My 11 year old daughter and I recently discussed the impact of comma placement, pauses, and intonation on meaning. Hence I was immediately attracted to the title, “Free yourself from oppression by technology”, because it can be parsed 2 ways. I started reading the article from New Scientist by Yair Amichai-Hamburger just to see which it was and found insights on self-determination theory that are very relevant to e-learning.
The article concludes, “I believe that autonomy, competence, relatedness and critical thinking are the best ways to establish a balanced approach to technology, and so enhance our well-being.” The same statement could be made about successful students, online or otherwise. Read the article for a fascinating discussion that might make you – horrors – shut off some of your devices and stop coveting the latest smart phone entry on the market.