This question is one that should lie at the heart of any discussions of WAC/CAC and its future. If you look back at the first a.w forum, you will see that, indeed, that group of WAC leaders found themselves speculating about WAC and technology, and this second forum is pushing the discussion even further. I really appreciated what all of the participants in the first forum had to say about WAC and Technology as well as what those in this second forum have shared. Michael reminds us to consider the impact of educating students with different learning styles: how will technology help/hinder students with various learning styles? Tharon describes an important innovation at Clemson, the Collaborative Learning Environment, designed to help faculty make productive use of online tools and resources. We at Utah State have developed a similar set of collaborative online course tools that we call SyllaBase (http://english.usu.edu/3gb). We need to continue to share with each other such initiatives.
In my opening statement, I mentioned my concern that when courses are moved to new "delivery" (I hate that term) methods such as the Internet, the tendency is to replicate outmoded, ineffective learning paradigms that CAC has struggled against for years. Donna outlines several technology workshop examples that are designed to counter this trend by reinforcing good CAC teaching. Such workshops can help teachers to see how technology can enhance collaborative learning and communication in student-centered, interactive environments. Donna is right to suggest that these are the kinds of workshops those of us in CAC should all be implementing on our campuses.
Donna asks, "Where are the models for effective ECAC pedagogy?" Where, indeed? And Charlie outlines in his response some of the remaining salient questions:
Mike says that there are 'fundamental differences between the experiences of teachers and learners in online courses and face-to-face courses.' I'm wondering: what are these differences? And are the differences the same for all learners? All subjects? All aspects of a given subject? All learning styles? It seems to me that this is a huge challenge: to decide what works best, when, and for whom?
What wonderful, engaging, exciting questions! What a challenge! I'm ready . . . I think. Are you?
– Christine Hult
chult@english.usu.edu