The Network University in Transition
Bob Hanke,
MIT 7 Conference,
Sept 07, 2012
Interesting discussion of Russell Francis's assertion that students are "breaking away from the top-down hierarchical structures of the traditional university and educating themselves in virtually figured worlds that transcend institutional and geographical boundaries." The claim is first compared to similar remarks by McLuhan about the impact of radio and television on education. Bob Hanke responds that "that the technical milieu exhibits tendencies and countertendencies within a metastable system." The university has a way of absorbing change. "The live diffusion of cyberpedagogy has become normal in large lecture courses." While "perhaps students will have more user agency to stretch the socio-technical boundaries of higher education," he writes, "a centrifugal tendency towards open education is offset by a centripetal countertendency." Universities, when threatened, will cede just enough power to sustain their importance.
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