"What have you learned, Dorothy?"

For its simple straightforwardness in framing the issue, I've always loved the Scarecrow's question to Dorothy at the end of The Wizard of Oz. Her answer is clear and heart-felt (plus it gets her home.)

For those of us who didn't grow up in Kansas, however, the moral of the story is not always so easy to articulate. In looking back over my experiences of the last four semesters, however, some tentative conclusions stand out:

• Using technology effectively requires a sustained investment of time and energy. This is true both in the online course, where a great deail of time in the first few weeks is spent articulating the learning practices that I expect in the class. We all share a lot of knowledge about the technology of the traditional classroom: its chairs and blackboard, even its door. Much of this needs to be reinvented or reimagined for the online classroom.
• One-shot efforts at an online experience lack that investment of energy and may not be successful. Students and teachers need instruction and practice in the technique of online expression; it does not come automatically from one experience.
• The hybrid class is one way of building up that expertise on a regular basis. The physical setting of the regular classroom allows for a steeper learning curve (for the technology) than in a distance learning situation. Because students have begun to know and interact with each other on the regular class days, they are more willing to open up with each other at early stages. 
• Online communication opens space for different voices in the classroom. (This is, for me, why that investment of time and energy is worth it.) Given an open space without the competitive overlay of the traditional class setting, some students will be able to express their ideas with greater comfort and clarity than they might be able to muster in a regular class. (Gender is but one of the factors here.) Again and again, I find that students who remain quiet in class discussion in a regular class can take advantage of the alternative space of an online forum.
• In an online class (as in an AOL chat room or Instant Message session) students must write to communicate. This is what a writing class is (or should be) all about.