James Drogan

Re Conversations with Dave and Rich 

Thanks for your kind comments.  You may be interested to know the paper was rejected by the Journal of Educational Technology.  Perhaps it was for the reasons you hint at.  

The one thing that frosted me was that it took almost seven months, I think, for them to arrive at that decision.  Now their process, which I suspect is geared to a more tranquil time, may not permit speed greater than that.  Which leads me to wonder whether academia, as we currently understand it, will be able to keep up with the demands of the world.  See No Teacher Left Behind from yesterday's Wall Street Journal.

I maintain that distance learning is not for all subjects, all teachers, or all students.  One needs to be careful in how these triples are put together.  I'm tempted to say that this might be the most critical decision of all that need to be made in this area.

It is hard work as you can see from the numbers in the paper.

But it has its rewards.  Students who would rarely if ever open up in class come alive online.  They contribute significant personal experiences and insights that improve the quality of the educational experience.  Through this they grow, develop their self-esteem, and become better prepared to tackle the world.

And the self-proclaimed experts exist here as they do anywhere else.  I'm reminded here of Shakespeare's Henry V's speech on St. Crispin's day.  Strip your sleeves and show me your scars; we can them talk.

There is a marvelous little book -- The Portable Curmudgeon, New American Library (1987), 0-453-00740-6 -- which I recommend to your attention.  It is full of inspirational phrases to use with the pretentious and the presumptive.