So far I’m enjoying The Digital Scholar, and it’s making me think about the place technology has in teaching now, where we’re going, and what we can learn from other fields/industries.
However, I call shenanigans on Weller’s book/music analogy. Honestly, I think this alarmist and defeatist approach is counterproductive. Teaching isn’t like publishing or music. Reading a book/newspaper or listening to a tape/cd/mp3 is generally done on one’s own, in one’s own environment. Not so with effective learning.
Instead, I think of theatre and the movies.
So, brief oversimplified history rundown:
About 100 years ago, movies appear. Everyone thinks theatre is done for. Nope.
Fast forward fifty years. TV appears. Everyone thinks the movies are dead. Also nope.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve stood in line at the movies quite a few times recently. I’ve seen really memorable plays I still talk about with friends.
Ok, sure, it’s a more elitist system today. Plays are often very expensive, movies less so. (Though, come to think of it, where can one see a play for cheap? That’s right: Colleges.)
Point is, TV and now streaming haven’t killed live theatre at all. It hasn’t killed the movies, either. Seeing a movie in a dark room with a bunch of strangers and sticky floors has charms that TV just can’t replicate. Bottom line: for me the communal experience makes for a more immersive experience. I don’t check my iPhone when I’m watching in that dark room. I feed off the other members of the audience, just like they feed off me. At home, I’m gonna use my TiVO to pause, I’m gonna play with my phone and listen for my 3yo’s voice.
I really think learning is more similar to this model. Yes, you can learn on your own. We’ve all done it. But it’s much easier to do it within a community, and with a leader to make sure you don’t get lost on tangents or miss important information. This is exactly why I signed up for DoOO in the first place.
Plus, in this analogy, I haven’t even gotten to the extras (campus amenities for colleges, special watching experience for the movies) or credentialing/cachet of a good school. (I have no idea what the corollary would be in my half-baked analogy.)
Anyway, let’s not give up on colleges just yet, ok? How about we wait and see if MOOCs are all they’re cracked up to be? My guess: they’re not. Maybe I’ll talk about that more in my next post.
I’m fascinated by your movie analogy, and I am wondering if the move to VHS, Laser Disc, and then DVD, and now streaming effected the movie industry box office of the last century in real number from the 20s and 30s compared to the 90s and 00s.
I see the disaggregation of film as something more than a communal experience—in many ways a home experience—might suggest that industry is similar to what Weller is arguing. I particularly miss the single screen film experiences of my childhood, and spend many hours being nostalgic for them, but at the same time I am wondering if the digital push in the film industry (a marketshare that now pales in comparison to video games) might not have killed it, but it may have changed it in important ways.
I love this analogy. I’ve heard a similar one with radio then TV then VCRs/DVD players- they are all still around and have different strengths that the others can’t replicate.
I agree Andi. I like the movies for the same reasons you state, and the movie industry is booming, not dying. But for some movies I prefer to stay home and watch in my living room–either because I can wait til it comes out on DVD, or it’s not really worth the 50 bucks or so for tickets popcorn and a babysitter to see in the theater. Might MOOCs function in this way for education–for some sorts of instruction the masses might prefer a MOOC, but in other cases would choose a more personal(ized) setting ? I read somewhere the speculation that in the future there will only be a handful of universities worldwide, serving millions of students in this way. Really?
I do think there is a value to MOOCs. There ARE things that you can learn online. I just don’t think those items are as common as people surmise. To go back to the movie analogy:
Do you have Netflix? If you’re anything like me, you have dozens of movies in your queue. I only watch one of those movies very, very rarely. And when I do, I tend to only half pay attention.
Yes, I’m more choosy in what I see at the movies. Like you, I have to deal with babysitting, so it’s not a cheap proposition. But that investment means I savor it, and think about it, and generally respect the experience more.
So can we supplement courses with MOOCs? (for instance, that explain the use of apostrophes. That would be lovely.) I would say yes.
But are they going to replace colleges? Not a chance.