Education in My Eyes

By Rickey Watson Jr.

 

 

The views of Jeffrey R. Young are much unbiased.  I admire the fact that he chose diverse sources to gather his information.  His main objective was simply to respond to a very bold statement made by Dekunle Somade, a senior at the U. of Maryland at College Park. Somade said, “There's not really much need for teachers anymore, since so much material is online.” Jeffrey propose a very valid question in response to this statement.  But the question is a question that is hard to answer in a world filled with people of many different thoughts, styles, preferences, taste, etc.

Learning is different for everyone.  The way one learns is different and it has nothing to do with what century we are in.  It is true; people evolve, people change.  Change is inevitable to a world that is constantly evolving. 

But just as Charles Darwin describes his theory of natural selection; how organism that adapt to their environment tend to survive, this is true for people with technology as well.

This world is centered on technology and some people have to face it.

On the other hand, some things that are taught cannot be taught through online sessions.  I’m in an acting school and a lot of things we focus on are physical aspects.  We do a lot of hands-on work.  I can’t imagine trying to take a movement class via “SKYPE”, LOL. However, some classes I rather take online like lecture classes or writing classes and so forth, because those classes are classes that are self-explanatory that requires skills that we should already have: reading, understanding, analyzing, writing, and simply following directions.

So there are a lot of things to take into consideration with this question, being culturally relevant, but yet needing things that a computer class cannot offer. 

As far as my opinion on this subject matter, I feel that just as Mr. Randy Bass, executive director of Georgetown University's Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship argued, “Courses won’t go away completely…they do provide a handy framework... (he) hopes that professors will stop thinking of them as a goal unto themselves and focus more on linking skills conveyed in the classroom to hands-on student activities.”