On 10/12/10 1:16 PM, Ian Woollard wrote:
On 12/10/2010, David Gerard<dgerard(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
His agenda is to cut his wages bill.
(Vice-chancellors are not picked
for their fluffy goodwill to all humanity.) But this is the guy who
runs the business saying "holy crap we're fucked."
The thing is that
free sources of information have been available for
practically forever; they're called 'libraries'.
These are not
universally available or accessible. Rural areas and
third world countries have virtually no access. Maintaining a
comprehensive collection is frightfully expensive both in terms of
acquisition and storage. Funding libraries is not always seen as a
government priority. Many libraries need to divest themselves of much
older material just to make space.
They didn't replace the need for people known as
teachers/lecturers/tutors either, nor the need for examinations to
prove that people could actually do stuff, both of which are functions
provided by universities.
Lecturers in particular keep alive the bankrupt notion that you can
teach people by talking at them. One of the principles of education is
that learning requires the active participation of the learner. The
process of examination is a secondary one, and universities would be
well served if they could find a way to get rid of it. The master who
work with the students soon know which "actually do stuff."
So I suspect, at the moment, that he's being
pessimistic.
Still, in theory, a really good automated educational computer based
learning system could change all that I suppose, but I've never heard
of one that good.
I suppose that "automated educational computer based learning system"
form a major part of Geeks' unrealistic dreams. It's unfortunate that
universities have been overrun by the rampant philistinism of those who
see them solely as an avenue toward a better job. That would make them
no better than glorified trade schools with a pompous name.
The crucial role of the university is the expansion and preservation of
knowledge. This is not just the passing on of knowledge; it is the
provision of a forum for the evaluation and criticism of that
knowledge. To an extent that can be done among peers in the absence of
a recognized master. Masters are still valuable, but not
pontificators. Universities need to redefine themselves in response to
the threat posed on them by the internet, and that requires a serious
review of their economics.
Ec