[LINK] Broadband for a Broad Land

[Frank O'Connor]

At 12:54 PM +1100 3/1/11, Tom Worthington wrote:
>
>>I'd argue that education needs a new application/standard to 
>>supplement the Web. Something built from the ground up to be 
>>interactive with the student, responsive to their inputs and needs, 
>>and malleable enough and easy enough to use for the teacher to add 
>>content and make the necessary tweaks and changes to meet their 
>>students' needs. ...
>
>Building new approaches from the ground up is not cheap or easy. As 
>an example, the Australian National University is spending $3.8M on 
>its Engineering 'Hubs And Spokes' Project: 
><http://www.deewr.gov.au/Ministers/Gillard/Media/Releases/Pages/Article_081211_140416.aspx>.
>
>This is starting to produce useful results: 
><http://engnet.anu.edu.au/DEpeople/Kim.Blackmore/papers/Ascilite2010.pdf>.
>
>My approach has been to adapt existing educational approaches and
>technologies. That way I am more likely to get courses approved and 
>have the resources to build them. With this I make the e-learning 
>look as much like a traditional course as possible.

Mmmm ... but I was talking about making online education more 
responsive to the individual needs of teachers and students rather 
than the current standard Web based rote approach.

Take for example teaching a unit in Geography. By their very nature 
no students are equal to other students.

Now if they were for example studying the geography of Indonesia or 
PNG or whatever, wouldn't it be nice if the brilliant students could 
also access geological studies on volcanism and other stuff on 
continental drift, and multimedia presentations on rock brissance and 
the like from where they are. And wouldn't it be cool if the app 
allowed teachers and students to link in other topics to to 
topographical and other geographic bits, to give then a less myopic 
view of the study of Indonesia (e.g. detailed studies on language, 
culture, religion etc) than our current educational methodology and 
standardised courseware does. Amnd wouldn't it be neat if the app 
could detect slower students  and flag them for the teacher's 
attention ... so they could be helped before trouble sets in. I mean, 
it's the 20% at the bottom that need the teacher's attention ... the 
others simply need guidance through the curriculum, or enrichment 
because the curriculum would be too easy and boring for them.

The point I suppose is that relying purely on a restricted 
standardised  Web based approach simply perpetuates the 19th Century 
factory oriented educational rut we still seem to be base din, and 
doesn't stimulate young minds like they should be stimulated, and 
further doesn't flag the minority who need attention to meet 
standards. To paraphrase Peter Benchley, young minds (rather than 
sharks) are learning (rather than eating) machines ... but we don't 
seem to be serving them very well.

>
>>If the changes happen at the application level the amount of 
>>capital and other investment costs by schools should be minimal. ...
>
>Schools have been designed on the assumption that students spend 
>most of the time in classes. The schools will need fewer small 
>classrooms and more large spaces. Universities have been built with 
>more large lecture theatres than will be needed. More small rooms 
>will be needed as well as "leanring commons". Remodelling these 
>campuses will not be easy or cheap.

As I said, many of the assumptions are very 19th Century, and really 
need to be looked at. If we accept developmental theorists like 
Piaget and others (and I don't think that's being too radical) we 
really need to get away from the mass production aspect of education, 
and into something more geared for individual needs and interests 
whilst maintaining standards. With current technology we could do a 
lot to change this, but we're not ... we're continuing what Old 
Educational Empires have done for the last 150 years.

>
>The Victorian government had produced a useful set of publications 
>on                             the process of mapping from 
>pedagogical approaches to the design of learning spaces: "Victorian 
>School Design": 
><http://www.education.vic.gov.au/management/infrastructure/schooldesign.htm>.
>
>Take the example of a school with 500 students, which is a bit more 
>than the average of about 380 students per school in Australia: 
><http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/4221.0Main%20Features22009?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=4221.0&issue=2009&num=&view=>.
>
>Assume an average class size of 25, to make the maths easier (the 
>average is about 24 
><http://austcolled.com.au/notepad/article/class-size-vexed-question-or-huge-distraction>).
>
>So a school would require 20 classrooms each for 25 students, 
>assuming the students spent most of their time in class. If the 
>students now spend one fifth of their time in class, then only 4 
>classrooms will be needed. What will then be needed are other spaces 
>for 400 students, perhaps a commons for 200, and other smaller 
>spaces for 200.

You said it yourself in one of your replies ... the NBN will allow 
students, teachers and schools to engage from any numbers of venues, 
mediums and means. From school, from home, remotely ... on pads, 
phones, PC's and laptops (and probably a host of other means in the 
future). It will allow schools to rationalize content and service 
provision, not reinvent wheels, and utilize a heap of in rationally 
interlinked resources no matter where and when you want to access it.

Yeah ... things are happening, but only now with an NBN will ALL 
students in AUstralia have EQUAL access to the networked resources, 
and NOW is the time to be thinking of where we want this to do, of 
how we can helpt students do better, take the load of teachers (a 
heap of this reporting could be automated and generated without 
teacher input if the online resources and student databases were made 
accessible), make their jobs more fulfilling and make the educational 
infrastructure more responsive, efficient and effective.

That said, the Old Educational Empires still have a lo of grunt ... 
aided by the legions of bureaucrats that serve them. (About 40% of 
the education buck goes on the bureaucracy, reporting and Empire 
driven administration ... any way you look at it that is a waste ... 
but the recipients of the 40 cents in the dollar sincerely think they 
are adding value.)

Just my 2 cents worth ...