Two characteristics of electronic communication give it
promise: The first is that the communication is not restricted to a specific time and place (i.e.--it is asynchronous, not ccurring at the same time, and asyntopic, not occurring in the same place). Second, it is primarily visual and textual rather than aural. This is all pretty obvious, but these differences have
enormous implications for student learning. These two characteristics provide benefits in several distinct areas in that they:
- allow for increased accessibility to the information relevant to the course and the ongoing dialogue about this information,
- provide for a more pedagogically sound interaction with the information by students,
- encourage more thoughtful discussion by students about the information in the class,
- provide more equal participation in the ongoing discussion level the playing field in several important ways,
- enhance student interaction outside of class,
- provide a unique classroom assessment technique,
- enhance my ability to archive and retrieve my students' work, and provide increased structure of information,
- and provide access to diverse sources of information.