Bubbles

  by Stellajo1976

Day 2 of the conference ended in a euphoric high with the closing keynotes. However I would like to take a step or two back and reflect on a remark from a session I attended. There's been a lot of talk about tsunamis, revolution, disruption and other radical terms of major upheaval in education. But let's just remember that we've been here before several times.

At the end of the 1990s the dotcom boom was in full flight and e-learning was on everyone's lips. It was going to completely change the education system and large scale online universities started springing up all over the world and established universities rushed to start offering online courses and degree programmes. Then came the crash and online learning got more integrated into the traditional system and we returned to business as usual, though with a few new elements and a few lessons learned. The system got a fright but then the innovations were absorbed and the threat of revolution was averted.

Don't get me wrong, I believe that we are in a period of exciting change and see the promise of a new focus on learning with technology as a powerful tool. But I also think it's dangerous to underestimate the power of tradition and that we're challenging established business models that will fight back. Already the openness of the mainstream MOOC market is being diluted as they develop into franchising deals for digital course material with full copyright on everything. The truly open and innovative initiatives such as OER University, Peer 2 Peer University and the original connectivist MOOCs are virtually never mentioned though they all continue to operate within a limited but enthusiastic and creative community.

We need to feel inspired and euphoric as we did yesterday but we also need to question and test our ideas critically. We need to remember not to put too much trust in big name companies whose aim is of course to provide return on investment. Coursera and all the others are still evolving and the model is clearly that of freemium, not free. You give away a bit for free to persuade people to buy the premium version. Let's remember the past and beware of bubbles.

Impressions

  by Denis Collette...!!!

Norway’s education minister Kristin Halvorsen opened up the conference by stressing the promise and potential of technology in education. She ticked nearly all the boxes the EDEN delegates are concerned with; the advantages of openness in education (OER and open access), the potential of MOOCs, the flipped classroom and the need for professional development for teachers. These signals from government level are vital if we are going to change our education system. After so many years of grassroots development it is essential that this energy is complemented by some top-down commitment and of course funding. The example of student-driven initiatives to change schools showcased by Anna Kirah in her keynote was a fine example of the need to link grassroots creativity with some encouragement from above.

The role of technology in education has finally made the front pages and landed on the agendas of educational decision makers and I think we have to thank MOOCs for this. Whatever you think about MOOCs they have succeeded in putting e-learning on to the mainstream agenda. The reason is not so much the MOOC concept as such which has been around for several years but the fact that the world's most high status universities are leading the way. Reputation matters and gets you noticed.

Alan Tait developed these ideas in one of the afternoon sessions by examining the battle of ideas currently raging within education. There is a tension between radically different views of education; between private or public, open or exclusive, commodity or tax-supported, market forces or basic human right. Even if we seem to be opening up education there are strong commercial forces that see this openness as simply a way of repackaging the traditional model. Quality in education has so far been linked to exclusiveness but that notion is now under threat. However the move from seeing higher education as an exclusive activity for the chosen few to an open mass market has taken with it too many of the ideas from the exclusive elite form. You still have to adapt to the university and its demands rather than vice versa.

Finally I was impressed by the cavalcade of impressive small scale innovation projects that were spotlighted under the session run by the VISIR project. Well over a hundred micro-innovations in the categories higher education, schools, workplace and informal learning. Have a look at them.