The Distributed Classroom

Joyner and Isbell (both, Coll. of Computing, Georgia Inst. of Technology) make a strong case for dispensing with the strict dichotomy of “traditional” and “online” labels in higher education; instead their vision of the future of higher education goes beyond simply riding out the pandemic. Neither completely live and in-person nor remote and asynchronous, the “distributed classroom” they propose exists along a continuum of time and space. They emphasize the need for symmetry of experiences; educators and students must both be able to shift from one mode of learning to another. The authors’ advocacy for distributed classrooms supports a view that is less restricted in time and space but still anchored to a core learning experience, and the examples they cite deftly amplify their main points and place their discussions into a broader context of higher education that moves beyond their own experiences.