Mixed Signals
Two articles in today’s Chronicle (9/3/09) exemplify exactly how confused the academy is about online learning and the transformative impacts of the technological revolution on learning and higher education. First we read that professors are increasing their use of online learning even though they doubt its quality. The implication is that they are apparently reluctant participants driven by a necessity of someone else’s making. Then we are reminded that the University of Illinois is going to continue with the phase out of it Global Campus program, laying off the staff over the next 6-12 months and moving the currently independent structure back into the university in a more traditional relationship.
The actions and attitudes reported in both articles reflect wrong-headed thinking. Professors who worry about the quality of online learning are ignoring sound research data which reports that blended and online learning are both superior delivery modes to classroom-based, face-to-face only learning! How long will the professoriate remain so data-averse about the world in which they live? And Dr. Curtis Bonk’s exhaustive discussion of the availability and value of web-based information and new IT resources in his new book, The World is Open: How Web Technology Is Revolutionizing Education (Jossey-Bass, 2009), describes why Universities should be embracing this new space and the new architectures it suggests, learning how to use it, testing and innovating, not retreating to more traditional structures.
The World Is Open reveals that, when it comes to learning anytime, anywhere, the barn door is open and the cows are gone. Traditional institutions cannot put the genie back in the bottle. We have entered an age when the “who, when, what, and how” of learning is being transformed from college-operated to learner-operated. The Department of Education research tells us not to be afraid, to embrace, understand and improve learning in these new environments.
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that is a very nice
Let us first consider the source of the negative attitudes toward online learning: professors themselves. We all have to consider the positions held on such critical issues in terms of how change will affect those who hold these positions. What do they stand to gain or lose by taking the stance they take? I would guess that no college administrator would dare accuse professors of being arrogant, self serving, and deliberately myopic when it comes to the global shift in the manner in which students learn. After all, we can’t offend them too much, now can we? Who will teach the students if they decide not to teach anymore? Admittedly, there are those professors who have legitimate concerns about possible consequences of broad and sweeping departures from traditional education. Then, too, just because they are “qualified” to pipe in on these issues, we often feel obligated to at least listen to what they have to say (their “logic” notwithstanding); after all, they are professors, right? However, facts have a strange way of speaking for themselves. To be sure, the realities concerning “the world as we know it” not only justify the advent of online learning, it actually demands a broad (albeit intelligent) departure from learning as we have heretofore experienced it. Moreover, these realities actually require that we embrace online learning as a natural progression facilitated by (among other things) the ways in which we research and communicate our ideas, today. A professor at a ground school, for instance, will assign a research paper and a student will complain that they can’t find sources for their paper. The professor will sarcastically reprimand the student for their laziness, asserting the availability of online sources, and will further direct the student to internet, lest they fail the class. Is this irony, hypocrisy, or both? We are all “growing up” with the internet and world wide web. Should not our education evolve as well?
Online learning seems to me to be as good as the traditional method of learning. The old academicians must adjust to this new way as their students have and are learning a new. Both ways have there own pluses and minuses. But academia must adjust and grow as they are in the process of doing in most changing areas.
The points in the article are well directed to the curent learning environment. With a future of a mobile work force, of which I am a part, a more open larning environment is necessary. With even current Internet technology, one can access informtion and university-level courses from almost anywhere and anytime. To learn of a university retreating to its traditional campus setting is sad.
In this highly globalised and competitive world, evolution and innovation share great importance. It is indeed sad that educationists worry about the potential of online learning and rather than looking for ways to improve debate its effectiveness. Transformation is the key to success and individuals should shed their inhibitions and prejudices and look for means of improvements, rather than doubting the potential of a phenomenon like online education.
QUALITY RESEARCH
Tim Swanson,a grad student at Texas A&M wrote an article three years ago about online education.His article appeared in the Mises.org Website.He wrote that the traditional university system as we know it will not be around in twenty years.One reason given is online education.