Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Teachers’ Invisible Presence in Net-based Distance Education

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community
The November issue of IRRODL is now available online. I highlight two papers, beginning with this look at the incluence of teachers in the directions taken by students in online discussion forums. I am most interested in the direction the paper takes at its conclusion: "The main ethical question, in both off- and online learning, is who does the drawing out [of purpose and value in learning]? Is it an external agent (a teacher)? Is it an internal agent (e.g., student’s own motivation or desire)? Or is it a disembodied agent – the invisible hand, for instance, that shaped the Website?" Readers of this website will note that I have consistently argued that it should be the student's own motivation and desire (in other words, autonomous decision-making) and have warned about the subtle and not so subtle manipulations of this by external agencies.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Dec 24, 2024 11:04 a.m.

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