In the second week of my distance education class we focused on the "industrialization theory" propounded by Peters. The essence of this theory is that many elements of industrialization were implemented in education, without regard to their pedagogical effects. In Learning and teaching in distance education, Peters emphasizes, that to industrialize something means “careful planning, division of labor, costly development, and objectivization” (112). For example, industrialization brought to a division of labor. Some people designing curriculum, others printing it, other presenting it. The focus was now on mass production and mass enrollment, and distance education became "the most industrialized form of education" in that it is specifically designed (in many cases) to educate as many students as possible using the least amount of resources.
In our class discussion the general view of industrialization was negative, in that students may be viewed more as objects, and there was a general negative sentiment (at least that is what I perceived). Peters himself did not say that the industrialization of education was a good thing.
Charles Graham pointed out though that as we look at these various theories it is easy to tear them apart, and that a more useful idea may be to see how parts of these theories can be used for good. As I have been thinking about the readings and class discussions, I have asked myself, "What important advantages do "industrialized resources" bring to education? For example, the distribution of General Conference .mp3s via the Church's website was done through the process of division of labor, there is no customization, and the goal is to maximize distribution. Is this bad?
As I think about various distance education opportunities that I am familiar with, the "industrialization" parts of them do not concern me. For example, I have recently downloaded lectures on "the psychology of happiness," "use of open objects" "copyright" and "statistics." All of these are topics I'm interested in and it does not concern me that I do not know the professor and cannot make personal contact. If it were not for the industrialization I would not be able to access this information.
On the other hand, I very much appreciate the opportunity I have to work with some of my current professors in a "community of practice" of sorts, that would not be an option with these other distance approaches. My point is that the industrialization of education is not "bad" nor "good." What I gained from the readings and class discussion is that those designing distance education need to carefully consider industrialization issues and design their materials appropriately.
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3 comments:
The primary goals in the industrial model of education seem to be access and cost effectiveness.
These are two of the many goals or priorities that one can have when creating distance learning course and programs. For example, the Sloan-C consortium has published 5 pillars that they view as being essential:
http://www.sloanconsortium.org/effective/index.asp
http://www.sloanconsortium.org/5pillars
While I believe that efficiency, productivity, access etc. are important and perhaps foundational, I don't believe that they should be the ultimate priorities. They are in effect a building block or lower law that helps us to reach the more important goals of human learning and development.
I worry sometimes that too much of a focus on the issues that are of ultimate value within the industrial model can lead to loss of focus on what should be the actual goal.
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I also appreciated your introspection on the value you have experienced with being able to freely access so many resources. It may be worth talking a little about the differences between formal learning environments and informal learning environments. What you were talking about definitely seems to fit into the informal learning paradigm where I believe the industrial model focuses more on formal learning contexts.
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One last thought . . . I don't think that in this age of technological developments we have to think that issues of scale, efficiency, and productivity are incompatible with personalized or even high human-interaction learning experiences.
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