Re: [xmca] Will Professors be the ice deliverymen of tomorrow? The question of professorial obsolescence

[Huw Lloyd <huw.softdesigns@gmail.com>]

On 30 July 2012 21:46, Greg Thompson <greg.a.thompson@gmail.com> wrote:

> I do enjoy Postman's work (who, by the way, was a long-time editor of the
> mainline journal General Semantics, ETC). Here is a video that I thought
> might be more on point:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GslzLHrve2M&feature=related
>
> Somewhere around 12 minutes in he quotes an Apple exec who says that any
> problem in education that hasn't been solved without technology will not be
> solved WITH technology. And as I was suggesting in my prior post, it might
> be the case that technology will only make pre-existing problems worse.
>

Quite true, but then any change will be worse for someone.

With respect to the "WITH", constructionism a theme of Kay's work, which is
quite compatible with material-idealized forms of conceptual development,
draws our attention to creative work with technology, i.e. at building
technology.  That's a different usage of 'with', and a different usage of
'technology' too (words are a technology).

Personally, I think the whole e-learning development will help to draw out
the quality education.  Although I think the essence of education,
particularly higher education, does not have any necessary basis in
classrooms and examination curricula.  These are historical contingencies,
many of which are still necessary.  So to worry about institutional changes
in 'education' is actually an invitation to give more thought to what
education is.

Over to someone else.

Huw



> -greg
>
> On Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 12:31 PM, Huw Lloyd <huw.softdesigns@gmail.com
> >wrote:
>
> > On this and wider themes, here's a video of Neil Postman:
> >
> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uglSCuG31P4
> >
> > Huw
> >
> > On 30 July 2012 18:00, Greg Thompson <greg.a.thompson@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > Thought that this article called for some meditation by us younger
> > > scholars, and perhaps some discussion by young and old:
> > >
> > >
> >
> http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2012/07/30/essay-whether-online-education-will-make-professors-obsolete
> > >
> > >
> > > The article is a thoughtful engagement with the question of whether or
> > not
> > > professors will be made obsolete by online teaching at the college
> level.
> > >
> > > Setting aside knee-jerk responses from this professorial hopeful, it
> > seems
> > > like what is needed is some good quality research on the diff between
> > > online and co-present teaching. And, in particular, what can be taught
> > more
> > > effectively with online courses and with what is lost in these kinds of
> > > learning contexts? I think Robert Lecusay (among many others) has got
> the
> > > beginning of an answer to this question with his in progress
> dissertation
> > > that points to the importance of bodily co-presence for the mediation
> of
> > > local cultural knowledge of various sorts. This also points in the
> > > unfortunate direction of a new kind of digital divide: when local
> > cultural
> > > knowledge is shared and/or relatively presupposable between folks on
> > either
> > > end of the on-line connection - as is the case with culturally
> advantaged
> > > middle (and upper) class students - things are likely to go more
> > smoothly.
> > > This raises the possibility that online courses will further
> disadvantage
> > > those who are already disadvantaged b.c. of the increased difficulty of
> > > drawing on local funds of knowledge when the student's funds of
> knowledge
> > > differ from those of the (mostly middle-class)  instructors. Not a
> pretty
> > > picture.
> > >
> > > On the other hand, for those students whose local cultural knowledge
> > > matches up well with the instructor's, online learning can open up new
> > > possibilities. I had a student last quarter who had a younger brother
> in
> > > high school who did an online self homeschooling program. He would
> spend
> > > his mornings doing schoolwork - finishing by noon - and would spend his
> > > afternoon making good money as a contractor designing websites. Maybe
> not
> > > quite what Marx had in mind with his idea of working at the factory in
> > the
> > > morning, fishing and hunting in the afternoon, and being a critical
> > critic
> > > in the evening, but I wonder if there isn't a way to see technology as
> > > having a liberatory component to it and to capital-ize on it without
> > > fetishizing it (much as Marx saw capitalism).
> > >
> > > -greg
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
> > > Sanford I. Berman Post-Doctoral Scholar
> > > Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition
> > > Department of Communication
> > > University of California, San Diego
> > > http://ucsd.academia.edu/GregoryThompson
> > > __________________________________________
> > > _____
> > > xmca mailing list
> > > xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> > > http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> > >
> > __________________________________________
> > _____
> > xmca mailing list
> > xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> > http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
> Sanford I. Berman Post-Doctoral Scholar
> Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition
> Department of Communication
> University of California, San Diego
> http://ucsd.academia.edu/GregoryThompson
> __________________________________________
> _____
> xmca mailing list
> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>
__________________________________________
_____
xmca mailing list
xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca