OK, before we begin it is prudent to acknowledge the fact that this debate has been going on for generations and is unlikely to be settled here. I’ve been stirred into thought and word and deed on this thorny issue by Zac Martin’s pot-stirring post Universities don’t eat apples, which has attracted plenty of comment and is worth reading.
I started writing a comment on Zac’s blog but found it had become offensively long, so I moved it over here and have linked to this post from Zac’s comments. As such I highly recommend you first read Zac’s post to give you the context of this piece. Of course, if you’re not particularly fussed about the future of our higher educational institutions, no problem. There’s always other posts here to read that might take your fancy.
Anyway, here are my thoughts on our universities.
I’m going to dive into this wonderful discussion with the following disclaimer: I have been on both sides of this debate, as an undergraduate taught by both postgrads and seasoned professors, and as a postgrad teaching both 1st Years and PhD candidates. No, this doesn’t make me uniquely qualified at being right, just gives you an idea of where my opinions are coming from.
Clearly some of the factors that Zac and others here have pointed to are a reality and there is merit in pointing out the deficiencies of what is at times an archaic learning environment. But with reference to the video Gavin shared, I think it is short-sighted to single out technology as the potentially transformative factor in higher education.
Technology is important only in that it is employed by humans
In my experience great teachers possess an ability to engage students regardless of the medium used, and for those who would sling some Marshall McLuhan at me, it is worth noting that McLuhan was primarily interested in social transformations and the relationships involved, not the technologies that assisted in those seismic shifts.
The reality here is that a tutorial is a dialogic and socially-encoded forum, a space where conversation, rigorous argument and a strong mutual respect for the right of all to participate are meant to reign. What does this mean in the terms of this debate? Well, simply put, fault lies on both sides of the fence. And while it may be far more enjoyable (and, it must be said, far easier) to take potshots at each other from across the barricades, this is unlikely to help address the problems our institutions face.
So who’s to blame?
No, I’m not just having a go at Zac. I sat with many lecturers and tutors who happily bemoaned the work ethic of genuinely disinterested class members, and colleagues of mine who pioneered a blogging element of a cultural studies course, complete with thoughtful grade allocation and huge amounts of effort and enthusiasm, were often disappointed by the reaction of many of their students. Expectations clearly play a large part here and the marketing departments of major unis must consider their role in this competitive learning marketplace.
Can lecturers and tutors do more?
Undoubtedly, but take a look at the demands on their time to both publish extensively (the route to longevity in the career path and to lucrative funding grants) and to maintain their teaching commitments (and hence their tenure). Employing new technologies involves more than just switching on a computer. Often individual teachers will express much enthusiasm for the uptake of new methods and media in the classroom but these really need to dovetail with existing curricular to avoid the risk of simply passing the educational problem onto another year or faculty.
What about students?
Well, the reality of any job is that not every day is a roller-coaster of fun and engagement. There is much hard work to be undertaken, some of it thankless and often unnecessary. The qualities that attract me to a co-worker are tenacity, optimism, a can-do attitude and the ability to listen, process information and make informed decisions. All of these qualities can be honed in the higher educational system, and regardless of what you study university is ultimately about developing a powerful critical rational mind.
This is in no way to defend archaic processes or defunct methods – they deserve our attention. But for all your own personal branding efforts Zac, you are guilty of simply firing off criticism without really providing a way forward. You might counter that it’s not your job to reform the universities, but how much do you think you have contributed to their progress with your approach? Ultimately, this is a question we can all ask ourselves when we find it easier to criticise the surface patina than to explore the complex systemic web of office politics, intra-departmental budget skirmishes, government-incentivised study paths etc.
So what next?
Are there easy wins here? Perhaps, but again, reforming our universities requires more than outrage and a low-cost publishing platform. I don’t claim to be across the entirety of the issues but it seems to me that research and practical approaches to technologically enabled and sociologically-designed classrooms is a nascent step in the right direction. Using technology to help us reform the learning environment also means accepting the environment as a technology in its own right.
Having tutored and as a community manager I sympathise with those who teach nine hours a day and are then expected to moderate user-generated classroom forums. Encouraging active online participation from over 100 students every week generates a significant extra workload for already busy tutors and in our rush to have everyone embracing social media in the classroom we have to recognise the significant resourcing challenges reform to the educational environment poses.
There is a tremendous amount of work to be done, but that also means there are tremendous opportunities to invent and create the educational models of the future that embrace collaboration, collective learning, ubiquitous screen technology and ambient computing. How are we all going to contribute?
[mortar board image courtesy Creative Commons and Flickr user benrybobenry]
