Why are emerging technologies valuable in an online class?  And what additional challenges do bring to the role of the course instructor, particularly at the community college level? How and why should college educators encourage older students to be open to experimenting with learning with new tools?  And to what extent can technology assist instructors with supporting students through their learning success?  As online instructors, we must always remain active, warm, human mentors in our students’ learning. 

In the post I have written this month for the GETinsight blog, you will read a true story about how one of my older, online students, named Diane, transformed from reluctant and fearful of technology to stunningly successful and leveraged her new digital skills to secure a position as a blogger with a local newspaper by the end of the course.  Here is a comment Diane left at the end of the course, intended to be heard by my next, incoming group of students (shared here with her permission).

The full blog post is available at: Believing in Students: What Technology Can’t Deliver

Each month I write a sponsored blog post for Cisco’s GETinsight blog on the topic of global educational innovation through technology.  To view a collection of my GETInsight posts, click here.