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(Loooong thread) Two recent bad takes on NZ universities both contained the idea that students want learning that is "just in time and just for me/them."
It's such a specific and (to me) wrongheaded phrase to repeat that I decided to find out its origin /1
It's such a specific and (to me) wrongheaded phrase to repeat that I decided to find out its origin /1
The first time I saw this phrase was in this article, published on 20 March, just before the lockdown was announced, but when the move to remote teaching was underway /2 https://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/about-massey/news/article.cfm?mnarticle_uuid=0A0743C0-19AC-46D8-B2ED-EB070F7BB6AA
A few days ago, on 13 May, the same phrase appeared in another opinion piece, this time by one of NZ's Vice-Chancellors /3 https://www.universitiesnz.ac.nz/latest-news-and-publications/vcs-perspective-universities-must-be-part-solution
According to one source, the phrase originates in a 2001 book by Marc Rosenberg called "E-learning: Strategies for Delivering Knowledge in the Digital Age" as "just in time, just enough, and just for me."
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I haven't read Rosenberg's book, but here is a summary from a review: The book is "is a high-level, enterprise-wide strategic approach to e-learning...focused on corporate organizations.." /5 http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.87.9116&rep=rep1&type=pdf
The words "university" or "college" don't appear in this review - the book is focused, it seems, on training employees. So the first problem is that the phrase seems to have migrated to university discourse, when it originated in a completely different context. /6
The second problem is the length of time since the idea was coined. Online education was completely different 20 years ago. I know - in 2001, when Rosenberg's book appeared, I was a TA on a 100% online poetry course at the University of Toronto, one of the first of its kind /7
The course was fascinating & infuriating to teach, & the technology now seems laughably basic. Everything about our online experience is completely different today. So it's hard to believe that an idea about e-learning that seemed cutting-edge in 2001 would still apply in 2020 /8
So I decided to look at what Rosenberg has written recently. He's a prolific thinker in this field, with a long history of engaging on e-learning issues. Here's an example of some of his recent ideas, from a 2018 column titled "Why I Hate E-Learning" /9 https://learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/marc-my-words-why-i-hate-elearning
As Rosenberg points out, this might seem a strange statement from someone who has spent decades advocating for e-learning. He still believes in its transformative potential & its role in 21st-century education. /10
He loves and believes in lots of aspects of e-learning. What he hates is how it has become "so sacrosanct, so entrenched in our orthodoxy, that speaking critically about it amounts to heresy of sorts.... /11
"...If we’re not careful—and we often aren’t—it can consume us, and we may never realize, until it’s too late, that all the hysteria has affected our decisions and results, most likely to our dismay." /12
Rosenberg is especially critical of what he categorises as 10 kinds of hype. The one that stands out to me is number 6: The Classroom is Dead! Here's what Rosenberg has to say... /13
"eLearning changes the classroom, it doesn’t eliminate it. Those organizations that rushed into eLearning too fast and shut down all their classrooms, and eliminated their entire instructor corps, have lived to regret it (or, perhaps, not survived their decision)." /14
Rosenberg's comments are still based in his field of organisational training, but we can learn lessons from what he has to say here. No-one is suggesting that there isn't an essential role for online education. But it will only ever complement, not replace, our classrooms /15
Which brings me back to the 2020 NZ opinion columns pushing online ed & "just in time and just for me" in our universities. It's the 2nd part of the phrase that really hits me. /16
If there's one thing that characterises this generation of students, it's a commitment to something beyond themselves. Not one of my students has said they want an education that is "just for them." /17
Students want community, collaboration, & authentic experiences with peers & teachers. The move to remote teaching has made this clearer than ever - while excellent online teaching is an essential component of education, it's only a component & only works for some /18
Maybe it's time to retire the phrase "just in time and just for me" and think instead about how universities can provide a space to rebuild community /end
