Just want to give a quick shout out to Mark Edmunson for his op-ed in yesterday's NYT: "The Trouble with Online Education." With all the recent foofaraw recently about on-line courses and MOOCs, various people at various places (most notably the idiot Board of Visitors at the University of Virginia) are fretting about the end of colleges, and especially liberal arts colleges, as we know them. I don't share these concerns. Of course, there are serious problems with higher education in the US, and the rise of on-line courses does pose a certain challenge. But, at the end of the day, there will always be a place for education via direct human contact between teachers and students.
Edmunson gets this rather clearly:
Online education is a one-size-fits-all endeavor. It tends to be a monologue and not a real dialogue. The Internet teacher, even one who responds to students via e-mail, can never have the immediacy of contact that the teacher on the scene can, with his sensitivity to unspoken moods and enthusiasms. This is particularly true of online courses for which the lectures are already filmed and in the can. It doesn’t matter who is sitting out there on the Internet watching; the course is what it is.
He goes on to mention an ancient Greek thinker - "Learning at its best is a collective enterprise, something we’ve known since Socrates." - a fairly standard move. We could add to that Confucius, who similarly believed in the necessity of direct interaction in education. Here's this from The Analects:
The Master said: "Out walking with two companions, I'm sure to be in my teacher's company. The good in one I adopt in myself; the bad in the other I change in myself. (7.22)
子曰：「三人行，必有我師焉。擇其善者而從之，其不善者而改之。」
We learn best when in interaction with others, not we we sit, solitary and passive, gazing at a screen. And a certain passion and commitment is also necessary (which I will admist is often lacking in the 18-22 year old cohort):
The Master said: "Study as if you'll never know enough, as if you're afraid of losing it all. (8.17)
子曰：「學如不及，猶恐失之。」
That passion might be carried over to online learning. But I still think Edmunson is right when he argues:
...You can get knowledge from an Internet course if you’re highly motivated to learn. But in real courses the students and teachers come together and create an immediate and vital community of learning. A real course creates intellectual joy, at least in some. I don’t think an Internet course ever will. Internet learning promises to make intellectual life more sterile and abstract than it already is — and also, for teachers and for students alike, far more lonely.
The ideal of the university, of which the liberal arts college is a miniaturization, arose in medieval times, and it has survived the horrors of war, the deprivations of economic depression, and the transformations of culture. But yet it persists. I think we're still safe for a while....
Hi Sam, I completely agree with Edmunson's op-ed, but I'm not sure I share your optimism about the continued survivability of the liberal arts college ideal. At the Williams and Amherst Colleges of the world, I have no doubt that in-depth human interaction will remain the core of education for a very long time to come. Where I am more worried is when you go below those elite colleges to larger universities, especially those that rank on the second or third tier. Those places have much more limited financial resources--on average, tuition rises hurt their students harder than the average Williams/Amherst student. Is it too implausible to envision public universities and colleges in cash-strapped states outsourcing their teaching to ready-made course materials with videotaped lectures by Ivy League professors and web-based materials produced by the likes of Pearson and McGraw-Hill? By hiring a whole group of relatively inexpensive teaching assistants to grade exams, such institutions might be able to enroll and graduate more students at lower cost. I'd imagine that this might be even more compelling in technical fields than in the humanities and social sciences.
Let me be clear: I'm NOT saying that this is a desirable outcome. In fact, I think it's in many ways a step backward for exactly the reasons that Edmunson lays out. But I also think that as the technology becomes cheaper and easier to implement, and as the cost of higher education continues to outpace inflation, it will become much more tempting for institutions (especially government-funded ones at the second and third tier) to pursue them to their logical conclusions.
But maybe I'm just pessimistic because of this overcast Portland weather! :-)
Posted by: Jon | July 21, 2012 at 12:46 PM
Some people might learn better in a kind of online environment. There is no one size fits all in terms of education. Maybe a mixed model will evolve. MIT, Stanford and Harvard all have significant online presence in education and their online course are quite popular and effective from what I see. Online interaction is interaction. There are of course both positives and negatives to this.
Posted by: melektaus | July 22, 2012 at 06:36 PM
Anya Kamenetz on online learning at Harvard's Berkman Center:
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/interactive/events/luncheons/2012/06/kamenetz
Very good overview of the issues and the current situation.
Howard Rheingold's new book, _Net Smart_, is an examination of the literacies of online learning. Lots of good information here from a long-time participant in online communities. Howard is also pioneering cooperative learning systems online and something he calls peerogogy.
Posted by: gmoke | July 24, 2012 at 12:19 AM
Education is a two ways process. The student and teacher interaction is where the learning process begins. In some online college, this is also possible through communication over the internet.
Posted by: Josh | October 18, 2012 at 04:48 AM
Education is a medium of understanding things. The books we read are the points we need to know and implement in our life for particular field. Education makes us think on points. We can think broadly if we are educated but if not then we are not more than a child who just play with his doll without complaining why it sings the same song again and again. He is happy with that. Education is a cement in our life to keep attach the social and natural things
Posted by: Admond Rays | November 29, 2012 at 06:10 AM