Globalization (Reflection)

I am very guilty of often seeing the growth of a "global village" to be a good thing, but there a lot of things that I have never considered.

I have only seen things from my own perspective, as a white woman from the culture that is to be the dominant one within the global village. I have never thought before about what it is destroying and what that really means for the world at large. I didn't really think about what it is doing to other cultures.

It just is more proof that I am not as open-minded as I think that I am. I need to think about a lot of these issues and try to bring them into my considerations.

Distance Learning (Reflection)

How is distance education reshaping education?
It is kind of making a lot of people rethink what education is in general. For example, do you need to be in a classroom with other students in order to have a meaningful education? The answer is still on the fence, but I think a lot more people are starting to say no. The article states that we may really start to see a change in the packaging of education and I think that we already are. Many schools are beginning to offer both face-to-face and online classes. It can really prove to make education more suited to individual needs. If an individual has the option to take either face-to-face or online class, this can help education cater to specific learning styles and schedules. I think that it will make education more widely spread and may help more students to successfully make it through the education system. I personally have already taken a lot of my credits online, but I have taken many face-to-face as well. I feel like both have been satisfying in different ways and I personally like to have an option.

How might distance education shape education of the future?
I feel like it might become more individual. I hope that physical schools never disappear, but I foresee the rise of many digital schools. I think that many students will have the option to take either face-to-face or online for nearly any class. That is how I personally envision things changing at any rate. I also feel that students could be able to be enrolled in both a face-to-face public school for some classes and perhaps an elite online school based in another country or someplace else far away for others. The article says that schools are going to start to see an influx of students that could not previously be reached when they start pulling in distance education. This is probably true, but I think the interest would be large enough in the online classes that whole online-only schools may form to accommodate them.

Globalization (Readings)

I have two readings associated with this topic.

The first reading is the Intro and Globalization in Contemporary Social Theory sections of the larger topic Globalization found in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. This talked about the meaning of globalization as far as social theory is concerned. This article discussed it as being related to communication of ideas and the like at a speed that makes distance and geographical area not a concern. It gives this to the high speed technology and internet that has really started to connect the world. It is very true that the world has become a much smaller place, in no small part because of those very technologies which they were talking about. It is amazing to think of how we can know in an instant something that happened on the other side of the world. A hundred years ago, it took a long time for that news to spread and there were many things that people on the other side of the world never even heard of. It is because of that communication and flow of instantaneous ideas that the world is starting to almost blend into a single culture of information. That may be something that will happen in the future.

The second reading is titled Do We Really Want a Global Village? It is the ninth chapter of a larger book called The Future Does Not Compute: Transcending the Machines in our Midst by Stephen L. Talbott. This chapter deals with a more critical view of what is happening when we are all becoming essentially of one culture. It talks about how we are actually communicating less and less as well as destroying cultures by forcing this assimilation to internet connectivity and technology adoption. It is true that there are negatives to the process. I also agree that it is silly to refer to this as the “global village” when we do little more than share information and amuse ourselves with knowledge and the access to it. It is hard to stop sometimes and take a look at the concerns. I do believe that we are getting in over our heads and a lot of unforeseen problems will begin to arise.

Distance Learning (Readings)

I have two readings on this topic.

The first is a news article retrieved from usatoday.com. The article is titled College May Never Be the Same and it was written by Mary Beth Marklein. This article was talking about MOOCs and how many students are taking part in the cost-free education. The concern that has been emerging is whether or not these courses are for actual college credit and whether the online certificates that are received upon completion of the course. This is a very interesting concept. Personally, the idea of MOOCs is very fascinating and I would love to see what comes from these. For me, I view it as a way that I could possibly pursue a few of my interests that I passed over in order to follow my major. For others, I can see it being a very valuable opportunity to get an education that they could not afford or do not have access to otherwise. It marks a very interesting change in what we view as a college education. Honestly, I feel like it caters a little better to the outlook of this age, that being that knowledge is freely available to anyone with access to the internet. I want to be a part of a MOOC in order to see how it functions and get a better idea about what it is.

The second is an article from the journal Teachers College Record. The article is titled Modest Changes, Revolutionary Possibilities: Distance Learning and the Future of Education. It was written by Gary Natriello. This article discussed the effect that distance learning was likely to have on education from the perspective of 10 or so years ago. The education system really is on the cusp of revolution as predicted. I believe that by the end of my lifetime, the educational system will be virtually unrecognizable to the one that I grew up in. All of this is just based on the advent of technology and the internet, as well as changing views on what education is and how it can be delivered. It is happening very quickly and I anticipate it beginning to move even quicker still.

Establishing a Professional Learning Network Reflection

It was interesting to hear about how much certain forms of social media can help you grow in your professional life. I'm not sure how I feel about all of it at this point however. I can see the benefit of using Twitter and Facebook to follow interests, but I guess it is just something that I haven't done.

 I use Facebook more as a way to connect with people and plan events, as well as keep track of important dates. Sometimes I use it to keep track of friends who are far away. I rarely use it it to post professional materials. I suppose that I sometimes do that, but no one really pays attention to it. I also find that my contacts rarely post professional information. The answer to that then is probably to create a more professional Facebook profile in addition to my casual one. The problem is that I find myself apathetic when I am thinking about that.

I don't do Twitter at all. I just have never found the idea appealing. My little sister does it and wastes endless hours just pointing useless and silly things. That was not something that I wanted to be a part of. I understood what Dennis said, however, about only posting important things or following people that you actually wanted to know something about. I am still skeptical, but perhaps I will someday change my mind.

I use certain forms of social media frequently, but I am probably still a newcomer compared to many others. I should really look into some of the things that were discussed and open my mind to these new outlets of information.