Why This and Why Now?
Posted on April 13, 2007 by David Gray
You've arrived at the new UMassOnline blog.
It is my distinct pleasure to welcome you, invite you to return often, to participate freely, and to help all of us in this shared online community… students, faculty, applicants, graduates, administrators, and others… make this an educational, entertaining, and engaging place to discuss the things that matter most about this time and place for all of us.
Why this and why now?
First, because I and many other academic leaders, scholars, and students are discovering the power of online communities like this and the value of open conversations among people with a diversity of opinions and contributions to make involving matters of shared interest. To that important point, here is a link to a late March, 2007, eSchool News Online item about an event that recognized the best online communities created by academic people and institutions. In the aggregate those being honored agreed that Blogging, and the easy access to–and exchange of–ideas that it has spawned, is having a "transformative" effect on education… I agree.
Ideally, too, this offers an authenticity and transparency of thought uniquely provided by forums such as this. This isn't a lecture hall; there is no traditional classroom hierarchy. Everyone who comes here and anyone who wishes, with appropriate consideration for others, to advance the discussion, has fellow citizenship status.
Lastly, I think this is in keeping with our tradition of building new traditions here at UMassOnline. In the vanguard of the distance learning revolution, UMassOnline pioneered and helped define the online educational opportunity more than six years ago and ahead of many others. Our ongoing leadership and online educational value system has seen us become one of the top online educators. This online community is simply another part of a profound ongoing process to remain ahead, to refine the future, and to make the UMassOnline experience a truly unique opportunity.
Thank you.
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[…] To mark this milestone, I thought it would be appropriate to revisit thoughts from UMassOnline CEO David Gray in a post he wrote several months ago to inaugurate our online community effort. The post was entitled Why this and Why Now? […]