Re: "...about online education is that a lot of work is needed to help get the message across to kids that online learning can be incredibly enriching and empowering in ways most face-to-face learning can only aspire to...."

The 'brilliance' of the work done by learners online can be attritbuted to many factors; however, the consensus is that the learning process is indeed  "incredibly enriching and empowering".  What is sad, in my field of practice, is that there are very few willing to see that "a lot of work is needed" before learners can 'feel like' being exposed to this rewarding way of learning.

re: "...We need to embed the kinds of interactions and engagement it provides everywhere in our online spaces. ..."

Interesting...

I was asked to attend a meeting (last week), so I could be questioned on the rationale behind the 'pre-course activities' of a blended ESL course I am currently developing.  For the past two weeks, the learners have been 'formatively assessed' for both language and technical skills, and the 'community' seems to be getting stronger although the course shell does not go live till next week.

Online learning, as I explained, is still in its infancy; "a lot of work is needed" before we can modify 'systems thinking'.

Yes indeed. Too many have made the point that teaching is teaching, whether online or not. It's not at all. Some things do indeed stay constant (the need for passion, caring, knowledge of how people learn, etc) but simple mimicry of methods that work when a teacher is in complete control of every second of a learning activity, and all the assumptions that come with that about what happens between such teaching events, is like having someone walk in front of your horseless carriage carrying a red flag when you could be driving a car.

I'm not sure that it's true that online learning is in its infancy - it is by far the dominant form for anyone with a net connection, after all. It's just that online education has not caught up with it yet.

I've read books on my iPad 2, but the thing is quite heavy after even a short time. I do prefer it, however, for the single reason that I'm able to obtain FREE pdf's of many of the classics.

I also agree that the worst thing about our e-book "solution" at AU is the provider and their abominable software. When we pay what seems to be almost full retail price for a text and then pass the cost on to the student in exchange for an e-book, we should be providing / demand at the very least a DRM-free pdf book.

In at least one case that I am aware of, the same price is charged for a DRM'd time-limited rental on the awful, crippled, unusable VitalSource system as for a full, multiple-format, DRM-free version with free updates and supporting materials from the publisher (O'Reilly) that can be read using any e-reader software. Something very wrong here.