[opendtv] Re: Connected classrooms

  • From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sat, 9 Mar 2013 09:28:37 -0500

At 2:49 PM -0800 3/8/13, dan.grimes@xxxxxxxx wrote:
It is important to understand that producing and delivering the educational material, i.e., using technology that captures the lecture and delivers it, does not in itself provide positive learning outcomes. A course for online instruction can deliver but not have effective results.

One could make the same statement about textbooks, the "backbone" of education for centuries.

Obviously it is expensive to create a compelling interactive title ala Apple's iBook initiative. But the long term costs are far lower than printed textbooks, which are often out of date by the time they are published. Distribution costs for e-books are negligible, and these titles can be updated on a more or less continuous basis.

I do have might doubts that even the best online education materials are of adequate quality, or even can be. Most online education products out there provide good income to the producers but poor learning outcomes for the student.

Welcome to OpenDTV University. While there are certainly some benefit from face-to-face interactions, it is relatively easy for groups of people to interact, and for instructors to "moderate" discussions. I agree that e-books alone are not sufficient, but the same "device" that allows a student to learn form an e-book can also facilitates the interactions, and I am seeing more and more studies that find that online testing can provide more accurate measurements than classroom testing.

And then there is the reality of education. In the real world we do not depend on the collective memory of the educated to promote progress and innovation. The most important aspects of my years of formal education were related to "how to learn," and how to analyze and interact with people to solve problems. Rote memorization is essentially useless as an educational tool.


Have you heard about MIT's OpenCourseWare? Their goal is to provide all of their classes online and free to the general public. That's right, an MIT education for free! And they'll even give you a certificate in a field when completing a program's curriculum. But what they won't give you is a degree. I can't find the quote on their web site any longer, but basically it said that while they recognize completing the courses will provide an education, it is not the same as experiencing and participating in real classes in real classrooms and labs. So I think there is still something to be said about, and a place for, brick and mortar schools. Yes, they are expensive, but I think there is a place for them.

To a large extent, I consider this a transitional problem. Universities have a vested interest in resident populations paying through the nose for an education. Besides, you need a student body to fill the stands of the stadiums...

;-)

I would also add that a college education is not all it is cracked up to be. When I got my first job in a TV station, my degree was not worth two cents...

"Let's show the college boy how things work in the real world!"

My college degree was primarily in Business Administration. The University of South Florida started primarily as a commuter campus for working folks in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area. One quarter I had no choice but to take a business management class at night; I was suddenly placed into a room with real working people who knew as much or more than the professor, and were not afraid to challenge him. The class turned out to be so valuable that I took a night course every quarter until I graduated.

This may well be a good reason for brick and mortar schools, as Dan suggests. On the other hand, it may be an even better reason why we should learn the basics in school, and get our "advanced degrees" in the interactive global workplace.

Regards
Craig


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