Joseph Beckmann wrote, in a small part:
...The computer is not the Great Instructor, but, rather, a really responsive
library to which any student can contribute and from which any class can be
improved. Surely the small school movement has stressed the interpersonal
networking of a team of teachers with teams of students, but such teams are
not exclusive to the size of the school. ....
-----------------------
I am having difficulty with this thread. Here are issues which leave me
puzzled:
1) The comparison between school size and brick space vs click space is
done in a standard "comparative fashion. There is an unspoken "norm",
for example the "small classroom" and then the variances in size or
technology are made in an extrapolist mode of comparison. If one looks
at MMRPG's (the world role playing games) the experience is not exactly
mappable into or easily compared to any of the first generation academic
use of e-learning or schools as most of us have experienced them, yet
users of MMRPG's as learning tools find much of the intamcy and
community of small schools and much of the didactic learning of the "no
significant difference" discussants.
The typical e-learning in place today, regardless of technology is a
crude mapping of brick into click with the idea of not significantly
changing the playing field for all players be they the teachers or the
students.
2) A number of "futurists" whose forte and interest is in the arena of
education, particularly the post secondary arena see little need for the
teacher as either the lecturer or the infamous "guide". This may differ
in the preK->9 arena and perhaps we should separate these arbitrarily.
Many of these issues is based on trust- trust on the part of the teacher
of a student and turst on the part of the student that the guide is
there as a safety net. Yet we know that most of us from birth to death
are curious learners.
3) what is the role of education. In many instance the issue is
certification- the credits and the degrees. In such an atomosphere its
the bottom line that is critical and not the social "games". If
certification requires group play such as discussions to be certified-
eg no child left behind- then students get good at playing this game. At
the post secondary level, where the college degree is considered a
private good, more and more, few can afford, or believe they can afford
a hand crafted small college experience- that is left to those whose
financial resources allow the customized educational experience. Some
students go so far to admit that if they could write one check and get
the diploma, they would.
It seems that the exchanges here are about some ideal, the world of
Newman, von Humboldt and Kant. it seems more about trying to find a way
to rebuild a lost past whether using technology or good old brick space.
One might want to look at technology use, not in the US, but perchance
in Japan, China or in the corporate world.
thoughts?
tom abeles
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