Open online education is in its relative infancy and with that come many problems and growing pains that need to be addressed. It is important to be conscious of the way online technology bring us together socially both positively and negatively. We need to explore what work and what doesn’t and challenge ourselves to ideas that are different to our own to expand the conversation in search for truth and a better society. It is also important to consider the thing outside the social side of online education, such as data collection and the environmental and labour impacts of making technology.

 Cliques and Closed Academic Communities

Academia has been accused by some of being too politically correct to the point of stifling debate before it has begun, sometimes stopping debate on subjects of merit. In Funes and Mackness’ example of Richard Dawkins coming to speak at the University of Berkley in 2017, Dawkins was likely not going to speak about Muslims and more likely on science and evolution (his subject area). Given that, it could be said that letting him speak about his subject matter does not equal hate speech despite his opinions on other subjects (as unfortunate as they may be).

On the other hand, I believe it is important that there should be room to shut down certain topics for debate. I think most people would agree that white supremacy is wrong and would likely not wish to welcome a debate of its merits. The only thing this would do is make a bunch of white people feel some power and victimize people of colour for no good reason. Perhaps universities need weigh the benefits versus the drawbacks when disputed speakers come to their facilities and then make the judgment call.

I sympathize with the University’s as well who have to consider the school population at large. University’s have been working hard for some time to make minorities feel welcome. It does not serve that interest by alienating them with speakers who may espouse views that could be seen as offensive or even hate speech.

Non-physical Communication and Detachment

I have always felt that people are willing to say worse things on the phone than in person and that goes doubly so for texting and the internet. As technologies distance us from each other and separate us physically we lose a context sometimes that the person on the other end of the communication is a person and that we would likely never speak to them in a harsh, mean, or rude way in real life.

Also, what makes online communication arguably worse than oral communication is that we have time to concoct a rebuttal and be our most clever and (sometimes) informed than we can in the moment of an in-person conversation.

Reading:

Funes, M., & Mackness, J. (2018). When inclusion excludes: A counter narrative of open online education. Learning, Media and Technology, 43(2), 119–138. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2018.1444638

Knox, J. (2019). What Does the ‘Postdigital’ Mean for Education? Three Critical Perspectives on the Digital, with Implications for Educational Research and Practice. Postdigital Science and Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-019-00045-y

Caines, A., & Glass, E. (2019, Fall). Education before Regulation: Empowering Students to Question Their Data Privacy. EDUCAUSE Review, 54(4). Retrieved from https://er.educause.edu/articles/2019/10/education-beforeregulation-empowering-students-to-question-their-dataprivacy