By JACOB MCKEE
Staff Writer
Over the past few years, Piedmont College has tried, with a moderate amount of success, to implement a new program known as Moodle into the general education system. The approach serves to streamline learning, in a way, utilizing the new resources we have in this age of ever-growing, ever-progressing technology. However, it isn’t exactly going according to plan.
Moodle is supposed to be used to submit assignments and to help teachers and students communicate through an electronic forum.
Previously, I’ve had professors post homework assignments and informational articles that we are supposed to read on our Moodle forums. I’ve also had teachers utilize Moodle in class to do quizzes or tests. In a way, it’s almost as if the school and some of the professors are trying to transition us from hard copies of work into a strictly electronic forum. I wouldn’t be surprised if, one day, students were expected to attend lectures on the internet as opposed to in a classroom; such programs, including Elluminate, exist.
However, I think this is a misguided effort. Efficiency, I suppose, is the end goal of this program, but quite frankly, I don’t think that we need to sacrifice the intimacy of the classroom to achieve this. One of Piedmont’s most attractive qualities, and one of the features they talk about most when attracting prospective students, is the fact that Piedmont fosters the type of student-teacher relationship that big schools, such as the University of Georgia and other larger schools, cannot possibly offer. By moving to a more electronic method of schooling as opposed to a more personal one, we are sacrificing something which I think isn’t worth being sacrificed.
Also, there’s another Achilles heel in this: it’s impossible to have a truly successful electronic system when Piedmont doesn’t have the resources to handle it. Quite obviously, wifi is a problem on campus. If you’ve read this Opinions page at any point this year, you know that. If Piedmont can’t even facilitate this system, why should I want to use it?