More from Learning Impact…..
Given the amount of discussion given to open content, it’s only fair that the content vendors have an opportunity to present their perspective. So here’s some comments from a panel of them..
on self publishing…
…not feeling particularly threatened by open content. Issue has been around for a while.
…open content may have a certain attractiveness in some community colleges
…open content may be a positive for publishers.. may ’surface some particularly gifted’ work that publishers can pick up on.
..in academic world, there is real value in ‘expert authors’ rather than more open content which may have more traction in more journalistic work.
on what type of content they think educators want….
eg full courses vs smaller digital assets, Learning objects etc.
…they want it all…. but what they particularly want and need is training on how to use new types of content.
…there maybe a difference between what faculty want and what students want. this needs to be taken into consideration.
Interesting study - assumption that kids in college are digital natives is wrong. While they may be comfortable with technology for communications, entertainment, they don’t know how to use technology to learn - they learned to learn through books.
…ebooks have a very low takeup.
…students don’t read the book any more (whether printed or ebook).. will try to ‘google’ their way through a course.
…number 1 factor in what determines a student purchase is whether it will be used in the classroom by the teacher - regardless of whether it is electronic or printed.
on ad-supported content…
not yet tolerated in ‘hard-core’ teaching content - maybe in ancillary content.
on Google…
…it appears that most of the students don’t yet have enough skills to discern what is ‘good’ and what is not - yet. - this needs to be taught.
3 Comments
Good observarions Jerry - thanks for sharing. Sounds very much like the type of definsive rhetoric I used to hear in and around Microsoft about seven years ago when I started talking about linux and the opensource movement.
Your final line sums it all up for me - if you start from this important premise of what needs to be taught, the arguments about which technology tools change significantly.
Keep posting.
Fang
Would like to see some depth to this discussion.
Students don’t read books anymore. What about academics? The last time they had adequate time was when?
In the academic world expertise is valuable. It is also a limitation defined by other academics. Ie. it is open source and so amounts to a conflict between two groups. Haven’t seen any worthwhile analysis of this - just academics doing turf protecting: they aren’t published in our journals therefore we don’t need to listen.
Imagine taking into account what students want. This would be radical, if it happened (I won’t hold my breath).
Students learned to learn through books? This person has forgotten their childhood (an academic pathology - being always adult), riding bikes, how to speak, etiquette . . . Most learning is not from books!
Thanks for the post Jerry.
Perhaps you could take up some of the issues raised. They would certainly repay some thought.
Hi Evan,
Some really good points there - especially about how students learn. Unfortunately no details were given on the study which seemed to look into ‘digital natives’ in college however I do think it raises some interesting questions. I’d like to be able to find out more about it.
Cheers,
Jerry.
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