tom abeles (tabeles@tmn.com)
Thu, 22 Jul 1999 10:19:59 -0500
Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1999 10:19:59 -0500 From: tom abeles <tabeles@tmn.com> Subject: Re: Discussion paper: Preparing teachers and trainers for the C21st.
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Larry Cuban has recently authored a seminal volume entitled How Scholars
Trumped Teachers. He is a faculty member at Stanford University and has
a long history in the K-12 system as both a teacher and an
administrator. His thesis is that the research driven post secondary
community, particularly the major universities, mitigate against a shift
in the current post secondary system due to inertia. Change will be
slow, particularly due to the cylinders of the departments within the
institutions. Since this sets the standards it filters backwards into
the K-12 system.
What we have to understand, though, is that the traditional k-16 path
has lost its hegemony. And there is a shift in the population who are
seeking these college degrees, at least at the undergraduate level.
there are emerging a large number of acredited institutions, operating
both on a home campus and on both physical and virtual campuses,
globally, that are moving into this marketplace. These institutions
focus on delivering knowledge in a variety of mediums and look for
persons to provide this for the students including production workers
who prepare materials, mentors and support staff. In the US this market
is growing rapidly, not just in the post secondary arena, but also in
the k-12 and preschool domain.
the current numbers of students and the dollar volume of this growth
industry takes it above the noise level where it could be dismissed even
3-4 years ago. what this issue contributes to this discussion is the
following:
1) the decision what to do and how to prepare for c21 is no longer
within the domain of the traditional institutions. As the humanities
have seen, traditonal higher education, in spite of the expanding
student population, is not seeing an expanding employment market
In fact, there is a growing market for adjuncts and part time faculty in
the emerging alternatives at the post secondary level and the same
holds, in the US for K-12
2) There is increasing pressure on economics. There are websites where
non-credit courses are being offered for free and other courses now are
seeing price pressure. The traditional academy is no longer insulated
from alternatives anymore than the automotive manufacturers in the US
were protected against imports from Japan
3) The standards for delivery of educational experiences are being
raised. Would you want an archaeology course delivered by Indian Jones
with full production or a tweed jacketed graduate student? Incidentally,
there is a university in a developing country purcahsing programs from
the Discovery Channel and the British Open Univesity will be providing a
course on the Pacific Rim where many of the materials have been also
delviered over commercial television, indicating the level of quality
this is the present- not the future. We are not even talking c21.Larry
Cuban may be right. But then so may Peter Drucker when he pronounces the
demise of many post secondary "species" in an educational climate change
thoughts?
tom abeles
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