g-gollin
2006-01-14 19:55:55 UTC
I find myself wondering if it would work to change the overall tone at
alt.education.distance by posting accurate information here, all the
while refraining from engagement with posts that are of the sort that
have sometimes appeared in recent months on the militaryforums.com
distance learning forum.
The internet affords remarkable opportunities for curriculum delivery
via distance learning, but the financial possibilities so attached are
also a draw to illegitimate organizations that do not provide
education, but merely pretend to. Perhaps the set of individuals who
post the insulting nonsense that can clog unmoderated education fora is
a mix of people who have acquired substandard degrees, are financially
linked to illegitimate "universities," view government regulation of
higher education as an infringement on individual liberties associated
with consumer-provider relationships, or some combination. In any
event, their participation in a discussion forum through submission of
highly offensive posts, instead of through rational, honest
presentation of their views, is unproductive and does not help bring
distance learning further into the world as an accepted form of
instruction.
If those of us who know something about higher education programs, and
who may have been posting elsewhere, were to resume contribution to
"AED" perhaps we could learn to ignore the material that we might
expect to be suppressed in a moderated forum, rather than walking away
in disgust and leaving AED to be as it has been in recent times.
It is interesting to contemplate the liberation of
alt.education.distance through persistent good behavior.
alt.education.distance by posting accurate information here, all the
while refraining from engagement with posts that are of the sort that
have sometimes appeared in recent months on the militaryforums.com
distance learning forum.
The internet affords remarkable opportunities for curriculum delivery
via distance learning, but the financial possibilities so attached are
also a draw to illegitimate organizations that do not provide
education, but merely pretend to. Perhaps the set of individuals who
post the insulting nonsense that can clog unmoderated education fora is
a mix of people who have acquired substandard degrees, are financially
linked to illegitimate "universities," view government regulation of
higher education as an infringement on individual liberties associated
with consumer-provider relationships, or some combination. In any
event, their participation in a discussion forum through submission of
highly offensive posts, instead of through rational, honest
presentation of their views, is unproductive and does not help bring
distance learning further into the world as an accepted form of
instruction.
If those of us who know something about higher education programs, and
who may have been posting elsewhere, were to resume contribution to
"AED" perhaps we could learn to ignore the material that we might
expect to be suppressed in a moderated forum, rather than walking away
in disgust and leaving AED to be as it has been in recent times.
It is interesting to contemplate the liberation of
alt.education.distance through persistent good behavior.