Transcript CMNS 253 - July 24, 2006

CMNS 253 - July 24, 2006
Digital Technologies and the
Transformation of Education
“Thirty Years from now the big University
campuses will be relics. Universities won’t
survive. It’s as large a change as when we first
got the printed book. It took more than 200 years
for the printed book to create the modern school.
It won’t take nearly that long for the big change”
-Management Guru Peter Drucker
Today’s Lecture/Reminders
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7618
• This Week’s Lecture
– Digital Technologies and Education at the
University Level (David Noble Article)
– Digital Technologies and Education at the K-12
Level (Jamie)
Experience with Online
Education
• How many have taken an online course
for University Credit?
– What are the differences between online
and lecture/tutorial formats?
– Do you see online courses as
replacements for conventional courses, or,
are they better as a complement to these
courses?
The Place of the University in
the Digital Era
• Universities have been described as
slow to respond to the social and
economic changes that digital
technologies can provide
• Extricating the University from its
‘traditional’ structures & practices is a
high priority for Government, Industry &
the University itself
Online Education: Inevitable &
Beneficial?
• Digital Technologies & Online Courses
are associated with:
– The alignment of higher education with the
demands of the information/knowledge
society
– Efficient & convenient delivery of education
across time and space
– New revenue sources for the University
Aligning Universities with the
Demands of the Information Age
• Education will be offered via the latest
technologies - This means that it
embodies the skills and tools required
for success in the information economy
as well as State and Industry
requirements. Higher education will
become better aligned with the needs of
the economy.
– Government of Canada 2001 & 2002
Efficient & Convenient
Delivery of Education
• Online courses can be delivered to
anyone with an Internet connection and
computer
• Anytime/Anywhere learning
• Interactivity vs. anonymity in the lecture
hall - Active learning
• Greater access to materials
New Revenue Sources for the
University
• Education as a commodity can reach new
customers/students
• Pre-fabricated courses can be delivered by
non-professional staff - even actors - saving
money in the University’s largest budget item,
faculty salaries.
• Reduced material/infrastructure costs. These
are internalized by the student/customer in
the cost of computer & network access
What’s the Issue?
• What technologies can potentially do is
associated with what they will do.
• “Online education is a growth industry
and you get rich not by being skeptical,
but by being enthusiastic” (NY Times,
2006)
What about the Student?
What about the Education?
• At worst, students in the online
classroom are understood an no more
than conduits through which education
flows - part of the technological network,
not truly active participants.
• The quality of Education appears to be
secondary to the means & mode of
delivery
Digital Diploma Mills
• What is a diploma mill? Degrees by
mail, television or other media
• “no classrooms, faculty is often
untrained or nonexistent, the officers
are unethical self-seekers whose
qualifications are no better than their
offerings”
– 1959 study on Diploma Mills (from Noble)
Noble & Digital Diploma Mills
• Noble sees a struggle over education in
the digital age between students/faculty
& adminstration/commercial partners
• “the high tech transformation of higher
education is being initiated and
implemented from the top down, either
without any student/faculty involvement
or despite it”
Digital Diploma Mills
• The commodification of education
• Universities are both the chief
producers and consumers of videos,
courseware, CD-ROMS, and websites
• It’s not about education, that’s just the
name of the market
Student Response to Digital
Courses
• Students want the genuine face-to-face
education they paid for, not a cybercounterfeit
• Online courses are also field trials for
products; “while they are studying their
courses, their courses are studying
them.”
• Is this labour compensated?