Everyone is NOT an Expert

Haha! Downes' article was a riot! He presents a blog where he attempts to discuss the principles of effective e-learning. To me, this article just simplified distance education to be nothing more than a search engine where you go to learn bits and pieces of information. His inaccurate description of distance education and failed discussion on the principles of effective e-learning left me wondering if he had ever participated in an actual online course!?

And to think he's made a reputation for himself with posts like this. How?? Why??

The only useful piece I got from the blog article was in reference to discussion threads being a great resource for learning. There have been multiple times where I may not have thoroughly understood the material I ha just read yet going through the posts of other classmates helped me to get a better understanding of the material. Downes attributes this to interactivity and that's about the only part of the article that I agreed with!

Everyone is NOT an expert and in Downes' case, clearly not even knowledgeable, but if you are not you should not try to offer an opinion on matters as important as effective e-learning principles that could hinder one's understanding. Thankfully, I'm a little more aware of effective e-learning principles and what distance education entails so I won't fall victim to such heresy! So frustrating!