A conversation I need to practice is the one about interaction in online courses being key. I obviously have not yet got it right because I too often end up in the position where I appear to be downgrading the importance of content. How does this happen? I am not sure, but it seems that if I emphasise something other than content as being important then that seems to set off some binary process that says if content is not the most important factor of an online course then that means that content is not important at all. Which is not what I’m saying at all. Would it be better to couch it in scientific terms and say that good content is a necessary, but not sufficient factor in effective online learning?
Therefore I was very glad to see Gavin Dudeney of The Consultants-E talking about the importance of interaction in this short interview he did at IATEFL last week. Towards the end he talks about content as the launchpad for interaction. Exactly! And you could go further and be more Socratic about the whole thing and conclude that good questions are the launchpad for interaction (and by implication learning).
