Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Revolution
I read a classmate’s blog in which she shared the general consensus seems to be that, while all acknowledge the tremendous opportunities Web 2.0 affords their field, few educators and educational institutions seem to be actually utilizing it - let alone to its fullest potential.
I too have noticed this recurring theme in much of the literature I have read on Web 2.0 and learning. The question is “Why not?” It occurred to me that it could be as simple an issue as the changing of the guard.
According to CNN Money Online from 6/17/2013, it appears that many college professors have delayed retirement due to the recent economic crisis (“Professors teach into their golden years” by Melanie Hicken). This means that younger professors are experiencing more difficulty in obtaining tenure track positions.
Today’s online version of The Chronicle of Higher Education, states:
“The American professoriate is aging. Six years ago, the last time the National Study of Postsecondary Faculty was completed by the Education Department, the average age for full-time professors was 49.6 (54 for tenured faculty members). In 1993, the average age was 48 (51.9 for tenured professors). Today it's not unusual for colleges to have faculty members teaching and working in their 70s, or even 80s”.
Clearly then, the majority of our higher ed teachers are pre-digital Natives and later. That implies the incumbent educators would have to learn new tricks, new teaching strategies and modify curriculum to be effective in an online environment.
As a student in this class it is obvious that several classmates spend much of their time online and working with different Web 2.0 tools. They are completely comfortable in this arena. Some of us, on the other hand, must grapple with learning new material, in new ways, in unfamiliar territory. That means those of us who are less tech savy, have a steeper learning curve.
Maybe, when the entire “Golden Generation” has disappeared from the world of academia, we will witness the educational revolution that has been predicted for over the past two decades. Opinions?
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I would argue that there is a blend of learning aptitudes. I have a lot of students who resist online work. They want to sit in a class room. So, if the premise that older faculty don't use Web 2.0, which raises the whole digital immigrants issue I took issue with a month ago, it really should not matter. I think the reality is that there are too many choices available, and too many individual preferences involved. There needs to be universal application that is broadly adopted for it to take off.
ReplyDeleteYou have a point about resistance from the students as well. Don't you think it should be left to the individual instructor to decide? In my other online class, the instructor assigned a concept map to be created in Inspiration. I was unfamiliar with the tool but found it easy and versatile. Several of my classmates belly-ached about how hard it was and ended up using tools that I think were a lot harder to manipulate. Even though the instructor provided the link to Inspiration, no one was penalized for using a different medium.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting topic. I agree with both of you. I didn't know professors were being forced to retire later on. And it makes sense that some students might be resistant to new web 2.0 tools. However, I still think that, with time, more and more educators, as well as students, will be leaning heavily on web 2.0 tools for education. I am sure that in the next decade (or even less) there will be more and more online courses available as well as (hopefully) more engaging and interactive activities for students (something asides from the usual lecture).
ReplyDeleteIt's been going on a lot longer than the past couple of decades. Since educational technologies have existed teachers have been trying to figure out how to use them. Once upon a time, moving pictures were thought to be the demise of the textbook. It's a deep-seated issue about how teaching and school are "supposed to" be, IMO. That, combined with teachers' lack of instructional design knowledge is what I think is the main problem. Thanks for following up my post with this one :)
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