A Classroom of One: How Online Learning is Changing our Schools and Colleges

Rating:
Summary: Examining Online Education
Review: Gene Maeroff examines the challenges facing the future of online education. It has become increasingly popular in the last few years. Maeroff looks at the main issues confronting it. For instance, many people are concerned about the legitimacy of degrees earned online. Can people learn as well through the internet as they do in a classroom? Is the personal contact that students get in the classroom a vital part of the education process? Despite these problems, internet education is growing in popularity, not only for college students and professionals, but also for high school students as well. This book looks at how this is affecting the world of education, and it examines what problems face learners and instructors in implementing this new style of education.

Basically, Maeroff comes to the conclusion that online education is mostly suitable for professionals looking to improve their job skills. It's not very suitable for liberal arts students who need more personal contact to discuss abstract ideas or high school students who tend to have trouble motivating themselves to keep the schedule required for online study.

If you're looking for a guide to online programs, this is not the book for you. This book is for education professionals who want some insight into this new educational method, or for students who want to learn about online education from the inside perspective.

Rating:
Summary: Examining Online Education
Review: Gene Maeroff examines the challenges facing the future of online education. It has become increasingly popular in the last few years. Maeroff looks at the main issues confronting it. For instance, many people are concerned about the legitimacy of degrees earned online. Can people learn as well through the internet as they do in a classroom? Is the personal contact that students get in the classroom a vital part of the education process? Despite these problems, internet education is growing in popularity, not only for college students and professionals, but also for high school students as well. This book looks at how this is affecting the world of education, and it examines what problems face learners and instructors in implementing this new style of education.

Basically, Maeroff comes to the conclusion that online education is mostly suitable for professionals looking to improve their job skills. It's not very suitable for liberal arts students who need more personal contact to discuss abstract ideas or high school students who tend to have trouble motivating themselves to keep the schedule required for online study.

If you're looking for a guide to online programs, this is not the book for you. This book is for education professionals who want some insight into this new educational method, or for students who want to learn about online education from the inside perspective.

Rating:
Summary: A Classroom of One
Review: I have been working in and around the fields on information processing and science for over 30 years and have seen and heard all the hype about how the latest technology will completely overhaul learning, education, instruction, the academy and the student. The reality is that individuals do the learning an may (or may not) be aided by advances in information technology. Maeroff's work is exceptional in its coverage of the technological, social and educational aspects of learning and instructing, especially as it applies to "distance learning". In one, rather concise volume he covers the complete waterfront. I have incorporated this text as a primary source for the distance learning courses I teach.

Instruction, learning and the display of knowledge with the aid of information technologies is an entirely different matter than learning at a distance. If you want an example of truly distant learning, try sitting in the top row of an auditorium of several hundred students listing to a lecture.

J.J. Hayden
March 19, 2003

Rating:
Summary: A great overview of online learning
Review: If you're looking for a good overview of the online learning industry, this is it. A thorough explanation of all of the issues and a good look at some of the key players. I particularly like how Maeroff compares online learning to other forms of distance learning -- mail, sattelite and other types of correspondence courses -- that have been around for years. So far, the Net has not overcome all of problems of distance learning -- as some supporters promised it would. But neither have online programs diminished the quality of instruction on a wide scale, as critics were sure it would. This is great background for anyone studing the issues of online learning.