Why Online Programs Fail, and 5 Things We Can Do About It
April 08, 2013 | Filed in: Online Learning
by Sean Michael Morris and Jesse Stommel
The failure of online education programs is not logistical, nor political, nor economic: it’s cultural, rooted in our perspectives and biases about how learning happens and how the internet works (these things too often seen in opposition). For learning to change drastically -- a trajectory suggested but not yet realized by the rise of MOOCs -- teaching must change drastically. And in order for that to happen, we must conceive of the activity of teaching, as an occupation and preoccupation, in entirely new and unexpected ways. We must unseat ourselves, unnerve ourselves. Online learning is uncomfortable, and so educators must become uncomfortable in their positions as teachers and pedagogues. And the administration of online programs must follow suit.
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The failure of online education programs is not logistical, nor political, nor economic: it’s cultural, rooted in our perspectives and biases about how learning happens and how the internet works (these things too often seen in opposition). For learning to change drastically -- a trajectory suggested but not yet realized by the rise of MOOCs -- teaching must change drastically. And in order for that to happen, we must conceive of the activity of teaching, as an occupation and preoccupation, in entirely new and unexpected ways. We must unseat ourselves, unnerve ourselves. Online learning is uncomfortable, and so educators must become uncomfortable in their positions as teachers and pedagogues. And the administration of online programs must follow suit.
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Online Learning: A User’s Guide to Forking Education
January 08, 2013 | Filed in: Online Learning
by Jesse Stommel
At exactly this moment, online education is poised (and threatening) to replicate the conditions, courses, structures, and hierarchical relations of brick-and-mortar industrial-era education. Cathy N. Davidson argued exactly this at her presentation, “Access Demands a Paradigm Shift,” at the 2013 Modern Language Association conference. The mistake being made, I think, is a simple and even understandable one, but damning and destructive nonetheless. Those of us responsible for education (both its formation and care) are hugging too tightly to what we've helped build, its pillars, policies, economies, and institutions. None of these, though, map promisingly into digital space. If we continue to tread our current path, we'll be left with a Frankenstein's monster of what we now know of education. This is the imminent destruction of our educational system of which so many speak: taking an institution inspired by the efficiency of post-industrial machines and redrawing it inside the machines of the digital age. Education rendered into a dull 2-dimensional carbon copy, scanned, faxed, encoded and then made human-readable, an utter lack of intellectual bravery.
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At exactly this moment, online education is poised (and threatening) to replicate the conditions, courses, structures, and hierarchical relations of brick-and-mortar industrial-era education. Cathy N. Davidson argued exactly this at her presentation, “Access Demands a Paradigm Shift,” at the 2013 Modern Language Association conference. The mistake being made, I think, is a simple and even understandable one, but damning and destructive nonetheless. Those of us responsible for education (both its formation and care) are hugging too tightly to what we've helped build, its pillars, policies, economies, and institutions. None of these, though, map promisingly into digital space. If we continue to tread our current path, we'll be left with a Frankenstein's monster of what we now know of education. This is the imminent destruction of our educational system of which so many speak: taking an institution inspired by the efficiency of post-industrial machines and redrawing it inside the machines of the digital age. Education rendered into a dull 2-dimensional carbon copy, scanned, faxed, encoded and then made human-readable, an utter lack of intellectual bravery.
Read More...#digped Storify: The State of Higher Education and Its Future
December 10, 2012 | Filed in: #digped
by Jesse Stommel
The announcement for this #digped suggested that “there is a deeper discussion underlying our anxieties (and excitement) about MOOCs -- a discussion about the efficacy of open education, online learning, and digital pedagogies. A discussion about the future of education.” On December 7, we focused our #digped discussion on issues large and small, loud and quiet, the questions we keep circling around and also the harder ones, the ones that unnerve us. Even before the discussion began, an important issue was brought up by Lee Skallerup Bessette in the comments on the original #digped announcement: "I don't think we can talk about what higher educations 'values' until we face how they treat the people who 'deliver' their 'product.'" The Storify of this discussion includes frank observations about the state of higher education and practical tips for how we can work to help it more ethically and productively evolve.
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The announcement for this #digped suggested that “there is a deeper discussion underlying our anxieties (and excitement) about MOOCs -- a discussion about the efficacy of open education, online learning, and digital pedagogies. A discussion about the future of education.” On December 7, we focused our #digped discussion on issues large and small, loud and quiet, the questions we keep circling around and also the harder ones, the ones that unnerve us. Even before the discussion began, an important issue was brought up by Lee Skallerup Bessette in the comments on the original #digped announcement: "I don't think we can talk about what higher educations 'values' until we face how they treat the people who 'deliver' their 'product.'" The Storify of this discussion includes frank observations about the state of higher education and practical tips for how we can work to help it more ethically and productively evolve.
Read More...The Future of Higher Education: a #digped Discussion
December 05, 2012 | Filed in: #digped
by Sean Michael Morris, Valerie Robin, Pete Rorabaugh, and Jesse Stommel
Over the last twelve months, Hybrid Pedagogy has published 74 articles by 16 authors. It’s no surprise for us to report that the articles we’ve published about MOOCs have been some of our most-read articles of the year. The MOOC is not a bandwagon, though, but something needing careful interrogation with “discernment but not judgment.” Jesse argues in “Online Learning: a Manifesto,” that “to get lost entirely in the stories being told about MOOCs is to miss the forest for the trees, so to speak.” There is a deeper discussion underlying our anxieties (and excitement) about MOOCs -- a discussion about the efficacy of open education, online learning, and digital pedagogies. A discussion about the future of education.
Read More...
Over the last twelve months, Hybrid Pedagogy has published 74 articles by 16 authors. It’s no surprise for us to report that the articles we’ve published about MOOCs have been some of our most-read articles of the year. The MOOC is not a bandwagon, though, but something needing careful interrogation with “discernment but not judgment.” Jesse argues in “Online Learning: a Manifesto,” that “to get lost entirely in the stories being told about MOOCs is to miss the forest for the trees, so to speak.” There is a deeper discussion underlying our anxieties (and excitement) about MOOCs -- a discussion about the efficacy of open education, online learning, and digital pedagogies. A discussion about the future of education.
Read More...Who Are We? Scholarly Identity Under Interrogation
March 03, 2012 | Filed in: Profession
by Pete Rorabaugh
On my first day as a student-teacher in a public high school (1999), my mentor teacher left me in the room at 8:20 a.m. to take a call in the front office. As students began filing into school for the day and eventually into her room, the minutes dragged on. It was 8:30. The bell rang. More minutes. Eventually, at 8:35, one of the students in the Senior Literature class said: “Are you our sub?” I was wearing a tie, but I was not the sub. I hadn’t taught a day in my life.
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On my first day as a student-teacher in a public high school (1999), my mentor teacher left me in the room at 8:20 a.m. to take a call in the front office. As students began filing into school for the day and eventually into her room, the minutes dragged on. It was 8:30. The bell rang. More minutes. Eventually, at 8:35, one of the students in the Senior Literature class said: “Are you our sub?” I was wearing a tie, but I was not the sub. I hadn’t taught a day in my life.
Read More...