Content matters
Context matters, says Audrey Watters, in a recent conversation with T-509 class.
It made me thinking, that content matters as much. While technology is our everything it is not panacea. The core is the content. Brick and mortar. The solid content paired with appropriate technology will likely bring desirable outcome.
What about technology replacing us, reducing the quality of a true scholarship, fears David F. Nobel in Digital Diploma Mills: The Automation of Higher Education? I guess, this article moved my emotions the most.
Well, this slicing, dicing and mass production is possible in many fields and maybe true in the short run. I strongly believe, however, that the true scholarship and the solid content are at the heart of a valuable educational “package”, accompanied by technology. Technology alone won’t be able to carry out the intellectual value of scholarship. Similarly, scholarship without technology would be available to a much more limited number of learners. It is a healthy symbiosis of content and technology (with the content at its core) that keeps the impactful moving forward.
I also strongly believe in academics’ signature authorities in their fields. This cannot be taken away from them by the “machines”. If anything, with the help of technology, this scholarship will flourish, affording greater communities of learners benefit from the scholarship.
Carli
September 13, 2014 @ 10:53 pm
This is an interesting post. I agree that content is an important aspect of designing any course whether it is an in-person class for credit or a MOOC. Currently, a lot of online courses are adapted from those offered on campuses around the world, but I am also intrigued by new courses that are originally designed for delivering online. It is interesting to see how these courses select content differently and use different techniques to convey that content.