{"id":1950,"date":"2011-04-06T18:24:11","date_gmt":"2011-04-06T23:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stager.tv\/?p=1950"},"modified":"2020-07-25T18:59:22","modified_gmt":"2020-07-25T23:59:22","slug":"shadowboxing-avatars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stager.tv\/?p=1950","title":{"rendered":"Shadowboxing Avatars"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The New York Times invited me to debate the following premise:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;School administrators say online courses in K-12 classrooms can give students the skills they&#8217;ll need in college and the workplace. Indeed, the presence of online courses in primary and secondary schools is a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/04\/06\/education\/06online.html\">growing trend<\/a> across the country.<\/p>\n<p>Critics, however, say the interest in such courses is driven by a desire to spend less on teachers, especially when budget crises are forcing deep cuts in education.<\/p>\n<p>Given that middle school and high school students are easily distracted, can they really learn and benefit from online classes?&#8221; (NY Times Online)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So, without knowing who I was debating or their positions, I wrote<a title=\"My article in the NYTimes online\" href=\"http:\/\/http:\/\/nyti.ms\/fah9pv\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> this response <\/a>(within their tight word limit). In the grand tradition of TED, 140 Character Conferences and other short-attention-span forums, I get to talk. You get to read, and perhaps leave snarky comments.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s too bad. Education is complex and could really benefit from substantive conversation. It would be even better if education issues were discussed in the actual NY Times.<\/p>\n<p>In any event, I&#8217;m honored to have been asked and proud of <a title=\"My article\" href=\"http:\/\/nyti.ms\/fah9pv\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">what I wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>&#8220;I reject the assumption that adolescents are easily distracted. Given the right project, topic and environment, young people have a remarkable capacity for intensity. Inherent in the second question lies a major problem facing education today&#8230;&#8221;<\/em> (Gary Stager, from <a title=\"article\" href=\"http:\/\/nyti.ms\/fah9pv\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">article<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New York Times invited me to debate the following premise: &#8220;School administrators say online courses in K-12 classrooms can give students the skills they&#8217;ll &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[427,435,436,431,438],"tags":[548,432,957,956],"class_list":["post-1950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education-policy","category-featured","category-news","category-teaching","category-technology","tag-edtech","tag-gary-stager","tag-ny-times","tag-online-education"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Shadowboxing Avatars - Stager-to-Go<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/stager.tv\/?p=1950\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shadowboxing Avatars - Stager-to-Go\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The New York Times invited me to debate the following premise: &#8220;School administrators say online courses in K-12 classrooms can give students the skills they&#8217;ll &hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/stager.tv\/?p=1950\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Stager-to-Go\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gary.stager\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-04-06T23:24:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-07-25T23:59:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gary Stager\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@garystager\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@garystager\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gary Stager\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stager.tv\\\/?p=1950#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stager.tv\\\/?p=1950\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Gary Stager\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/stager.tv\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8bd320bea4758fc56f376ecdd9b8b184\"},\"headline\":\"Shadowboxing Avatars\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-04-06T23:24:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-07-25T23:59:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stager.tv\\\/?p=1950\"},\"wordCount\":232,\"commentCount\":1,\"keywords\":[\"edtech\",\"gary stager\",\"NY Times\",\"online education\"],\"articleSection\":[\"education policy\",\"Featured articles\",\"news\",\"teaching\",\"technology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/stager.tv\\\/?p=1950#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stager.tv\\\/?p=1950\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stager.tv\\\/?p=1950\",\"name\":\"Shadowboxing Avatars - Stager-to-Go\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/stager.tv\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-04-06T23:24:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-07-25T23:59:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/stager.tv\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8bd320bea4758fc56f376ecdd9b8b184\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stager.tv\\\/?p=1950#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/stager.tv\\\/?p=1950\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stager.tv\\\/?p=1950#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\\\/\\\/stager.tv\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Shadowboxing Avatars\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/stager.tv\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/stager.tv\\\/\",\"name\":\"Stager-to-Go\",\"description\":\"The personal blog of Gary S. 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