Not on the internet: Ruminations of a pedagogical curmudgeon

This presentation, informed by a sociological perspective and many years in the classroom, considers the electronic revolution as just that: pervasive, transformative, and, one assumes, enduring. Revolutions also result frequently in the questioning or casting aside of traditions. Although in many, if not most, cases this means betterment of some kind, such is not always the case.  Likewise, responses to revolutions, if not outright counter-revolt, may at least involve some questioning of outcomes.

The electronic revolution, especially during the last 30 or so years meets the criteria mentioned above; It is everywhere, has dramatically altered communication, and is here to stay.  Although a complete Luddite withdrawal is rare, concern with some outcomes is more common. Recent dramatic examples include phone hacking for prurient media interests or, more sinister, monitoring by government. A darker side of social media is suggested by the “experiments” conducted by Facebook. Thomas Jones in the London Review of Books, notes:

                        "the real purpose of Facebook is to harvest, organise, and store as much personal

                        information about as many people as possible, to be flogged, ready-sifted and stratified to

                        advertisers: they’re the ones the company provides a (highly lucrative) service to,

                        while making a great show of providing a free service to the people it likes to call

                        ‘users’. We aren’t Facebook’s customers; we’re its product"

These concerns are here applied to higher education, especially as it has affected the classroom. The strong expectation is that these rooms themselves need to be “smart” as well as their inhabitants. A failure in these systems can bring things to a screeching (or beeping) halt. The capacity for instantaneousness creates demands for immediate and constant feedback. Online courses proliferate, with MOOCs as a logical byproduct. Their evil stepbrother, the for-profit university, lurks literally just around the corner, providing “competition”, the marketplace elixir. Higher education becomes yet another commodity. Things once thought to be intangible are now subject to numeric evaluation; accountability emphasizes the counting, and external forces of assessment require “measuring up.”

 Certain concessions must, of course, be made. These technologies are amazing, extraordinary, helpful, and offer many conveniences. For all the jaw-dropping capacities of this technology however, this presentation suggests something of value (and trust) is getting lost in all of this, including the sovereignty that professors once enjoyed.