Should professors be replaced by a computer screen?

Cathy Davidson,  the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies and Ruth F. Devarney Professor of English at Duke University, has just published a post on the HASTAC site that I recommend to all. Its conclusion is clearly conveyed in its attention-grabbing title: If We Profs Don't Reform Higher Ed, We'll Be Re-Formed (and we won't like it). Her message is further underlined by inclusion of the slide (above) which closes many of her presentations.

Davidson discusses four reasons why there is currently a great deal of discussion about replacing professors with computer screens:

(1) Too many students worldwide want to go to college to be able to accommodate them all.

(2)  College in the U.S. costs too much

(3) Online education promises to be lucrative to for-profits

(4)  Our current educational system (kindergarten through professional school) is outmoded. 

 Davidson makes excellent cases for each of these points in her post. She closes by briefly describing some of the efforts she has encountered in her travels that are beginning to address some of these issues. Rather than weakening her excellent arguments by attempting to summarize them, I will simply recommend that you read the original.

I would add another reason to this excellent list that is a slight modification of the 3rd point above:

(5) Online education promises to be lucrative to nonprofits

Just as Davidson says that (3) really bothers her, I will say that (5) really bothers me. Many of the traditional nonprofit universities and colleges are jumping into the online business because they see it as a new source of much needed revenue. As a former administrator, I understand the need for new revenues as much as anyone, so I am a fan of increasing revenues. My concern is that in most cases the online initiatives are not being done in a way that incorporates the online education into the educational mission of the institution - it is a financial, not educational advance. As a result, little emphasis is being placed on educational effectiveness in many of the new online programs. I have great fear that when the educational outcomes of many of these new programs are evaluated, they will be shown to be relatively ineffective. This result will lead many to conclude that online education is intrinsically inferior, when all it will really show is that inferior pedagogy leads to inferior learning. Nonetheless, such a negative, albeit flawed, analysis could be a big setback in the much needed expansion of effective online learning in higher education.   

 

Comments

[Top 10 IB Schools in India]

I don't think so. I consent that trainers should work together to change the system and that teachers or professor should stand above technological innovation.

[Varoondev]

I believe in MOOCs, it challenges the status coo. Knowledge is not owned by anyone.I do not live the US but like the idea of giving everyone who wants too, to learn. Even its not for credits, knowledge is useless unless it is applied to improve the standard of living. If higher ed is available to persons worldwide, think about how faster we will progress overall and achieve more rapid improvements in Science and Technology.

[M. Dinorah Fix-Padilla]

According to Steve Jobs technology by itself cannot solve current problems in American’s education (Rotherham,2012). I agree that instructors should work together to reform the system and that educators should stay ahead of technology and the new developments in the field.

Rotherham, Andrew J.,(2012).Can computers replace teachers? Retrieved from
http://www.changinghighereducation.com

[Muvaffak GOZAYDIN]

Let us do not depend on MOOCs too much.

But online courses and degrees by ELITE universities is a must for the HE in the world .
We are lucky today that MIT, Harvard, Berkeley are willing to ptovide online courses at a small fee. Be careful they are smart they know the cost of online is nill if attracted millions of students therefore they do not need to charge more than $ 10 per course. Still they can make money for improvements.

[Muvaffak GOZAYDIN]

Screens are also made by professors.
So we need professors but at a smaller number and much better knowledge and skills so that they can disseminate their treasure to millions .