Scott Simmerman describes the resistance of the traditional professoriate
to internet-mediated teaching and learning.
I've been working with the campus and its professors , on campus and at a
distance, since I was 21 years old, and I am considerably older than that
now. I have lived with the resistance in many guises: resistance to
correspondence study, radio instruction, telecourses, work and service
experience, independent study.
Now my company, THE ELECTRONIC UNIVERSITY NETWORK, is joining forces with
two fine technology companies and reinventing our work as THE PANGAEA
NETWORK. See:
http://www.pangaeanetwork.com/tour
Here is a suggestion to Scott, and all those, who have encountered the
resistance of which Scott speaks:
Respect it. Assume that is based on important values that the faculty
seeks to preserve, and base your approach on appreciation of those values.
Scott says this:
>I think this speaks for itself. It certainly represents my personal
>experiences working with many of these "professors" of all sorts, over
>the years, who present themselves as experts and whose preferred delivery
>technique is the Lecture. Is this resistance or is it merely a
>reluctance to become objective about one's own preferred behavior and the
>fear of allowing oneself to lose control (to gain effectiveness and
>impact).
>
>There is no question that the internet and related technologies are a
>much more effective learning technique that puts control of the
>fingertips of the student. The ability to link to information of interest
>is fantastic.
This is an understandable, and quite typical, analysis of the behavior of
the professoriate.
They are Luddites who resist technology and any sort of change,
pseudoexperts guarding medieval turf, using an long discredited
communication technology--the lecture. They fear being displaced by a
superior form of instruction--the Internet--and that is why they resist,
and walk out of presentations.
I'm sure Scott wasn't this blunt, but Scott's position is the quite
standard set of beliefs of those proposing to substitute the new
communication technologies for the ancient methods of oral instruction and
face-to-face dialog.
Here is the beginning of alternative reading.
The professors know that each medium of communication, beginning with the
book, turns the attention of students and citizens away from each other
and isolates them: the student with the book, or listening to the radio,
or watching tv, or studying a computer screen, is not part of a community
of dialog but a solitary.
The professor knows that the college is one of the places that has
remained faithful to the idea of community, of students and scholars
engaging each other in communities of learning.
The professor knows that the lecture has survived because each academic
discipline is a "discourse community," and the problem for students is
learning how to talk and write as sociologists, or philosophers, or
economists, talk and write. The lecture is one way that professors
demonstrate to students how sociologists, or political scientists, or
philosophers, think and talk.
The professors fear that the Web and Internet folks disrespect the
traditions of the university, and believe that learning is all about
"multimedia," or "delivering" instruction, as if learning can be delivered
to ones front door as one delivers the morning newspaper. The professor
believe that the media folk are technocrats who will further erode
community, and have students becomes isolates, communicating with images
on a screen rather than engaging in dialog with their mentors and with
each other.
The professors are wrong.
We who are working to use computers and modems and the international
communications systems respect the traditions and the accomplishments of
our colleges and universities.
We do not intend to contribute further to the erosion of dialog and
community.
We believe that the new communication technologies are the first in
history that are truly dialogic and conversational, and we hope to use
them to widen the dialog of learning and the creation of learning
communities to include all of those now excluded, all of those who can not
come to a place called campus but want teachers and colleagues and fellow
students...
We want to extend and enrich the dialog of learning, not end it....
Steve Eskow
Dr. Steve Eskow, President
The Pangaea Network
147 Castilian Drive
Santa Barbara, CA 93117
Phone: 805-961-8700, ext 255
--"Dr. Steve Eskow" <dreskow@magicnet.net>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>