Thank you to everyone who contributed to this session. It has been a very interesting journey for me. Searching for examples of active online learning in schools, I was astounded and gratified by how many exciting examples I found in elementary schools throughout <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Canada and the US. These children will be in our universities in the next decade. Will we be ready for their creative, questing minds? Will they arrive beaten into passivity by decreasing educational spending and increasing expectations of marks? Will they like ducklings be imprinted with teacher-centred methodologies and lecture for hours to their students? Will they revitalize education as our future teachers and create something very new?
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Some final thoughts
I am impressed with how many people express Constructivist philosophies in their suggestions. It gives me great hope for the future of online learning as it moves away from static content pages.
I feel cautious about what I percieve as an increasing emphasis on online discussion and commenting because I fear that other ways of involving students in learning such as Constructionism will be de-emphasized and lost.