John Howell wrote:
At 3:59 PM -0400 3/30/10, dhbailey wrote:
Any program which doesn't reside on my computer and the data files of
which I store in my own location separate from the vissicitudes of web
businesses failing is not anything I'm interested in.
For music files I certainly agree. But I just ran into something that I
may be interested in. (No additional Finale, notation, or allied
content; you may safely delete NOW.)
I've just been assigned to teach an online section of Music Appreciation
next fall. (I've been teaching Music History for about 18 years, so the
content isn't the problem.) But I have a very full summer since my
Music History textbook is out of print and I'm having to switch to a new
one and revise all my materials, PLUS the university is moving from the
Blackboard course management software to a newly-developed one called
Scholar (a local variation on Sakai), and that will also be a big drag.
And just this afternoon I learned from the prof. who's been teaching
Apprec for many years that he's using a totally on-line course. It's
from a company that handles everything on line, there's no textbook, and
the students just buy two (expensive!) CDs, register on line, and
everything including tests is there, not on my computer at all. As it
happens he's meeting with people from that company tomorrow, and I'm
going to talk with them.
I may not agree with the educational approach, the kinds of assignments
and tests they have, and so on (although I'm not pre-judging them), but
if it'll let me kick-start a new class instead of forcing me to
re-invent the wheel, I'll probably sign on. I can always pull out at a
later time.
So there's good and bad in everything--but then we already knew that!
John
John, I'm so sorry you have to teach an on-line course. I
see little of value in them. My wife has been taking early
childhood education courses the past few years and has taken
2 on-line courses, and they're not really courses, they're
just "jump through these hoops successfully and we'll give
you the credit" sessions. Even the on-line discussions,
such as they were, were very stilted and hardly like the
face-to-face discussions in actual classrooms.
I hate this trend and I think it totally sucks as it removes
the major responsibility for the teaching from the teachers
and makes the students, in effect, pay TWICE for being
taught the same course. They pay once through their tuition
to the university (which pays the professors' salaries for
essentially being on-line baby-sitters while the software
does the actual teaching) and then they pay again when they
have to buy the, as you describe it, expensive software or
access code.
And in addition, when there is a textbook as part of the
package, the textbook publishing industry (which needs
congressional investigation in my opinion) has found a way
to make single-use disposable, non-reusable textbooks -- My
daughter's roommate took a course at URI this past Fall,
which my daughter is taking this Spring. Her roommate, in
an act of apparent kindness at the time, gave my daughter
her book so my daughter didn't have to buy one for $80.
However, each textbook comes with an on-line access code
which can be used once and only once, so my daughter still
had to buy her own textbook with a new access code, making
the existing book totally useless. How sick is that? Yes,
she could have bought just an access code, but that would
have cost $70, and the ability to do that wasn't made clear
by anybody. Still, that means that the $80 textbook was
really just a $10 throwaway, since the access code is what
the publisher (and apparently the university) feels is of
value. (Yes, I have complained to the president of the
university, who did actually filter it down to the head of
the department which my daughter's course was in as well as
the bookstore president, from both of whom I received very
unfulfilling answers -- somebody's getting kickbacks for
this nonsense, I'm certain.)
So my daughter reads the materials on-line, takes the
quizzes on-line and the grades are reported back to the
professor, who has done very little about actually teaching
the damned course. What's his paycheck for, then, other
than babysitting the students twice a week and making the
software company fabulously wealthy?
I love technology, but this whole arm of on-line college
courses in what are residential universities with supposed
face-to-face contact with a living professor who imparts
knowledge, wisdom, and the skills to know how to use the
knowledge, is taking higher education in a bad direction in
my opinion. There's no on-line substitute for face-to-face
contact and peer-to-peer-discussions. I would much rather
have my exams and papers graded by a grad-assistant than a
computer company, so that I can at least go to that person
and say "What was wrong with my answer to #27?" and actually
learn from my mistakes.
--
David H. Bailey
[email protected]
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