Merlin John Online

Is it not a teeny bit skewed given someone would have to be fairly confident they could cope with the technology before they would sign up for an online degree..?  My Mum (in her 60s) was taught in an environment where technology (and any non-classroom based item) was wheeled in to view. Much teacher led knowledge relating to said item wasn then laboriously transferred and after passing some form of assessment the top of the class were perhaps allowed to use it, maybe. It's not surprising she now waits to be shown how to use anything: a new dvd player; sky box; mobile; anything, will lie unused until a lesson has been given and everything fully understood and a test run completed. My Mum would never sign up for an online course and is completely unrepresented in this research. Compare that to a classroom today...try taking a games console into a primary 6 class and see what happens :)   The generational focus of Prensky's theory can't be ignored but as with any complex social theory there are bound to be lots of contributing factors and it's always useful to remember that learners are different. Expectations surely are?!