Importance of tech skills for online learning

Ko and Rossen’s discussion of what it takes to prepare students to take courses online made me think of what expectations there are for us in the EdTech program. Should we, as technology students, be held accountable for more technology skills than students who are taking, for example, an online psychology course? I think of how many hours it takes me to do assignments, and I’m someone who’s pretty well versed in the technology I’ve been expected to use, as opposed to classmates I’ve had who really have very little technology expertise. I can’t imagine the difficulties of grasping subject matter while also having to learn new technologies. And yet, the field is educational technology. Doesn’t that presuppose a certain level of technology expertise?

According to Maggie McVay Lynch at http://technologysource.org/article/effective_student_preparation_for_online_learning/, “the domain of online learning was new to students; many lacked fundamental computer skills and were newcomers to the Internet. This lack of experience impinged on their ability to adapt to the new learning environment.” Therefore, many students dropped out of online courses. Surely tech skills play a very important part in online learning. Going further, surely more advanced tech skills should be expected of EdTech students.