When I read that the report for K-12 sector was funded by Hewlett Packard, I was a little reluctant to be moved by the findings. We have something similar in BC in the Fraser Report on education. Look up a school by their name and find out how they rate against all the other schools in the province. The results for both studies are, to me, going to be skewed.
When I searched for, and read more about Bryan Alexander, it made sense that he couches his “vision” in story, as his PhD is in Romantic-era Fiction and Poetry. I think it was Jason that wrote, many of the elements mentioned are already in place, making it seem less likely a vision of the future.
The future of education through the eyes of Bates however, seems the most compelling. Bates inferentially acknowledges that in order for “higher” education institutions to retain their relevancy to the general public they need to be providers of some “knowledge” learners want. If the “medium” is MOOCs then those MOOCs will need to integrate technology in ways that strengthen the experience for students. The earlier chapters from Bates serve to give the reader (or creator of a course) tools to use for their future encounters with technology.
Will MOOCs be THE answer? I have yet to find a technological (or educational for that matter) panacea. However, I think that the thinking grounding Bates schema provides those who make use of them, a means to critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of any way of teaching.
Education will only be as good as the sum of its parts and that means individuals bringing their best to the situations they find themselves in. Education can only work when it is flexible, creative and inclusive. If technology works to make those things happen, then it should be used. My concern, as I look forward, is that we (older ones) would not limit the thinking and creativity of those who come after us. The loudest voices are not always the “correct” ones. How I see myself “shaping that landscape” is by providing opportunities for that plastic/elastic practice for the little visionaries that I hang with every day.
References
Alexander, B. (2014). Higher education in 2014: Glimpsing the future. Educause Review, 4(5) Retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/higher-education-2024-glimpsing-future?utm_source=Informz&utm_medium=Email+marketing&utm_campaign=EDUCAUSE
Alexander, B. (2016). Bio [webpage]. Retrieved from http://bryanalexander.org/bio/
Bates, T. (2014). MOOCs. In Teaching in digital age. Retrieved from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/part/chapter-7-moocs/ (Chapter 5)
Fraser Institute. (2016). School performance: Elementary and secondary school rankings. Retrieved from https://www.fraserinstitute.org/school-performance
New Media Consortium. (2015). NMC Horizon Report 2015: Higher ed edition. Retrieved from http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2015-nmc-horizon-report-HE-EN.pdf