Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:1170] Universities, the Internet and efficient teachers
From: Chris O'Hagan (C.M.Ohagan@derby.ac.uk)
Date: Mon 19 Feb 2001 - 16:31:53 MET
From: "Chris O'Hagan" <C.M.Ohagan@derby.ac.uk> Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2001 15:31:53 -0000 Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:1170] Universities, the Internet and efficient teachers
Hi
Ian Coward uses the phrase 'bent on saving money' with regard to the
British Governments 'LearnDirect' initiative, which uses online
methods. I assume this was intended as a perjorative statement
intended to imply that the government should not be looking for ways
of getting mass education and training more cheaply. Why not? If we
are to expand access to education at all levels, surely it needs to
done as efficiently as possible, whether the 'customer' pays or not.
In terms of public services, there are many other calls on government
funding - should education have preference over medical services, or
pre-school facilities? in both of which the UK lags behind most of
the developed world.
I have just been reading the candidates statements for election to
the Association of University Teachers executive committee, which
amount to a series of moans about poor pay, encroaching
managerialism, lack of professional recognition etc - with a couple
of exceptions, one not an academic but a support service member of
staff. Now, I accept that unions and professional organisations are
there to protect the interests of members, but it would be nice on
occasion to see that someone had a vision of higher education beyond
moaning, or looking back nostaligically at an elitist past that
denied opportunity to millions of young and old people.
Don't get me wrong, I happen to think that teachers in further and
higher education in the UK are underpaid, but another side of the
coin is that they should themselves seek to be more efficient. That
is not that they should overwork (and it is a fact that some work
much harder than others), but seek ways to be more productive within
reasonable working hours, and thus expand opportunity to participate
in HE. This may mean generating alternative routes than 3/4 year
full-time attendance on campus. It may mean taking advantage of new
technologies - there is no industry to my knowledge where technology
has not had a dramatic effect on efficiency. Ah, but what about
quality? What about the Macdonaldisation of HE? Learning cannot be
commodified, can it? Education isn't a product. If it is, it can
only be a pale reflection of what it should be, surely?
I am not sure I know the answers to these questions which are thrown
out with such rhetorical confidence by academics defending their
corner. But for many people higher education is a kind of product -
it is a qualification which is a passport to better employment
options, as a car is a passport to better physical mobility. OK,
there's quite a range of possibilities with cars, but is a hand made
Rolls Royce really that much more desirable in terms of mobility
than, say, a mass-produced family-sized Ford? Maybe less so - a
Rolls is quite cumbersome. Maybe it will last longer, but the pace of
change in society does not necessarily make that desirable either -
perhaps I want to change my transport often, just as I will need to
learn new skills. The knowledge embodied in a single degree will
date as quickly as motor car.
I don't know whether this is good or bad, but I do believe in
enabling as many young people as possible to get their hands on that
'commodity' which is a higher education qualification. I don't think
a few people having access to a Rolls justifies denying many others a
Ford!
But a Rolls has greater *status* you say - it is better made!
Exactly my point - you're defending the elite, with its higher costs
and lower efficiency. This argument in the end comes down to just
that - status. If we really push it, we know that the kind of
'superior education' you are speaking of was only ever obtained
anyway by a small minority of those in universities. And that will
continue to be the case in a massified system, except the minority
might be bigger. The majority in HE has *always* received a
'commodity' for its three years of study,and they have been none the
worse for that, and usually been satisfied with the effort/result
ratio. (I speak as someone who studied at 5 English universities, all
in the 'old' sector.)
I think academics would engender more respect and understanding from
society if they acted less like Luddites, defending their patch, and
showed more vision. No wonder it is left to others to lead!
Universities will have to change. It will happen anyway. Academics
can take possession ot the new 'spaces' and opportunities these
changes create, to pursue what they think is worthwhile in learning,
or they can opt out. In which case those spaces will be occupied by
others, who may or may not do as good or better job than the
academics.
In the second half of the nineteenth century in Britain, the
traditional collegiate universities failed to respond to the
accellerating needs of an industrial society. They also failed to
respond to the growing demand for education from the working classes
struggling to emancipate themselves through learning. The result was
that new institutes of learning were formed, and from these many of
the 20th Century's civic universities grew. A similar revolution is
about to happen because our universities have been slow to change.
Only this time it is likely to be the corporate universities which
end up dominating the growth of higher education - though our
vigorous 'new' universities may give them some competition.
Some of you may have seen the Guardian the other week, in which the
University of Derby's Chancellor reported some market research
carried out for the new Global University Alliance. The research,
which needs to be confirmed by more research (of course!) suggests
that the distributed university of the 21st century in the developing
world will have 5 faculties - Business, CIT, Education, Health.....
and The Rest. Something is being said here by future students of a
massified system!! Beat your breast in disappointment that they have
the effrontery to seek a wealthier, healthier life rather than the
delights of the inner, intellectual life, but ignore it at your
peril.
If they do decide they want the latter - they have a lifetime to
achieve it - provided they have the wealth and health!
Chris O'Hagan
============================================
Professor Christopher O'Hagan
Dean of Learning Development
Centre for Educational Development and Media
University of Derby
Kedleston Road
DERBY, DE22 1GB
England
Tel: +44 (0)1332 591255 (direct)
Fax: +44 (0)1332 622772
Email: c.m.ohagan@derby.ac.uk
WWW: http://www.derby.ac.uk/cedm/welcome.html
I am always seeking book proposals for SEDA Publications:
http://www.seda.demon.co.uk/pubsmenu.html
and article proposals for the webzine The Technology Source:
http://horizon.unc.edu/TS
To wonder about one's identity is not about
searching for one's roots, it is to ask oneself:
Who else could I be? Anon, C6 BC
============================================
---------------------------------------------------------
List address to send message to everyone:
ifets-discussion@catfish.valdosta.edu
Details of current discussion: http://ifets.ieee.org/discussions/discuss.html
Forum website: http://ifets.ieee.org/
Forum's contact person: kinshuk@massey.ac.nz
Info on Join/Leave List: http://ifets.ieee.org/maillist.html
---------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2a24 : Tue 20 Feb 2001 - 00:41:48 MET