Jeff Finlay (jfinlay@umuc.edu)
Thu, 14 Oct 1999 12:58:14 -0400
Date: Thu, 14 Oct 1999 12:58:14 -0400 From: "Jeff Finlay" <jfinlay@umuc.edu> Subject: Re: IFETS-DISCUSS Digest - 13 Oct 1999 to 14 Oct 1999
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Anna Lian wrote:
> Without research and publications, the products of our work are not
> subjected to the scrutiny of public reviewing especially in terms of the
> intellectual premises on which we seem to be building our tecahing spaces.
Huh? I'm not sure there's much 'public' involved in reviewing research. Mainly it's
the equivalent of a lot of shop talk. There also would appear to be a big divide in
academia between research and teaching practices. Intellectual premises that provide
the foundation for teaching spaces tend to be unthought out or semiconscious; one
nice thing about online teaching is that it forces teachers used to getting by with
nebulous thinking to be specific about what they're trying to achieve. Every teacher
I've met who's taught online agrees it has made him/her a better teacher too.
On another tack, could you see online courses as publications or as research, Anna?
> As a result, we have plenty of experts around, constructing learning
> environments built upon sophisticated vocabulary but, on a closer look,
> with, as a fitness fanatic would say, little muscle underneath.
I agree. But I don't think that's anything new.
> The result
> is either:
> (a) that such projects set the direction which then takes 200 years to
> reverse,
Haben't seen much of that. More like 2 minutes so far.
> or
> (b) criticism will one day chew up such projects, meanwhile the government
> will declare that it spent a billion $$ on education and that's enough for
> another 25 years.
Well, it depends on which govt you mean. Here in the US the govt is spending less
than ever on education, but online/virtual learning is booming.
You're right, I think, that in the rush to technologize one wishes for a stronger
voice saying "wait, is that a good idea?" I think we will just have to wait and see,
down the road some time. My guess is that there will be some disasters but that
overall education will be largely reconfigured on a global scale. And I'm not saying
that with any glee, it just seems to me the direction we're headed.
Jeff Finlay
Center for the Virtual University
University of Maryland University College
(301) 985-4610
http://www.umuc.edu/distance/odell/cvu/
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