podcast

Neimeyer’s class…

In listening to Neimeyer’s first two classes online, I found that I would not want to be a part of an online class. On one hand it is can be convenient to take courses online. Moreover, I would not have wanted to be a part of the holding hands experiment, which was done to see how long it would take to transmit a signal from one person to ten people down the chain. So one advantage of being online is that a student could not contract an illness, other than addiction to the internet I suppose, through an online class. I have quite the fear of germs and would not want to hold hands with others on the first day of class.
On the other hand, it is not social enough. Or is it? With interaction such as blogging and any of the various ways to communicate online, there may be an argument for a strictly online class. But not having any physical communication with the teacher and classmates just seems so eerie to me, something an environment I would not care to live in. Even though I basically keep to myself and am not the most social individual in most classes, I fear what I would become if I never met my peers face to face. Of course Neimeyer’s class was not online, but, through getting the lesson as a podcast, I really felt the disconnection of not being there in person. I’m not the most social person, but the idea that knowledge is socially constructed really hit home with these lessons.

The audio effect of two speakers was more pleasant that only being able to hear just one, however. They, like music with multiple vocalists, were able to compliment each other.

The tidbit of information about being able to have babies online…Wow. I have heard of mail order brides but internet ordered babies!!! That is insane and really disgusts me. What kind of world would we be in if everyone ordered their babies over the internet, without having sensual intercourse with the mother? My guess it is one that does not want to mingle with the opposite sex. On second thought—no offense to my lovely wife, but my kids take so much of my time that my wife and I hardly have time for each other. So, there might be an argument for a single parent family with no ex involved. I can see it now, a computer telling the interested single parent to be, “Take me, I am yours,” yet I can’t see how to get the sperm into the parent at the other end. That has to be a joke…that you don’t need to at least go to a lab.