Dean Shareski, “Overcoming Digital Dualism”:

This is still someone abstract until you begin to understand, value and appreciate what these connections look and feel like. Most educators and students don’t know what it’s like to forge connections with people youve never met. For me, face to face interactions for many of my professional colleagues supplement my online interactions. The notion of digital dualism is largely the crux of what holds education back from valuing these connections. This doesn’t suggest we can’t discuss manners and norms but it also can’t be shrouded with superiority or nostaligia. Those two perspectives will always remain so long as folks only see their connections as supplement or a second choice.

The idea that the ‘offline’ is more authentic than online is a major barrier for the use of technology and social media in the classroom. For those of us who use those technologies to connect with people every day, those connections feel just as ‘real’ as offline connections. They’re not less meaningful unless you fail to cultivate meaning from them.