What Issues are addressed with Online Learning?

This weeks readings shed a lot of lighting on anxiety, something that I as a teacher never investigated in depth. |I am so glad I these were part of our readings.

Classroom anxiety was covered in a previous post, but what about online anxiety? Does it exist? According to (Roed, 2003) and (Wörde, 2003), it does. These classes are criticized for the lack of emotional engagement. When the body presence is not a valid factor, the emotions are not necessarily not affected. Students today, especially with digital natives in mind, are very reactive online. Digital experiences are emotionally engaging today. Judging from personal experience, bodily presence allows those with better looks to feel more comfortable in face to face environment. However, digitally ideas, opinions, language fluency and accuracy are the determining factors of anxiety.

Do online environment decrease anxiety, I won't give this an easy yes. Maybe to some, with major self- esteem issues it does. Each medium has its own form of anxiety. Online environments however address other issues; they help students overcome transportation obstacles, especially in a country like Saudi Arabia where there is no public transportation and women don't drive. Another issue is busy people. Online environments allow mothers and employees to study while playing another role in their comfort zone. One major positive is facilitating the learning experience to those of us with special needs.  (Ash, 2010)







Picture source:
http://ged578.pbworks.com/w/page/65563064/Online%20Learning%20and%20Students%20with%20Disabilities



References:

Ash, K. "Educators Weigh Benefits, Drawbacks of Virtual Spec. Ed."Education Week:. Web. 9 Dec. 2015.
Roed, Jannie. "Language Learner Behaviour in a Virtual Environment."Computer Assisted Language Learning (2003): 155-72. Print.

Wörde, Von. ''Students' perspectives on foreign language anxiety.'' (2003)  Inquiry, 8, 1.