Ten ways education matches or surpases face to face learning

1.Student centered learning, "Students are empowered to learn on their own and even to teach one another. Particularly in the discussion group mode, students have the opportunity to explain, share, comment upon, critique, and develop course materials among themselves in a manner rarely seen in the F2F classroom"
I am not sure how I feel about this. Is the instructor not teaching? Do I need to pay to take this at a college level or can I find a social network somewhere and learn the same things for free? I am curious to learn more about this idea, but my first impressions are not strong.


3.Discussions-
I like this idea a lot, where students are more active on online discussions than in class. Quiet students will speak. And responses are more thought out and researched to compared to in class opinions. The idea of the discussion, can enter a whole new world on the computer.


4. Find there own answers. 
I really like this idea. The teacher will not always be there to hold the students hand, and so the student must know how to find their own answers. But this gets close to the line I dont like in item number one, where the question becomes, why do I need to pay for this if I am on my own. 


5. Enriched course material.
 is the secret weapon of online learning. As I learned about in the article minds on fire the type of technology available via online course that would never be available in the classroom is just awesome. The two examples I liked in minds on fire was the telescope and microscope projects, where students could log on line and use the top of the line equipment in other states.


6. Online support 24/7.
Now we dont mind when the library closes or the math lab closes, because we can find one in the digital world. Education does not have to sleep. 


8. Flexibality. 
Is one of the most important concepts of online learning. It opens the classroom to people who could not attend in the past. Mothers who are at home with babies. Someone who does not have time to go to the University for classes. Someone who lives too far from a University.  Someone who can travel to class but wishes not to, to save time.  Someones who work schedule changes weekly and cannot committ to weekly class meeting times. 


10. Faculty development and rejuvination. 
Many teachers stuck in the same routine for years can switch it up. The changes and evolutions in the online environment are changing so rapidely that there are just so many tools being developed that can be used in online learning. But they have to be discovered and tested. Its like the new frontier and we need brave creative souls to test the waters. Todays testers and innovators will be tommorrows leaders.