Crisis on Campus_ A Bold Plan for Reforming Our Colleges and Universities - Mark C. Taylor [73]
Here, as elsewhere, the only effective strategy is to begin modestly and grow gradually by establishing programs of unquestionable quality for the radio and the Web. In my work with alternative media over the years, I have faced many obstacles but remain absolutely convinced that new skills will enable graduate students to contribute to the growing field of online education by working for both for-profit companies and nonprofit schools as well as cultural institutions like art museums, natural history museums, planetariums, symphonies and dance troupes. When describing some of our experiments with designing online courses at Global Education Network, I noted that such courses are a hybrid of classroom and book. One of the difficulties we faced was that while professors were very adept at traditional pedagogy they knew nothing about new media and the educational possibilities they offer. In the decade since our early efforts, hardware, software and distribution channels have improved considerably, and much more can be done now. Instead of producing courses in the traditional format and then repackaging them in alternative media, it is much more effective to design the courses using different media from the outset so that they can complement and support spoken and written course materials. To do this effectively requires research not only in traditional libraries but also in photographic and film archives, audio and video collections and the growing archive online. To produce quality educational materials, it is important to have people who have studied in graduate school involved in the production process. Crucial decisions about what students are being taught at every level should not be left in the hands of people whose interests are primarily technical and financial. More than a decade of experience leads me to believe that it is possible to establish a balance among educational, technical and financial interests that benefits both young professionals trained in doctoral programs and the companies where they work, while at the same time providing new possibilities and resources for the institutions where they studied.
In making these suggestions, I want to stress that I am not interested in technology for technology’s sake; to the contrary, I am trying to find ways to use technology originally designed for other purposes to provide educational opportunities for students and generate additional professional opportunities for graduate students in a time when most of them will not be able to find academic positions. Personally, I continue to love books; indeed, I have written many and own thousands of them. Moreover, teaching small classes to gifted undergraduates and seminars with committed graduate students is one of my greatest pleasures. I realize, however, that in the future, fewer and fewer students and faculty members will have the opportunities my students and I have enjoyed. The challenge, as I see it, is to find additional ways for teachers to teach and students to study the works and subjects without which we would all be much poorer and our shared future would be darker.
To take advantage of these new opportunities it will be necessary to attract the most intelligent and inventive young people and to transform current faculties. As courses, departments, disciplines and institutions become more open and adaptable, faculty members must become more flexible so they can adjust quickly and effectively to constantly evolving networks of knowledge, incorporating useful elements from them into their teaching. The single most important factor preventing change in higher education is tenure. The only way for American higher education to remain competitive is to abolish tenure and impose mandatory retirement at the age of seventy.
During a recent conversation, the president of a small professional school said to me, “I have never been more frustrated.