in students.
2. When it is said that all learning is either by instruction or by discovery, it is mistakenly supposed that what students learn by instruction is something they passively receive from their teachers.
3. The failure to distinguish genuine knowledge from mere opinion, together with the failure to distinguish impressions made on and retained by the memory from the development of understanding in the mind, arises a third mistaken supposition-that genuine knowledge can be acquired without an understanding of what is known...
The first of the three insights makes it clear that teaching, like farming and healing, is a cooperative, not a productive, art.
The second insight is that all learning is by discovery, either by discovery alone or be discovery aided by instruction, but never by instruction alone.
The third insight is that bits of information or matters of fact retained by the memory with no understanding of the information or the facts remembered is not knowledge, but mere opinion, no better than prejudices fostered by propaganda or other sources of indoctrination."
FWIW, I don't think Westminster is guilty of the above.
Blessings,
Kevin
in-class all the way. if you're like me, learning is facilitated best by discussing, i.e. arguing, and it feels pretty silly when you do that with a computer.
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