There is no blackboard and no lectern, and, most glaringly, no students. Dr. Duck teaches her classes in Pennsylvania State University’s master’s program in business administration by sitting for several hours each day in jeans and shag-lined slippers at her dining table, which in soccer mom fashion is cluttered with crayon sketches by her 6-year-old Elijah and shoulder pads for her 9-year-old Olivia’s Halloween costume.
In this homespun setting, the spirited Dr. Duck pecks at a Toshiba laptop and posts lesson content, readings and questions for her two courses on “managing human resources” that touch on topics like performance evaluations and recruitment. The instructional software allows her 54 students to log on from almost anywhere at any time and post remarkably extended responses, the equivalent of a blog about the course. Recently, the class exchanged hard-earned experiences about how managers deal with lackluster workers.
Those students, mostly 30-ish middle managers and professionals trying to enhance their skills, cannot be with her in a Penn State classroom at a set time. One woman is an Air Force pilot flying missions over Afghanistan; other global travelers filed comments last week from Tokyo, Athens, São Paulo and Copenhagen. Dr. Duck cannot regularly be at Penn State, largely because of her three children. Yet she and other instructors will help the students acquire standard M.B.A.’s next August at a total cost of $52,000, with each side having barely stepped into a traditional classroom. To read the rest of this article click here.
1 comment:
Clearly there is an engaged population of students that continue to embrace technology as the leveler of the playing field. Students who need tutoring, review or those unable to write and type as fast as others can employ this to keep up, and excel. Taking it a step further, would it not be cool if embedded technologies that companies like http://www.ziizoo.com use right now to link students and tutors on-line, like video chat and whiteboards, to integrate the classroom experience more completely for those needing help? Thus the classroom becomes seamless and immediate, rather than bifurcated by location and requiring two distinct preparation phases and the extra time to deliver to students. Virtual hours could be held so students on campus can help students off campus and vice versa. Then, everyone starts learning from each other as technology allows the student to participate and understand more completely.
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