Friday, November 14, 2008
lesson #5 change process
Has higher education changed? I know it has in certain ways --technologically and financially, certainly-- but there will never be a way to get through college without doing the work. I mean, you could try, but then why even bother attending a university? (The classroom portrayed in the video appeared to be a university class, at least.) Sometimes it just makes more sense, if you are not inclined towards an academic career, to go to technical or art school. Could the video, "Has Higher Education Changed?" come closer to playing a violin for the students? And yes, I agree that college is too expensive today, that the materials required for college (like laptops and textbooks, especially those with CDs that are supposed to help) call for a ridiculous amount of money from each student. But at the same time, isn’t change what we are advocating? And isn’t a lot of change imbedded in and in some ways contingent upon use of technology? Which side do I take when I know that higher education could be infused with more innovative teaching and learning tools but I am also painfully aware that those tools cost so much money that either many students become unable to participate in higher education or the new technology and tools that facilitate change are not integrated?
In my experience, colleges usually lean towards innovation –as they should. Unfortunately, just because information comes in a different format doesn’t actually mean that it’s helpful or is innovative change. Did anyone else here not use the supplemental DVD that came with the nutrition textbook?
When it comes to our mission statement, I am most interested in how OCLS "will create a well-informed, well-connected community, making Orange County a great place to live, learn, work, and play." I could see a semester long checkout from a collection of textbooks helping out students a lot. In order to create a well-connected community, I think it also helps to create/expand computer lending programs and set up more computer stations for those who cannot afford to buy their own computers. We can’t expect people in a community to keep up with change when the main vehicle for change today is something beyond many people’s financial means. It may also be interesting to find a way to checkout Internet services/connection to the Internet for use at other locations (i.e. someone’s home) through the library.
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3 comments:
I th ink the video is trying to ask why teaching methods haven't changed since Lincoln was president. Look at all the technology that our library has and explain why there are still universities using a chalkboard in a lecture hall with 300 students in it?
I would have to say that good teaching is still good teaching, no matter the era. Some people erroneously believe that technology will simply make education more effective, but it isn't as if we're replacing teachers with machines. I have to admit that, while online classes may be more convenient, it's much easier to form a personal relationship with an instructor through face-to-face interaction. If a student is serious about her studies, she will ask questions and visit with the professor if she needs extra help. Different modes of information dissemination can make learning easier, but whether or not the student learns the information, especially in a college envrionment, is still ultimately the student's responsibility. It is, of course, the instructor's job to help when the student is confused, but there really isn't a big difference between, say, online and face-to-face instruction except that online instruction can often be accessed at many different times.
I think the bigger problem is that some classes are so large. (One instructor, no matter the mode, can only give so many students the attention/help they need.) Solving that problem, however, is a national and political concern. How has the budget changed where, forty years ago, you could go to college basically for free --provided you had the grades-- and today your family has to take a second/third mortgage?
Comparing a university to a public library is also an unfair comparison, as the audience for each is very different from the other's. And even if you do compare the technology at universities to that at a public library, you will generally find that universities have higher technologies, but that they may not be available except to those doing higher research. Universities could try to provide a computer to each student in each class (some do lend out laptops, by the way) but, again, it comes to the issue I already discussed in my post: do you provide more technology to your students and exclude more students from the university, or admit more students and have 300-person classes taught by a competent teacher with a chalkboard?
(And a personal question of mine: What's so bad about a chalkboard? Sure, I prefer a whiteboard, myself, and powerpoint presentations can be made larger, but as long as the pertinent information is there, it shouldn't matter too much in what format the material is presented, as long as there is ultimately some variety in the methods. It also goes without saying that the mode of teaching may and should vary depending on the subject.)
The other thing I forgot to say was that I fundamentally disagree with the premise that teaching methods haven't changed since Lincoln was president. Of course they have changed. Listing all the ways they have changed would simply take too much time to explain here at work, but as a person who minored in education and who is currently studying education, I can assure you that education methods have greatly evolved since Lincoln's time. There's more to changing education than the tools; it often has much more to do with the methods. All of the classes I know of that have hundred plus person classes have included, on different days, smaller discussion sections and/or individual or small group assignments and labs.
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