This small sentence bring home the point of education and it's facility lie in the people interacting with the content, not the material things like the campus or the physical classrooms themselves. In this age of rapid technological innovation, it's liberating to be able to access education despite personal barriers such as distance or time. It was only a decade ago when these factors would have prevented people from satisfying their intellectual curiosity and achieving their academic goals. However because of the innovations afforded to us by the pioneers of the tech industry, we now have the freedom to access communities of people with similar goals of advancing their education. We no longer have to travel far distances to physically meet with our peers and we now have the leisure to access our educational material at a time we see fit. I do, however, acknowledge that there's a lot to be gained by physically engaging with our peers in a classroom setting such as the ability to have group discussions or the ability to bounce ideas off of one another in the moment; but it's the idea that we have this option, this flexibility, of interacting with educational content online which really bring home the point of the annotation: that learning is really about the community of people you learn with and that our interactions with our peers create a more powerful experience despite any barriers of distance or time. I think it's important to reflect on how far we've come in terms of the tools we have available to us and I'm really excited for the opportunity to consume education through a progressive, new curriculum.

Interesting...I agree that contact works in multiple ways, but I do not think face-time is over-valued at all! I just did the LDRS 591 in person and am to be honest, struggling with the "online" aspect for the rest of the year. I really enjoyed the in-person class time.

I really appreciate the in-class learning environment for the focus, social interaction, community and camaraderie. I think the online learning environment is going to be a challenge for me, but thankful for how it provides the opportunity to learn from home and continue with my job.

Yes, contact works in multiple ways. That is a given.

I take issue with the second point here, that Face-time is over-valued. I feel that it is a critical aspect in personal interaction that allows for multiple layers of communication. From the obvious verbal exchange to the non-verbal/physical cues that are displayed as well. Having those extra layers present can allow for much more dynamic exchanges, from both positive and negative interactions.

With the world becoming more techologically dependent, the 'human aspect' seems to be lost in some cases. Take "Face time", for example, many people consider that a suitable replacement for actual face-time, however, it is a poor substitute for actually being present.

To say that learning online is the "privileged mode" challenges my thinking. Having taught in an online environment before, distance was always a challenge and viewed as a deficit. It was very difficult to build community, engage students in conversation, and be "close" to the learning. However, to refocus online learning as "privileged" helps me to consider that the online platform enables a learning community to be wider, encompass more voices, and have a richer diversity of experiences and perspectives.

The public sphere is a neutral zone where information affecting the common good is widely available, discussion is free of domination, and all individuals that are participating do so on an equal basis. In the information economy, the public sphere has transcended spatial boundaries into a space where everyone around the globe can share and form an opinion regardless of background, class, race, or other ways to segregate. Diversifying opinions create new perspectives so that we can all better understand the world. The riskiness that an assignment can live on forces us to think before we post, encouraging deeper reflection than a normal classroom setting can offer.

Would it rather be that one would submit work without having Plagiarism detected simply because of perceived distrust? I think since we have a lot of flow of information online, and abuse of original work is prone to happen, it is only fair that work is detected for plagiarism routinely as standard procedure.

I'm inclined to agree here. Social learning is embedded in traditionalism which can be inflexible at times. The world is changing and we need to change accordingly

Compelling environments be they physical or virtual awaken creativity. A user friendly and inviting interface design is increasingly important particularly to those who are visual learners.

Completely agree with this. Nothing discourages commitment than encountering poor design or obstacles with interface structure.

We ARE the culture of surveillance. Individually, especially as it relates to online learning, we submit, opt into this stream with everyone else. We are not "prone" to it, if we have nothing to hide.

Assessment is neither valid or invalid because of its subjective roots; however, measurement based upon evidence can offer meaningful illumination in one's interpretation or reflection.

While I agree with the first half of this statement I'm not sure it's necessary for the second half to be true. Face-time is overvalued compared to what? Compared to how it should be valued? Compared to the way it is valued within the structure of online learning?

While technology and social media have created and facilitated new kinds of relationships, the possibility exists that we could simply be giving appropriate value to new kinds of contact rather than necessarily devaluing an existing form of contact in face-time interaction.

Being open to exploring new ideas means being closed to previous conclusions or biases.

Intriguing to remember that each student in online learning carries with them so many assumptions related to place and location. In a traditional classroom environment some or many of these assumptions are known and shared but this is not always as true or evident with online learning.

As a youth worker I have learned a lot about 'best practice' as it pertains to working with minors. While in the context of working with minors it is non-negotiable, I do agree that as a general statement, the rules of 'best practice' do neglect context. While I am not sure exactly what 'best practice' online looks like, I would venture to say that in an online context there are many ways "to get it right". The beauty of the open web is just that; the possibilities are endless. If we limit our online presence to 'best practice' we severely limit our ability to create, innovate and explore new territory. The context of our online presence is what should determine the 'best practice' for everything we do online; not a set of directives labelled as such.

Although there is a sense of vulnerability attached to digital assignments, they can allow for ongoing self-reflection and growth. Feedback from multiple perspectives allows us to view our work through different lenses.

I'm grateful to be able to grow and learn in an online environment. The distance and differences between learners allows for more thoughts and ideas to come forward

I think this is speaking to the idea that online we are all equals. In a classroom setting we judge one another and or have pre-conceived notions. Online one can come from any background - privileged, disadvantaged, with a disability or be a minority and be recognized for our intelligence and contributions to society.

Just a note that if you activate the 'PDF Embedder' plugin, you can display the actual file in a little reader frame right on your page.

Thanks for putting this together, Heather!

Ray,

You should be able to activate a plugin on your site called 'TablePress' which will allow you to build quite nice tables on a WordPress page.

To activate a plugin, go to 'Plugins' in your dashboard, find the plugin you want, and click 'Activate'. Pretty simple.

We are also the church. We often confuse the people who with the place where. I appreciate that the idea of a campus has been expanded to include any location, physical or virtual, where learning takes place.

This is one of those complex issues. To what extent does something need to be remixed before authorship needs to be redefined. I know this is something that Bible translators often have to deal with. I have seen several translations where the verse is almost identical; maybe word order or a single term has been altered; is that enough to claim that this is actually a new translation? There are several educators I follow on Twitter, and several of them have led conversations around the extent to which their content is still their content if another educator has used that content to create a poster; to whom does that poster belong: the one who designed the artwork or the one who created the content that is now shown off by the artwork.

I have had many students who have claimed expertise with digital media only to discover that they know their five or six platforms well, but not really anything beyond them. Feeling comfortable with digital media often comes down to interest and time spent exploring. Those who are younger (whatever that means) may have more time to explore but disciplined study generally creates a much greater understanding of the media.

Too often the spatiality of distance is in terms of mm, cm and km. The terminology of spatial distancing in terms of from, about and away keep us from integrating greater understanding of the true distances separating us.

Welcome to faculty from TWU who are new to annotating the web!

It's interesting to compare the 2011 and 2015 statements. Both include "Online teaching should not be downgraded into 'facilitation'," but only the 2015 statement includes "A digital assignment can live on. It can be iterative, public, risky, and multivoiced." As we become more skilled in mastering supportive technologies, we will deepen the communicative powers of online teaching and learning.