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DDM part 4 from Dan



Being the lucky one to do one all on my own, here goes:
 
Digital Diploma Mills part 4 - "Rehearsal for the Revolution"
David Noble
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Granted, I am analyzing this article after two hours sleep, but still I'm not quite sure what the problem is. Noble is constantly bitching about how courses not taught within the "university" environment are cold, unpersonal things. In the beginning of the fourth part to the Digital Diploma Mills paper, he is very careful to distinguish between "education" and "training".
 
Education is a process that necessarily entails an interpersonal (not merely interactive) relationship between people -- student and teacher... The actual content of the educational
experience is defined by this relationship between people and the chief determinant of quality education is the establishment and enrichment of this relationship."
 
Yet, I must say that the majority of classes I have taken over the years (undergraduate and graduate), have all lacked this "connection." Is Noble living in a dream world? I think so. I think that digital/correspondence classes could greatly improve the way I have spent my time. Is there not material which just basically begs to be memorized? In many cases, the amount of information one could throw at a person is increased, as is their interactivity, when a course is prepackaged for mass distribution.
 
He later attacks the compartimentalization (sp?) of courses. An "assortment of fragmented "course materials": syllabi, lectures, lessons, exams." But he presents this as the opposite of how people should be taught. Nobel likes generalizations - these are simply one teaching style. In England, the popular collegiate teaching style is to give the student a list of books to read, tell him when his professor will be lecturing (and don't you dare interrupt) and expect a term paper in a few months time. That in a nutshell is the British process. There are less "course materials" but at the same time, about as much of a teacher-student relationship as one has with a correspondence course.
 
One of his points was to say that the Universities were going the way of the Diploma Mills. If this is true, then why can I not speed up my "learning" and get out of Carolina sooner? The classes are not designed around my learning speeds, needs, or constraints. A digital diploma is. And it is this that, in my mind, helps to increase the prestigue (sp?) of Universities. They're just so damn inconvenient! Anyone who manages to get through them deserve the extra praise. ;-)
 
Dan