higher education – All The Young (edu)Punks

Well, I guess a year’s time is as good as any to have some answers – even if the answer may very well be no answer. For the original post see: Questions for 2011. Yes, there will also be a Questions for 2012.

1. What makes anyone think that the video games push (mostly by the iOS platform devices, but Xbox, Playstation and Wii) has anything to do with formal education?

Well, I don’t know if gamification gained any traction, but things like achievements in video games have lent themselves to things like badges. I suspect that my original assertion that it will be marginalized, will remain until someone can quantify and measure the whole process, much like they’ve tried to do with standardized testing.

2. Why haven’t educational institutions really pushed for a mobile learning environment?

I think there’s been some motion here – certainly the open courses are structured so that they are mobile friendly, and the big two LMS vendors (Desire2Learn and Blackboard) are both becoming more mobile friendly, I suspect the resistance comes from the institution’s inability to control and verify that a potentially mobile student may not be that student, and the only way to assess a person is still in-person. I don’t think it matters anymore, in work most people will use the Internet to research a possible solution to whatever problem they face, so knowing something isn’t as crucial as it once was. Knowing something however does allow you to find a solution sooner – making you a more efficient worker – which is what capitalism wants.

3. Will the consolidation of the web conferencing tools that education typically use (Wimba and Elluminate) mean that new companies with new models will arise?

Well, they haven’t arisen yet, but there’s a plethora of tools out there to replace Blackboard Collaborate or whatever it’s called this week. However, no one has put together the killer app – which I hope is the form the web conferencing takes – mobile native, low bandwidth friendly, and most of all, accessible.

4. Wither edupunk?

Yup. edu-post-punk should be interesting.

5. What will Pearson as a publishing giant and accredited University mean?

Turns out, not much. Unless you consider an extremely walled off garden of textbooks in a proprietary LMS with Google Doc integration something.

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So I’ve been complaining to anyone who’ll listen about the plight of higher education, I guess I should offer a vision of what I want things to look like in the higher ed of my world. And yes, the trains run on time in my reality too.

1. Courses should be inquiry based, with curriculum flexible enough to accommodate such a move. As long as the core concepts are met, then everything else should be based on the curiosity of the student. If there’s a lot of core concepts to cover, then split the course into two. What if that extends indefinitely? Well it can’t – it’s my reality. Oh all right, be critical. Is there a way that a core concept gets wrapped into other tasks? Creativity comes in handy here… the point is get the students interested in doing something and you’ve won. They’ll learn, you’ll learn and be amazed with whatever they do. I can guarantee it. But the teacher in the equation has to be able to motivate, and pique that curiosity.

2. Mandatory courses like maths and communications should be folded into each course – so there’s no more “irrelevant” courses. Sure, we all know that a good communication course is worth it’s weight in gold. Of course, we recognize that after working with someone who couldn’t communicate their way out of a wet paper bag. Some of these basic, soft skills can be taught online with profs acting as tutors. Or better still, make sure the students have those skill before setting foot in a classroom.

3. Speaking of classrooms, keep them. Don’t for one minute think that you can do away with them. Students, faculty, hell, people love places to congregate and talk with others about whatever excites them. And sometimes that’s not the subject you’re teaching in class. Oh well. Those social connections are crucial.

4. Be kind to faculty who do a good job, work hard and devote a lot of effort and work to make things good for the student. It’s not always about pay, sometimes it’s as simple as recognition. This is so easy to do, and rarely is it done. Why? Why have I seen several people who were great teachers leave the profession? Because they can’t make ends meet or they have a sense that it will never get better for them as there’s so many people in front of them in the seniority list. Or, even worse, they see the politics in the way and have no real hold out for hope.

5. Tie tuition costs to cost of living and subsidize the rest through governments of all levels. It’s a shame that we’re running higher education into the ground with the idea that we’re churning out a commodity rather than empowering people. If I was a conspiracy theorist, I’d say of course they don’t want you to think, just to make better widgets on the line… but that’s too cynical for even me. At least I hope….

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