John Hibbs asks if a technologized alternative to the traditional lecture would enable students "to learn more", and suggests an answer:
<<Would the students (attendees) have learned more if they had listened, in advance, to the lecture at a time convenient to them? Or if they had read the text commentary and looked at the links provided - all well in advance of the physical meeting place? The search for technological fixes for education is of course as old as Socrates who used an early version of Power Point to help the slave boy learn the Pythagorean theorem. Some may remember an old New Yorker ( a U.S. humorous periodical) cartoon which showed a reel-to-reel tape recorder sitting on the instructor's desk, obviously delivering his lecture. In the classroom were 30 tablet arm chairs for the students. The seats were unoccupied: on each chair was a smaller tape recorder, recording the lecture. The question, "Would the students...have learned more" embodies a philosophy of education: the problem of education is quantitative, and education, like any business, can "produce" more learning if it becomes more "efficient<" and one road to such "productivity" is, of course, technology. That is: if the tape recorder delivers the lecture, the instructor can be doing something else concurrently, a large increase in productivity. And if the tape recorder can take the lecture notes rather than the student, the student can be studying something else while the machine is recording, clearly a further gain in "productivity." In his 1962 book EDUCATION AND THE CULT OF EFFICIENCY Raymond Callahan explores the period 1900 to 1930, the span of years during which the business mind and the practices of industrial capitalism permeated the practice of education. In the US it is still common for business executives to write, or have written for them, books outlining their views on fixing education. Recent books by David Kearns of Xerox and Louis Gerstner of IBM come to mind. And in the US legislation like the current No Child Left Behind act are attempting to fix education by imposing the logics and the rhetoric and the practices of industrialism on education: the results are not promising. As budgets are cut, the marketing consultants are flourishing, as they promise to restore enrollments and dollars using the same techniques that sell cereal and cosmetics on television. Callahan wonders early in his book how this penetration of education by the culture of industry and marketing had happened, was allowed to happen. "Education is not a business," he says. "The school is not a factory." But the schools were indeed allowed to become little businesses, little factories. A more recent study that rehearses much the same ground is Bill Reading's THE UNIVERSITY IN RUINS. Narrowing the digital divide will clearly require that we enlist the new communication technologies. The new technologies do not determine how we use them to do the work of learning. We can the new tools according to the logic of the factory, or we can use them in a way that respects the culture and the needs and the rhythms of those who teach and those who learn. Steve Eskow [EMAIL PROTECTED] <<Would the students (attendees) have learned more if they had listened, in advance, to the lecture at a time convenient to them? Or if they had read the text commentary and looked at the links provided - all well in advance of the physical meeting place? ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Hibbs" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Steve Eskow" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "The Digital Divide Network discussion group" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, February 07, 2005 11:18 AM Subject: Re: [DDN] Yale "Global Flow of Information" Conference - Apr. 1-3, 2005 > At 3:31 PM -0800 2/6/05, Steve Eskow wrote: > > > >My point is that although we call both forms "conferences," they really have > >little in common with each other. Better: they ought not to resemble each > >other, since they are using different technologies with different strengths > >and weaknesses. The fac-to-face conference ought to improve by understanding > >and exploiting the virtues of assembling people together what you are > >calling "proximity." The online form ought to exploit the lack of > >proximity--the overcoming of time and space restrictions at the expense of > >proximity. > > It seems to me the same could be said for "conventional education" > (vs. distance education). In "conventional education", as with most > physical conferences, the students (attendees) come to class > (keynote), sit quietly, - and go on their merry way. Do they learn? > Were they motivated? Or did they just get their Attendance Sheet > marked as "proof" of appropriate reverence? > > Would the students (attendees) have learned more if they had > listened, in advance, to the lecture at a time convenient to them? Or > if they had read the text commentary and looked at the links provided > - all well in advance of the physical meeting place? > > Had they been able to insert their own comments electronically into > that same space, would this have enabled more feedback? improved the > experience for all? > > The answers to those questions are just as obvious for convention > organizers as they are for the college professor. My own guess is > their worry is that without the physical gathering, and the high > honor of being with other Mucky Mucks, a whole bunch of students > (attendees) might not bother to come at all. The glitter of their > robes doesn't pass easily through the wires of the Net. > > NOW - If physical conferences would morf - almost entirely - into Q&A > sessions and interactive workshops - with tons of stuff put up on > the Web well in advance - the obvious strength of physical > conferences would multiply. Who disagrees with the notion that > rubbing shoulders, interactively, is not highly stimulative? highly > motivating -- especially for those who already have a good grasp of > the issues in advance. > > Neither do many disagree that sitting on your hands, listening > quietly to the big Mucky Muck, at a time and place convenient to him > and other Mucky Mucks, does much to enhance intellectual enquiry...or > appropriate follow up. > _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
