Do you learn better in a group or by yourself?

I used to have to learn in complete isolation - i.e. hole myself up in my room with a textbook, but college has taken a lot of that out of me.

I like learning "in a group situation," because it keeps me motivated. I love in-class discussions. But I hate group projects - they're a royal pain, because everyone always has a different opinion and you spend half the time trying to come up with a compromise. That being said, it depends on the group - I've had a couple classmates who are amazing to work with.

And of course, that depends on what you call a "group" - I would probably never get the chance to participate in a huge, couple-hundred people lecture, but ones with say - around 40 students or less, or seminars with maybe 20 students are great.

We also had giant study groups in first year of college, maybe 30 students would plan to hang out in the lounge the night before an exam, and air out all our last-minute questions - much better than cramming, and it was a lot of fun - and a lot easier to talk, sitting crossed legged on the floor and sprawling all over the couches.

Do you think that interactive learning online can help shy students, who fail to engage in the classroom?

Hmm... I'm shy, but I never had trouble talking in class. If I'm interested in a topic and I know something about it, or have questions about it, I can talk a blue streak.

On the other hand, in all the online courses I've taken, the course bulletin boards (also for marks) were pretty dead. People posted to get marks, but didn't really interact. There was in no way the same amount of activity we'd have on the forum.

Places like this forum, other message boards, blogs, etc. help me with shyness because I'm talking to people I don't know. I'd be more hesitant to share my opinions if there was someone I knew in real life on here, so I can imagine that if there was a class bulletin board online, there would be the same social tensions online as in real life. It'd be sort of like facebook.

Do you think technological advances help you learn? Are they a distraction?

The internet definitely helps me learn. I learn lots from being on the forum and reading what others have to say. I learn lots via googling, especially if I'm in a place where the library isn't very extensive. I like it best because it's easy to pull together information from all different sources - for instance, maybe this isn't the best example, but I can easily read news coverage on the olympics from the american, canadian, chinese, etc. perspectives to get a more well-rounded opinion.

One thing I LOVE: being able to email teachers and professors. It's beautiful to not have to work around professor's office hours, or to have to go all the way there to ask a question, especially if it's out of your way. And I like being able to submit assignments online. I like saving paper, and I like having the extra hour to work on my essay instead of stressing out about printing it (I didn't have a desktop printer when I was on campus, and the printers in the computer lab were always jammed.)

If a teacher puts their power points or lecture videos online, are you less likely to attend class?

If the prof is a good lecturer, I'll go to the lectures no matter what. That's what I'm forking out thousands of dollars for-- a great learning experience, not a great internet connection. If the lectures are horrible and the material online is identical to the lectures, I'll find a better way to spend my time. But that goes for non-online stuff too - if the prof merely reads out of the textbook for the whole hour of his lecture, I'd much rather stay home and read the textbook myself.

Most of the profs I had who happened to be fantastic lecturers also belonged to the elder generation (and stereotypically) were computer illiterate, so they didn't put things online. Those who did would put on powerpoints with images but no text (by the way, powerpoints without text are much more effective, in my opinion; because then your students would focus on listening to you talk as opposed to trying to copy down all the notes on the screen), etc. ... so you were still better off going to class.

What about for younger learners? Were computers used as a learning tool when you were a kid? Did you find other "technological" media - eg., watching education videos in class, playing CDs (if any of that was done at your school) helpful?

We had computers in the school library with CD-ROM encyclopedias. We also had math games that we could play on during indoor recess, if it was raining outside. And we had this kid's publishing software that we could write our storybooks on, and print them out. It was fun!

We watched a lot of videos in class in high school. We watched the Magic School Bus in science class, the Simpsons in english class, lots of documentaries, and some movies. I liked movies, as long as they were good and we had meaningful discussions afterwards (for instance, we watched Bicentennial Man in philosophy class, and had a great discussion on ethics afterwards). It was painful if it was, say, the 1970s version of Macbeth. I hated it if it felt like if the teacher was just showing a video instead of explaining something him/herself. We watched corny science shows where people tried too hard to make science look cool, with uber enthusiastic voiceovers and with flashing letters saying "science rocks" every so often on the screen. In geography class, we watched documentaries from the 80s where people had bad hairdoes, and it made me cringe. Videos like that make me less interested in a subject.

Do you think the way people are being taught has, or will change drastically? How do you think people be taught, say, 50 years into the future?

Well, I know a teen who goes to a virtual high school.

I think cyber-learning could be cool - balanced with a lot of field trips and lab/workshop type experiences. Maybe the money that would be invested in a traditional "classroom" could be put to that. For example, instead of having weekly lectures, you could have the teacher/prof meet up with students regularly to discuss (whether in a set meeting point in the school, or in various places relevant to the course) what was put online. And maybe "online schools" could have a giant orientation week-type field trip at the beginning of term, so that students can put a face to a name on screen.

hmm, i don't know. Maybe they'll broadcast wifi "knowledge" waves and information will seep into our brains effortlessly