The National Inflation Association published several articles and a documentary entitled “College Conspiracy” between January and May to criticize the skyrocketing college tuition.
The recent “College Conspiracy” documentary that NIA posted on Youtube received more than two million views over four months and about 20 thousand responses to the video. The documentary argues that college education is basically a scam and that high school graduates are not encouraged to attend college.
Regardless of the scam, NIA identified itself as “pro-education.”
One of the arguments that NIA made was that “any young American who is motivated to become well educated and have a successful career, can become self-educated by simply reading college textbooks and using the Internet.”
The National Inflation Association points out that students could receive the same academic rigor by simply attending online or distance courses from the comfort of their own home.
Despite the many solid (or made to be believed as solid) statistics presented by NIA, I was not convinced that traditional college education could be replaced by online learning experience.
First, nothing replaces the interpersonal interaction that happens in our so-called traditional class setting. As social media and the Internet continue to stretch into a student’s life, students are continuously persuaded that online networking replaces real networking. Many of these social networking site users assume convenience as the greatest advantage of the computer-mediated communication.
In fact, all that is really happening when one “connects” with another person over the computer is a series of carefully constructed and filtered messages.
In traditional classrooms, a student sees the professor and other students and is able to respond to spontaneous situations that online atmosphere could not possibly offer.
“And I recognize in you, my students, a condition that marked my own experiences as an undergraduate: you will not remember most of what you read or most of what your teachers say to you … It is a truism about the educational experiences that occur in most classes … You will remember some of what you read in books or hear in lectures, and those forms of communication may influence you in profound ways. But if you are like me, your most profound moments of education, in class or out, have occurred because of conversation,” said Jeffery Bineham, SCSU professor of rhetoric, in one of his articles entitled “The Practice of Conversation.”
Though today’s online tools may allow real-time conversation over the Internet, they are, most of the time, non-sponatenous or extemporaneous.
Second, nonverbal communication is almost absent in virtual classrooms.
Without nonverbal interactions, messages are easily misinterpreted and users may find it frustrating when all they could do is to make straight-forward comments. We see this trend in our social media and instant messaging cultures today: people begin using “emoticons” and abbreviations to help them with expressions. Yet, mind you, these electronic expressions are not even close to being as effective as to a real face-to-face smile.
Students today are becoming impersonal and should learn the “people skills” that they lack from interpersonal or small group interactions.
If we continue to work only from the comfort of our own home, we will soon become so self-absorbed and individualistic that we no longer accept the views of others. What is the point of education, then, if we are not open to criticism?
In traditional classroom discussions, students get to explore others’ perspectives in a real “real-time” atmosphere and learn to respond in a way that constructs the academic conversation.
For instance, a discussion that begins with Point A argument may end up as a Point B resolution. We all have had experience with that.
One may argue that you can’t really control the flow of conversation in a room full of eager learners. Unlike the online setting, the speaker may not have the luxury to outline his or her arguments when asked to give an impromptu speech.
These processes help students to develop critical thinking abilities, effective listening skills and collaborative problem solving techniques.
Through the process of debate and discussion, students will also learn to respect one another as human beings, not just another electronic profile on their network.
In this crucial time of economic recovery, we need to put even heavier attention on higher education. A good university education, in or out of the classroom, needs to focus on equipping its students the abilities to intellectual acquisition and at the same time provide them platforms for interactive learning.
After all, this is the reason the 690,900-plus foreign students (according to the 2010 Open Door report by Institute of International Education) come to the United States to further their studies – to get hands-on academic experience and cultural involvement.
If it wasn’t for the “presence” that we international students long for, we would have sat in the “comfort of our own home” earning a degree and not spend a fortune coming to the United States.
And as far as I’m concerned, my money is well-spent.
