Face to face with my online class

Tonight I spent dinner with a portion of my Understanding Online Interaction class. It is so amazing to me how different interactions take place in face to face environments versus online. For the rest of the semester I will now read my classmates postings with a different perspective. I've met most of them and have a little bit of knowledge about them as people rather than just online students. I had wondered before dinner if this would 'taint' or change any interactions we had online or not. But then I realized that most of these people already knew each other. So their online perspectives have already been different than mine. I guess I'm not sure how to explain this, but communicating 'outside of school' has always opened up different doors for me. I'll admit that there are opportunities for me to interact with these people away from 'school' per say, but I have not taken the opportunities to do so. In the end it really is my own fault for not taking the time to get to know them better away from class. All in all it was a great experience. I am just wondering what could I have done online more to get to know these people better?

Comments

Marion Jensen said…
I agree. Now whenever I read your blog I'll think, "Oh yeah, Heather is the one that sat at the other table." :)

You pose a good question there at the end of your post. There are several people I know online whom I count as some of my best friends, so I know it's possible to build strong relationships online, but I think it happens in a different way. The biggest factor might be time. There is so much non-verbal communication that takes place in a face to face setting, that when you are online it takes longer to really get to know somebody. Our group has only interacted for a little over a month, and I think many of us have probably not been reading each others' blogs like maybe we could have. Though as you say, now that we've all 'met' each other, I bet that happens more frequently.

Anyway, I had an enjoyable time as well.
8:09 AM
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