Online and blended learning is NOT automated delivery of facts, and NOT less work for teachers
A warning from Howard Rheingold, which first appeared as a Facebook ‘note’:
“I’m disturbed by the hype about online learning as a “disruptive” force in education. I started reading Clay Christensen’s book with enthusiasm, because I like his ideas about disruptive innovation, but was jaw-droppingly disenthused when it became clear that he thought online learning is all about 21st century versions of teaching machines. There is a lot of value — for motivated self-learners and procedural subjects such as algebra or electrical engineering — in the Khan academy model. But real learning is social, collaborative, involving inquiry and discourse. In my Stanford, Berkeley, Rheingold U courses, online and blended learning have led to exciting outcomes. But I don’t evangelize online learning as any kind of solution to education system problems because it requires MORE work from teachers. It is necessary to set up and provoke discussions, model behavior, facilitate collaboration, and — most important at the beginning — to respond to each student in a thoughtful manner that will be useful for the student. This is time-consuming. I don’t want to advocate a solution that makes teachers work more without more pay. Neither do I think purely online learning is effective with solo learners except in the circumstances I mentioned — a bright and self-motivated learner who wants to learn partial differential equations, or the Krebs cycle, which can be conveyed through online video lectures and screencasts, for example. But many subjects cannot be learned by a download of facts or how-to. They need to be discussed, inquired into, debated, pursued as collaborative projects. This requires discussion boards, blogs, wikis, and other interactive media that include a community of learners.”
May 26th, 2011 at 12:44 pm
Don’t worry calm down man
Work disapear, the need for education disapear
teacher disapear
middle and upper class disapear
this is neo feodalism
good luck this is your turn
May 26th, 2011 at 4:37 pm
Another facet of education which my teachers often spoke about, but not even mentioned by Howard: Often education isn’t even about the material taught, it’s about “learning to learn”.
I can pick up a Lynda.com tutorial just like anyone else, but will that build the skills I need to learn things in my real life, socially, or the business world?