Subject: Re: [IFETS-DISCUSS] IFETS-DISCUSSION Digest - 15 May 2003 to 16 May 2003 (#2003-19)
From: Laurie, John (John.Laurie@EMA.GOV.AU)
Date: Fri 16 May 2003 - 12:11:33 MEST
Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 22:11:33 +1200 From: "Laurie, John" <John.Laurie@EMA.GOV.AU> Subject: Re: [IFETS-DISCUSS] IFETS-DISCUSSION Digest - 15 May 2003 to 16 May 2003 (#2003-19)
Jim,
Can I suggest that the divisions of virtual ease are more along the lines of
level of education, particularly early education, than of culture. As an
Australian, who along with 80% of my fellow Australians, live in
high-density cities, I can't say I have felt isolated at any stage. I work
in an often virtual environment, as my head office is 600km away from my
workplace and while there are many things I could theoretically achieve
on-line, it necessary on a regular basis to visit my colleauges and "look
at them eyeball-to-eyeball, hug them, have meals with them" to smooth
misunderstandings and to facilitate the problematic and other issues that
can only be solved on a face to face basis. I believe this to be true of any
online environment. I have found online collaboration to be a fraught
activity.
While culture may have some effect, virtual education within Australia is
already very much cross-cultural. Australia is comprised of many different
cultures and the universites almost all have campuses in Asia so it is
common to find yourself in an online class with students in Singapore and
New Zealand as well as Wagga and Coolangatta and there's no saying that the
Coolangatta student isn't Chinese and the Singapore student Australian.
Isolation may very well be a matter of the cell-like nature of being online,
very often in a competitive space where others are socialising around you
and where the nature of synchronous online dialogue for instance amplifies
what's missing rather than what's there. I'd suggest measurement of
isolation is a qualitative task which needs to take into account social,
environmental and online peer relations among other things.
Cheers,
John Laurie
Phone: 61 3 5421 5280
0419 554 347
Fax: 61 3 5421 5272
email: john.laurie@ema.gov.au
jlaurie@iprimus.com.au
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