Another Semester, Another Set of Technology Barriers

A colleague of mine, who just happens to be a computer science professor, has a wife who is currently taking online classes in pursuit of her Master's degree. He detailed the problems they had in getting her started in a class for the semester -- which involved going online and starting numerous accounts with numerous web sites.

Let's steer clear of the "Don't you just hate X,Y, or Z technology" post, shall we? Let's just all agree to agree that we hate X, Y, and Z technology and move on. (For those of you who claim to LOVE X, Y, and Z that's how you feel today, but a time will come when you encounter A, B, or C technology and suddenly realize your days of being an early adopter are over).

Let's think of her problem from a learning perspective, not a technology perspective. Her problem is not that she can or can't learn a technology, her REAL problem is that she can't start learning content until she overcomes these technology barriers.

As class progresses, if she continues to struggle with these technology barriers is this lack of learning her problem or is someone else to blame? There's an assumption out there that says online learning is only for a self directed type of learner. This is a euphemistic way of saying that there are technology (and social) barriers in online learning, and only learners who can overcome these barriers on their own belong in online education. This would be fine if the following wasn't true: LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS ARE SELLING THEIR ONLINE GOODS TO ALL KINDS OF LEARNERS, AND ALL KINDS OF LEARNERS ARE BUYING THESE GOODS.

The old, "If they can't figure these barriers out they shouldn't be learning online in the first place" just doesn't seem to hold water anymore. We need to stop blaming all the learners we're enrolling in our classes for not being able to overcome technological and social barriers on their own and...

We need to help online students overcome technology and social barriers so they can get some learning done. So who's to blame for not offering these supports?

We tend to blame the teacher. Well, mabye this isn't the case in the face-to-face world, but in the online world, whenever problematic social or technology barriers arise we tend to blame the classroom teacher. There are gobs of journal articles that detail how teachers should spend the first weeks of their classes overcoming these barriers.

But wait, isn't class time supposed to be for learning class content? Is class time about overcoming secondary barriers to learning? If a teacher isn't responsible for addressing these barriers, who IS responsible?

I'd argue that departments and universities that own the classes as part of a curriculum are ultimately responsible for overcoming these barriers. Should a teacher and his students be learning about yet another live chat software in week 2 of a class, or should this be done in a university orientation before a class ever begins? (Or better yet, it can be taught indirectly by using said technology as part of an online matriculation event, etc.)