eLearning and Social Skills

Compared to conventional classroom-based learning, does eLearning have a negative impact of the development of social skills? Is the answer diffferent depending on whether we are talking about children or adults?

While there are many scenarios in which eLarning tools and approaches can complement convention learning methods, for the pruposes of this discussion, I am thinking about the scenarios in which the eLeaner is always logging in at a remote location, geographically seperated from his/her fellow students. What effect does this lack of physcial social interaction has on the learning process. Can the student develop the same social skills as a student learning in the same physical classroom with other students?

There eLearning equivalents to conventional forms of social interaction: email, instant messaging, telephone, video-conferencing, etc. Are these tools enough? Do they provide the same opportunities for the development of social skills? Or is there no replacement for real live social interaction between people?

I think answers will have a huge impact on the future direction of eLearning. Social skills development is very imortant in a learning environment, especially for children. Will pure eLearning environments become widespread, or will they be used more in combination with classroom-style methods?

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1	06/14/05 12:17 EDT	Mr. MaGoogle: Well, I think th...