Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:1191] Re: IFETS-DISCUSSION digest 174
From: Stephen Downes (stephen.downes@ualberta.ca)
Date: Wed 21 Feb 2001 - 01:19:36 MET
Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2001 17:19:36 -0700 From: Stephen Downes <stephen.downes@ualberta.ca> Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:1191] Re: IFETS-DISCUSSION digest 174
Hiya Folks,
I would like to weigh in briefly on the subject of autonomous learning, the
topic of several recent posts. A number of people have advanced a case
against autonomous learning, which I will discuss. But first I would like to
reiterate an important point.
Chris O'Hagan makes the excellent point - and in my view, the inassailable
argumment - that if we are to ensure that everybody receives an education,
and not merely an elite, then we must reduce costs. The current system
is unsustainable for large numbers of people and therefore impedes both
national and global development. Online learninh - and especially autonomous
forms of online learning - offer this opportunity..
That said, let me now turn to autonomous learning itself. A post on this list
recently, as I recall, indicated that a large percentage of new media
professionals were self-taught and self-directed learners. I include myself
in this grouping to a large degree; everything I know about web design,
graphic design, and computer programming I taught myself. So clearly
there are some forms of self-taught and self-directed learning which work,
at least in some disciplines.
I have taught myself may other things as well: how to play darts, how to
use a map, how to buy an airline ticket, how to cook souffle, how to
operate a microwave, how to use Ms Word, even how to program a VCR.
Nothing unique here: we all teach ourselves many things, sometimes very
complex and difficult things, all by ourselves, without the aid of formal
instruction. If I wanted to build a house, or fix my plumbing, I could
probably figure that out too; I know other people have done so.
So why do people think it can't be done for such topics as English Lit.,
physics and engineering? Well, I think it has a lot to do with how they
conceive of autonomous online learning. An example illustrate this:
Erroll Thompson, for example, wrote, "The assumption behind many
autonomous learning systems is that we just have to codify the knowledge
and it will be passed on." And although he admits that online interaction
may help some, the core of online learning is, to him, the standardized
courseware supporting the system.
Thus, he continues,
Arguing from my own field, I would contend that there are lots of
books and materials around that teach or explain the various
software development approaches. However, reading those books,
completing exercises, and attending courses doesn't turn people
into good software developers. Experience in a team of software
developers in a master apprentice role is still required.
Erroll Thompson's reasoning is not unique; I have heard the same
argument stated by many people on other discussion lists, seen it in
Mother Jones, and even heard it from organizations which ought to
know better, such as the Canadian Association of University Teachers.
They all assume that autonomous online consists essentially of online
courseware and that the practice consists essentially of a student
working alone in front of a computer, unmotivated, unsupported,
uncorrected, and ultimately, uneducated.
And although this description captures a lot of what is passed on as
online learning by the major educational institutions (and indeed also
charaterizes more traditional distance education), there is a series
of significant differences between this picture and the picture of
self-directed online learning when practiced by, say, self taught
computer programmers. You have to look a bit outside the realm
of traditional academia, but it is there, for all to see.
In a nutshell, self-directed online learning consists not merely of
online courses (not at all, hardly), but rather, of three major elements:
1. An online knowledge base of resource materials, FAQs, examples,
background information, and more.
2. A learning environment, a place to practice skills without causing
damage, simulations, problems, question sets, and more.
3. An online community of practice, often centered around a discussion
list (like this one), but also supported by collaborative development
environments.
Or as I sum up these elements in slogan form:
Knowledge, Learning, Community
Traditional online courses as they are currently offered by colleges
and universities tend to make mistakes in each of these three major
areas. And it is precisely these mistakes which create the picture
of online learning as stilted and unproductive.
Take the first element, the knowledge base. In the traditional
online course (or the traditional distance course, for that matterm
or even the traditional in-class course), the knowledge base is
composed of a restricted set of materials. These materials consist,
in order of importance, of: lectures and lecture notes, required
readings, and library resources (consisting almost entirely of
academic texts and refereed journals).
In a real working environment in any discipline you care to name,
of course, the available knowledge is much wider: in addition
to including more mainstream press, it includes email message,
discussion list posts, corporate while papers, proposals, reports,
and much, much more. Moreover, the material available is not
pre-sorted and filtered by an expert professor: while this is on
one hand its weakness, it is also its strength, proving the learner
with the many diverse points of view whicy characterize a real
domain of discourse. In a nutshell: the knowledge available to a
learner should be the knowledge available to a working person
in the field: indeed, it should be the very same knowledge base.
In the second area, the learning environment, online learning
needs to move away from the artificial structures it has created
over the years and provide concrete, hands-on experience.
Artificial mechanisms such as tests or academic essays need
to be replaced with practice in a safe environment. One thing
online learning enables is the capacity to escape the classroom
and actually go to places where these activities are conducted.
Where is it written that self-directed online learning must be
conducted completely in front of a computer screen? True, in
traditional education we rarely remove students from the
classroom or lab. But no such restrictions need apply to
online learning; part of the whole point is that learning can
take place anywhere. Just as a self-directed learner should
be immersed in the knowledge of a practising discipline, so
also the learner should be immersed in the workplace.
Finally - and most crucially, in this discussion, is the aspect of
community. It has always seemed odd to me that people who
are studying a discipline are often removed or set apart from
people who are practising that discipline. The 'community'
and 'interaction' in typical online courses typically included
only interactions between students and instructors, or students
with each other (see, e.g., Moore).
But a student in an online environment can be immersed in
the community of practice in a particular discipline. The
student can take part in discussions with accomplished
masters or gurus, pose questions and have them be answered,
be directed to resources, attend conferences or tade shows,
submit ideas, projects or other work for wider evaluation,
and more.
And this is exactly what happens on the internet. In almost
every discipline, specialized discussion lists and websites have
been build. Scores of experts in the field are always willing
to take a look, solve a problem, write a FAQ and refer
people to best practices. Far from being alone when studying
online, a person is immersed in a much wider community
than a classroom could ever provide.
In summary, then, critics of autonomous online learning need to
move beyond their conception of online learning as computerized
versionss of university classes. Though it is true that much work
in the field has been dedicated toward emulating the classroom
environment, the classroom environment is itself sterile, a
weakness magnified in an online setting. Critics of autonomous
learning need to study instances of learning which really happen
online, they need to look at the many sectoral communities
that have sprung up over the last few years, and they need to
analyze the interactions and the learning that takes place in
these settings.
Just as I have always said that I learned more in university pubs
and clubs than I every did in a university classroom, so also I
say now that I learn more through online discussions and simulations
than I ever did from an online course.
-- Stephen Downes ~ Online Learning and New Media ~ sdownes@ualberta.ca http://www.downes.ca http://www.atl.ualberta.ca/downes Faculty of Extension, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada Learning Innovations, Trinity College, Melbourne, Australia CTO, NewsTrolls, Inc. http://www.newstrolls.com downes@newstrolls.com Spotlight Editor, The Technology Source http://horizon.unc.edu/TS/ Today I'm in: MELBOURNE, Australia --------------------------------------------------------- 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 ---------------------------------------------------------
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