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Entrepreneurship
An entrepreneur can be defined as someone who is in control of
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Preparing For Your Job Interview: What You Need To Know To Be Successful
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Student Leadership Program Should Create Future Knowledge Workers and Deliver Positive ROI
Leadership is a popular topic both in the business and education worlds. The main reason for this popularity is that effective leadership is a primary factor for the success of any organization. By implementing leadership at the middle school and...
The No-Thunder Approach to Quietly Influence Others
What you want done, gets done when you put your people first. They'll reward the sacrifice you make for them by making your reality, theirs. Start with a vision. Execute with a purpose. Yield the right of way.
Relinquish your need for power to...
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Do You Want Ketchup With Your Degree, Or Can You Beat McEducation?
Do You Want Ketchup With Your Degree, Or Can You Beat
McEducation? Alex Heiphetz, Ph.D., President, AHG, Inc.
A short editorial published by Education Today in early October
of 2002 started a debate that is not settled to this time.
Moreover, in many regards it becomes sharper as distance
learning evolves. The argument is between two principally
different approaches to learning. On one side are advocates of
developing standardized courses that can be delivered easily and
cheaply by any educator, in any environment, to any student
body. In other words, these are advocates of commoditization of
education. They are opposed by proponents of education that is
highly specific to both educator's background and students'
needs. This education can promptly incorporate and respond to
newest scientific achievements and challenges. Sir John Daniel,
at the time UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education and
the author of the editorial, was the first to coherently
articulate the former position that can be reduced to the
following ideas:
Commoditization ... is a key process for bringing
prosperity to ordinary people... Commoditization of learning
material [is] a way to bring education to all.
Secret [to success] is to offer a limited range of
dishes as commodities that have the same look, taste and quality
everywhere.
Commoditizing education need not mean commercializing
education. The educational community should adopt the model of
the open source software movement. We can imagine a future in
which teachers and institutions make their courseware and
learning materials freely available on the web. Anyone else can
translate and adapt them for local use provided they make their
new version freely available too.
When products become commodities there is fierce price
competition between manufacturers and profit margins are
squeezed. Producers hate this and industries often have to
restructure, but consumers benefit greatly.
Concisely written in a lively language with comparisons drawn
between McDonald's restaurants and educational institutions,
this article apparently touched a raw nerve of educational
community around the world. Many of the educators criticized Sir
John Daniel for "consumeristic" approach to education, where
process of learning does not differ from the process of
purchasing food. This approach is characterized by very narrow
vision of the educational process that sees learning in the
first place as the consequence of the provision of data and
materials. (See, for example, response by Jan Visser, President,
Learning Development Institute, and Member of the International
Board of Standards for Training, Performance and Instruction --
http://www.learndev.org/dl/SenseNonsenseMcDo.pdf). Others
criticized implicit one-size-fits-all approach; "the assumption
that there are people who can think and people who can, at most,
apply or adapt what "thinkers" come up with". (See an excellent
compilation at
http://www.swaraj.org/shikshantar/mceducationforall.htm).
Interestingly (but not surprisingly), all the protestations did
not do much good. Established institutions expand their distance
learning programs with only intermittent success.
Commoditization remains one of the main concerns among educators
as a number of newcomers to the educational field offering any
and all degrees unbelievably fast, conspicuously easy and really
cheap
grows year over year. And Sir John Daniel continues his
labors as a President and CEO of the Commonwealth of Learning -
a Canada-based "intergovernmental organisation that was created
by Commonwealth Heads of Government to encourage the development
and sharing of open learning and distance education knowledge,
resources and technologies" (see
http://www.col.org/jdaniel.htm). The question, therefore,
arises - is McEducation really the only alternative? Perhaps, in
terms of the restaurant analogy, there is a place and
opportunity for both McDonald's of education, and other eating
places, with better, more specialized cuisine. Cheap, fast,
bland education might indeed be a solution when that is what you
need, or, at least, what you are ready to accept. Specialized,
advanced knowledge education cannot be duplicated easily, if at
all. It requires educators to be professionals in two fields
simultaneously: their academic field and education, and be
active in current research. These are the characteristics of
educational institutions that sometimes "lost in translation".
Cutting edge knowledge can manifest itself only if instructor
uses his or her personal research and experience. This is
something not available in a generic textbook and video. You
cannot beat McDonald's at its game, but is it your game? Your
students will much rather appreciate unique specialized
knowledge you can share with them. This is your institution's
trademark strength. Translate this traditional strength into the
language and tools of distance learning. Our experience working
with educational institutions and corporate training departments
alike shows maximum enrollment, highest retention rate and
highest student satisfaction in courses that use courseware
prepared by educators based on their own research and
experience. This courseware might include printed materials,
audio on CDs, as well as video presentations on DVDs. Two latter
formats (audio and video) can be also accessed as streaming
audio and video served by a web server. These materials
obviously must reflect the current state of science. Textbooks
student purchase in a book store reflect data and methodology
that are at least two -- three years old, in most cases more
than that. Generally available educational video is often ten or
more years old. Today it is unacceptable. Current technology
does not require you to produce courseware by thousands copies
and use it over the period of several years with few, if any
changes. Both printed materials, and audio / video can and
should be updated by educators to each course and produced
on-demand. They will provide students today's data and
methodology at an angle that is specific to your course and
student body. Technology allows you to take competition out of
realm of commoditization ("who can provide me with the cheapest
degree") into the realm of value ("what education is most
valuable for me"). Experience shows that this is not the field
where McEducators want to compete.
###
About the author:
Dr. Alex Heiphetz received Ph.D. in Geophysics from the
University of Pittsburgh in 1994. In 1997 he founded a software
and consulting company AHG, Inc. specializing in document
management solutions. In 2003 the company opened Delta L
Printing facility to utilize AHG's experience in electronic
document management and ordering, on-demand printing and digital
media production. Dr. Heiphetz can be reached by e-mail
alex.heiphetz@deltaLprinting.com
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