On June 30th, the iPhone celebrated its fourth anniversary. This may be hard to believe because of how commonplace this product, other smart phones, and similar devices have now become in our everyday lives. Yet this serves as an example of how quickly technology can change the way that we do things.
Something I’ve noticed, however, is that often people’s notions of technology lag behind the actual capability of that technology. One area in particular where this lag has taken place is in the concept of online education as a learning format and a tool.
Take for example my experience when I tell most people that I am a USC student in an online program. Answers vary from recognition to downright confusion. How do you attend class online? I think that many people still imagine online education as being a moderately advanced version of correspondence education that simply adds an online threaded discussion to what remains an independent study program. In fact, from my experience taking a few online courses prior to joining the MAT-TESOL program, many universities still follow a less interactive format, further adding to the confusion about what online education is or can be.
Yet, the MAT and MAT-TESOL@USC are arguably just as or perhaps even more interactive than an on-site program. For example, in a typical university class, students are faced forward and may or may not interact with the students around them. Sometimes professors will put students in a circle, but not always. Yet in the MAT, all students are facing each other and the professor throughout the whole class. They might be in different cities, states, or countries, but they interact in an on-the-spot manner, sometimes interacting with the whole class, sometimes in break-out groups, and other times in study groups. That said I am delighted when I am able to interact with my classmates outside of class. This is taking the form of communicating with them via e-mail, on Facebook and Skype, by phone, at meet-ups, and in study sessions at a local coffeehouse. There is a certain amount of camaraderie we generate together as Trojans in this innovative and global program that can’t be replicated in another program. Perhaps this is partly due to the spirit of our mascot, Traveler, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. As participants in this unique and groundbreaking online program, maybe we’re following the path of most resistance in order to create something entirely new.
This brings me to consider how as students of the MAT and MAT-TESOL, we have a chance to share with our colleagues, family and friends our insights about how online education is and can be different from what it was before. Further, we have a chance to learn from USC maybe something that we don’t realize that we’re learning: how we can use new technology such as that which is being used in conducting our classes as a tool in our own classrooms to make them more interactive.
