You might think that such a header would be followed by a passionate if perhaps overwrought appeal from a well-meaning but naive blogger. Not so: this is the title of a new article on the Project Syndicate website by our colleague Jeff Sachs, the Director of the Earth Institute. You can find it at http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/sachs184/Englishand you will quickly see that it is passionate but calm, and anything but naive.
Professor Sachs makes the case for distance-learning and web-based education as a force for social and economic justice. This is an important article for anyone who takes teaching a seminar to be an intrinsically valuable form of face-to-face communication.
Without arguing the likelihood of market forces replacing what I now do with what his argument would have me do in a web-class, the question I have is, what happens to the development of the sense of self in a student who knows him or me only as a web presence? A similar question in medical care would be, how does a person engaged in web-based medical diagnosis experience the trust and personal concern I now experience with my doctor, who will call me back when I send her an email or call her office?
In both cases a human relationship is replaced by a screen behind which is an economic value. The problem that I see is that we are as individuals reducible neither to goods nor to services. We must get and give each other our personal attention even if that remains expensive, or else we suffer.
While I agree with Bob’s statements, I do so up to a point. That is, a web-based access to education is better than no access at all. This would be true for the medical analogy as well. If the web gives access to a master diagnostician, the patient is better off.
Letty
I think one has to distinguish between education and the transmission of information. The ICT revolution has provided a fantastic platform for the latter, but does not in and of itself imply great progress in the former. The instantaneous and ubiquitous availability of information, along with facilities for electronic dialogue are great tools. Among other important benefits, they allow for a wide range of efficiencies for teachers and students. They extend the reach of both in keeping course content fresh and accurate, in bringing a more diverse set of voices into the educational relationship, etc. But I don’t think that ICT substitutes well for direct human contact, both between teacher and student and between the students themselves. It seems to me (after many years of teaching and as a foot soldier in the ICT Revolution) that learning is inherently interpersonal. The complex and challenging task of integrating new ways of thinking and giving up old precepts requires emotional connections to, and validation from, trusted teachers and co-learners.
This is especially true if one is trying to educate students toward an increased agency in their lives and their communities. Folks who track social connection (by polling Americans on their close friends, acquaintances, personal conversations, etc.) find a steadily- increasing isolation. Part of education is the process of learning, and I believe we need learning processes that expansion of the individual’s capacity to connect, and experience profound intellectual changes, in public settings.
Finally, as regards the cost structure of the economy (cf. Professor Sachs’ article), maybe it is not a bad thing that the costs of advanced economies lean away from material production and towards social services. To some extent the costs of goods reflect the energy and material embedded in them, either directly or through sustenance of their producers. Lower costs of production might be a reasonable proxy for walking more lightly on the planet. Social services, on the other hand, are (relatively) heavy on human interaction and lighter on material throughputs. For example, speaking as a lay observer, I would be in favor of a medical delivery system that ratcheted down the emphasis on big machinery and subtly novel drugs and while increasing the doctor-patient ratio.