So, inquiring minds want to know, what are those subjects that you don’t want to teach (or learn) online.  A friend recently completed training in solar installation. He took a number of courses online and was tested on the material and received his solar installation certificate. Great.  But he hasn’t yet done a solar installation.  That is the next step, he says, in his learning.  He has to get his hands on the tools and actually do the work to make the connection between his knowledge and his ability.

     A lot of learning requires that extra step.  I don’t want a surgeon who only learned her subject online, although I see no reason she should not have learned about anatomy and physiology and the process of disease online. 
     This is another use for hybrid learning or hybrid education (which I have written about in previous blogs on this site and here:  Education Technology and Change Journal )
     There are many ways in which I’m not ready to give up that face-to-face classroom interaction altogether.  We need to see and understand with immediacy that our words can comfort or wound.  We need to learn how to BE with one another in the real world, and that is a lot like solar installation.  I can have an idea of what a deep friendship is on a theoretical level; but it is important to connect my theory with my practice.