Is "HighTech" Pedagogy really that different?

I found something curious about this week essays. They emphasize the importance of “new” approaches to pedagogy (this is especially implicit in LaMonica’s essay). Writing this précis made me wonder if “traditional” face-to-face teaching does not also requires to “structure content so that it is easy to follow, and to provide regular feedback and guidance.” I definitely think that the same pedagogy is required regardless of the medium of deliverance. What I see happening here is that perhaps web-based courses show teaching deficiencies more clearly while face-to-face teaching may allow teaching deficiency or students apathy go unnoticed.

What I mean by this is the following. In a “traditional” class the professor lecturing is not really aware of how students absorbe that information. Student participation, if any, is often limited to the same two or three hands going up while the rest remain resting on their desks. How students in a traditional class understand the lesson is anybody’s guess (until exams are taken, of course). The need to type comments for discussion requires all students to participate by posting their comments, otherwise they will be considered “not to be attending that class.” Web-based courses force ALL students to express their understanding of the class material. The problem is not that some pedagogical practices are limited to web-based courses, but rather that on a traditional class students do not expose as much the product of bad teaching techniques.