Dear Jodi, list,<br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
Does saying, "well, people can teach themselves online!" provide further justification for the neoliberal dismantling of public education?<br></blockquote><div><br><br>That is a very interesting point and, at first sight, it looks like a good guess. <br>
<br>Plenty of evidence, though, just points to the opposite way. I'll try and provide the argument and two examples: one in Uruguay and the other one Europe (as a whole).<br><br>The effect of ICTs and all the process of digitizing information and communications does not make things absolutely easier, but actually shifts the stress from the "hardware" to the "software". In other words, we freed walls, paper and people from being the recipients for information. This means that (ideally) now everybody can access any kind of content any kind of person online.<br>
<br>The problem then is how to use all this much power to process information efficiently and use it effectively. The stress is now in processing, not in accessing. And this is where curation, guidance, mentorship... come more needed than ever. <br>
<br>In a very simple example, we made ancient Egypt culture available to every Briton by sending large amounts of archaeological remains to London. But we now need a British Museum and all their scientists and guides to lead us through their halls. <br>
<br>There effectively is a much lesser need for lecturing, and a much higher need for teaching.<br><br>The first example is Proyecto Ceibal (<a href="http://ceibal.edu.uy/" target="_blank">http://ceibal.edu.uy/</a> and an English blog, outdated, but with interesting info <a href="http://olpc-ceibal.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://olpc-ceibal.blogspot.com/</a>), the 1-to-1 laptop project in Uruguay that is using OPLC's XO computers. Unlike most other OPLC projects, Proyecto Ceibal began at the community level by firstly addressing the human factor. The laptop that enabled "people [to] teach themselves online" actually required a huge effort in community building, training for trainers, open educational resources creation and many other sub-projects to "accompany" the learner in their learning paths.<br>
<br>The second example is the new European Higher Education Area (EHEA), also known as the Bologna Process (<a href="http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/highereducation/EHEA2010/BolognaPedestrians_en.asp">http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/highereducation/EHEA2010/BolognaPedestrians_en.asp</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bologna_process">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bologna_process</a>). To make a (very) long story short, the Bologna Process aims at (1) establishing a common Higher Education system in Europe that fosters mobility (of students and professionals) and (2) shift a good amount of learning workload to the student, by decreasing lectures and increasing seminars and work at home and libraries (please do excuse me for this rough simplification).<br>
<br>Though the Internet is never mentioned (not that I remember at least) it is obvious that it is present in everyone's minds. Indeed, since the process began many many many European universities have set up online learning platforms to support this shift from the teacher to the student, by providing digital resources, establishing new channels of communication with the teacher and amongst students, etc.<br>
<br>Now, to the point. Unlike what many (especially within the political sphere) expected about cost reduction of public education, what we are actually witnessing is (a) a shift of costs and (b) in the very short term, an increase of costs due to the setting up of platforms and their contents and the adaptation of the traditional system.<br>
<br>Does this contradict what was said in the previous message? I guess not. On the one hand, because we are not taking into account the cost of "hardware" (build new walls, print new paper, move teachers over the territory), which in urban areas is already deployed, but not in rural/poorer ones. On the other hand, because sometimes it is a matter of this-or-nothing, that is, the costs of one of the options are infinite.<br>
<br>Happy week end for everyone from a not-very-sunny-today Barcelona :)<br><br>i.<br></div><div><br>--<br>Ismael Peña-López<br>Department of Law and Political Science<br>Open University of Catalonia<br><br><a href="http://ictlogy.net" target="_blank">http://ictlogy.net</a><br>
Av. Tibidabo 39-43<br>08035 Barcelona<br> </div></div><br>