The amount of knowledge, experiences and information one is exposed to also has a great effect on the absorption of the new bits and pieces of knowledge and information.

It is a bit like building a wall. You start from the bottom by laying down the first rows of the bricks and continue to build the wall by putting the bricks together in a systematic structure one by one, line by line.

Having a solid background and a foundation is very important for the development and for the educational processes to work at their best for the individuals.

There can be a very complicated structure of information out on the web or in the books which can seem to be too complex to comprehend without a specific focus or area of concentration therefore as a massive source of knowledge, comments and data the web can seem to be a sea in which it is very easy to get lost but if there is a clear question or plan of thought to apply to the vast amount of data, it becomes resourceful and helpful.

I think the most effective approach to the virtual learning experience is to keep a specific focus. One can find too much distraction and variation in the virtual environment therefore it can also bring some negative aspects of the thought processes in to play. It is sometimes like going into the shopping mall or the store without a specific idea in mind. If you go shopping without a plan or a list of materials and products to get you might find yourself examining every different brand’s ingredients or trying everything on and exploring the store all day long. Therefore I think it is good to have a specific target or a general idea of what to look for in the virtual spaces as well.

I think the virtual courses can and do help the individuals to pay more attention to certain ideas, media and information. It is also very crucial to play, surf, experiment and explore new areas of interest that might not seem to be the designated target because by being more flexible and open to new ideas and views one can establish a more sophisticated intellectual capacity.

Playing, practicing specific productive, creative and imaginative games and exploring new ways to use our bodies and minds expend our vision, innovativeness and imagination. Inventing new games to play also helps individuals to communicate and share better. When we examine the babies or the children we can clearly see how this mental process improves social skills, psychological development and communal advancement through innovation and imagination.

My MS:I class included an adjunct online requirement, but the professor emphasized that online participation was encouraged, not required. Our professor said it would be a part of our grade, but he wouldn’t be counting the number of times each person posted, which was a good thing, since not everyone was interested in or had something of value to say about every single subject. Our professor would require that we posted no later than a certain hour so that he could print out our comments and bring them up in class if he thought there were interesting points to be made that might have otherwise been forgotten.

I think that when adjunct online discussions are required, a core of students will ensure that the discussions stay relevant as long as the professor allows as much freedom for discussion as she/he does in the classroom setting. Professors do not normally impose a word limit on student’s oral comments or insist that they follow a two paragraph format when speaking, so why should these same limitations and rules exist in an online setting? I understand that this is a good way for professors to ensure and monitor total class participation, but is it effective in encouraging wholehearted participation?