Abstract
Educators are on a moving train so to speak, where the landscapes of society, economy, socio-politics are ever-changing. We educators-scholars are motivated to discuss darkness (challenges, problems) and hopes (successful trouble-shooting, professional and pedagogical reinvention, instructional groundedness and futurism), because we see student trends (US Census; Pew; Nat. Center for Education Statistics) increasing in speed and becoming more broadly evident. Students are still more distracted, anxiety-ridden, and depressed, redefining their goals of successful outcomes. We offer pedagogical comparisons between a private liberal arts college and a large public university in the northeastern US. We overview prevalent challenges and tentative solutions related to hybrid, and fully online courses that we have taught since the 1990s. We draw insights from an emeritus educator-scholar who taught and trained others during the 1970s utilizing traditional fTf and what was then called “distance education”. We are profoundly invested in supporting, guiding and preparing next generations of world citizens that come through our courses. We strive to make cold impersonal more personal and relevant, overcoming a weakness of online experiences overall. Educators are in an inevitable process of quick reinvention, exploiting effective technology, and creating more relevant (important and engaging) course content. In the long run we are exhaustedly improving our abilities, offerings, and advancing our piece of a hopeful academy.
Presenters
Mary Helen MillhamFaculty of Communication, University of Hartford, United States Diana Rios
Faculty Communication and EL Instituto: Latino-Latin American Caribbean Studies, University of Connecticut, Connecticut, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
2024 Special Focus—People, Education, and Technology for a Sustainable Future
KEYWORDS
ONLINE, DISTANCE EDUCTION, DARK+ACADEMY, STUDENTS, ANXIETY, TRENDS, FACULTY, HIGHER EDUCATION
