If NO, why not?
If YES, then what can we do about it, if anything?
Should they take over teaching?
You know my position, that we must change from lecturing to
interactive, students centered classes, as a mechanism to stop R2D2 from
taking over. What do you think??
In order to fan the flames a little more I have taken a quote from
Michael Margolis' paper "Brave New Universities". The web site where the
entire document may be accessed in at the end of the article.
Please reply to the list.
Regards,
Ted
tpanitz@cape.com
Michael Margolis (1997) clearly identifies the driving force behind the
commoditization of university instruction and the consequences this will
have on the future of teaching in the university. Margolis states the "
Market capitalism, not the Internet per se, is the force behind
developing the wired university". He believes that students will embrace
distance learning because of the financial benefits they will receive,
partially through reduced tuition and elimination of other expenses
associated with taking courses on college campuses. He states, "A
college degree from an accredited program will
suffice- the cheaper the better- as long as it increases a student's
chance of securing a decent first job to help pay back his or her loans.
The "high-tech" universities of the next century will be hailed as yet
another triumph of the free market. (p1)
In order to achieve economic nirvana universities will need to
implement actions to save money. Margolis states, " With proper
planning, the savings generated from eliminating lecture halls,
classrooms, and most undergraduate laboratories should be second only to
those realized from downsizing faculty and outsourcing courses." (p2)
In addition costly libraries and computer centers can be eliminated by
using on line, digitized libraries accessible through the internet.
The true intent of the technology companies is captured by Margolis
in the following quotes.
"The beauty of this power emerges not merely from customer
convenience, however. It offers better quality instruction as well. As
the Internet reaches a global market, local universities no longer need
to limit their course instruction to their own- and let's face it -
sometimes mediocre faculty, instead, they can offer choice among the
world's greatest instructor's online."
"Once arrangements for outsourcing the desired courses have been
made with the managers and instructors at the appropriate institutions,
local universities can effectively become franchises of greater
institutions. They can offer their customers the finest courses of
instruction from Harvard, Oxford or Heidelberg, or if their customers so
desire, from Hillside, Liberty Baptist or Motorola. And, because they
won't need to maintain many
faculty to teach on their own campuses, they can offer these courses at
a fraction of their present cost. The market will determine the best
courses to offer, and the economics of scale will afford even greater
savings." (p3)
"To sum up, then, the commodification of higher educational
training provides the impetus for reform of costly practices of American
universities. To survive in the global market universities need to
implement
four types of reform:
1. downsizing faculty by replacing classroom lectures with both
asynchronous and simultaneous sessions on the Internet;
2. minimizing the need for instructional laboratories, lecture
halls, and other physical spaces for teaching on campus ;
3. cutting research costs through the use of digital libraries and
networked computers, eliminating valueless scholarship, and charging a
fair price
for support services that universities formerly gave for free;
4. ending tenure as we know it and using appropriate economic
criteria to evaluate each professor's teaching, research and community
service. Finally, universities can supplement these reforms with
expanded investment in recreational facilities and in varsity athletic
enterprises." (p6)
In order to succeed with implementing all of these reforms,
university managers will have to overcome the troglodytes who resist
marketing higher education as a commodity. These reactionaries argue
that education in the arts and sciences is also an experience that
provides worthwhile non-material benefits that enrich a person's time,
and they often cite philosophies of education that run back at least to
Thomas Jefferson. In the global economy, however, customers see higher
education as training and
credentialing to secure jobs that provide better
remuneration. The American public understands
that every major endeavor- with the possible
exception of religion- needs to be evaluated on a
commercial basis." (p6)
Margolis, M. "Brave New Universities"
http:/www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue3_5/margolis/index.html
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Other sites of interest in this debate
David Noble articles
http://communication.ucsd.edu/dl/ddm1.html
http://communication.ucsd.edu/dl/ddm2.html
http://communication.ucsd.edu/dl/ddm3.html
Boyer Commission Report
http://www.sunysb.edu
( click on the Boyer Commission Report) or
http://notes.cc.sunysb.edu/Pres/boyer.nsf/
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