Informational or Instructional? 

The Present

Last week, Bruce @bes03c (Check out his blog. It's awesome), one of my classmates, posted a link to a TedTalk video.  I promised that I would blog about it because I had a "past, present, future" moment   as I watched it.  In the TedTalk, Daphne Koller, co-founder of Coursera, appealed to universities, especially the elite institutions to put their most intriguing courses online at no cost to students.  She argued that not only would the universities provide a service to students who could not attend but the those institutions would be engaged in an unprecedented kind of data collection on student learning.  In short students would learn while universities would better understand "HOW" students learned.  She supported her appeal with data that showed how student outcomes increased significantly when using the individualized learning model proposed in the MOOC platform.  Here's the Youtube video of "What We're Learning from Online Education:" (If you watch this on the Ted Talks site, subtitles are available in 29 languages - yayyy for global accessibility!) 

The Past

This wasn't the first time I've heard this line of reasoning.  It was the first time I heard it about courses at postsecondary education but I had been sold on the possibility of instruction using Web 2.0 tools for a few years.  The difference was I had been using this at the K-12 level.  About 4 years ago I read results from a study by a researcher named Sugata Mitra on the learning outcomes of children in India who taught themselves content using a computer and the internet.  The findings were intriguing and I began to keep up with his research.  He was on Ted Talks as well and won the $10 million dollar prize for his research.  You HAVE to hear what these children accomplished on their own, so I've included his Hole in the Wall project here:  

 

I was inspried and started my own individualized learning project at the high school where I was installing an e-library and media center through a governmental/private sector cooperation grant.  I focused on Math, an area students were struggling with and each year's external exam outcomes were dismal.  Students in grades 7-9 used Khan Academy's diagnostic test to get started.  Khan Academy then customized an individual program for each child.  The response to the program was overwhelming.  Students who wouldn't do any work in class lined up and waited for their time on the computers. I received an individualized report on each child every week from Khan Academy that detailed each child's accomplishments and areas where they needed more practice.  If students were stuck on a topic for a while, I taught them in a one-on-one face-to-face session and then sent them back to work on their own.  Students who were good math students did even better and struggling students made significant gains. (I gave bonus treats to students who worked on their Khan benchmarks at home as well.) Extrinsic rewards work until the intrinsic motivation kicks in.  

The Future

Sugata Mitra envisions the day when students won't need physical schools.  Schools will be in the cloud. Students will only need a cheerleader to motivate them.  I'm intrigued by that idea from an instructional standpoint, but as a student affairs professional I know students need more than the content. School is a socializing agent among other benefits.  I see the possibility for delivering free quality educational content to thousands and thousands of people from K-University, maybe even a lifetime.  There's a democratizing element in all of it that appeals to me.  

So when Dr. Dennen posed the question "...do you see Web 2.0 and social media being about the configuration and distribution of information? Or about instruction? " and I viewed Bruce's link, my reply is BOTH! There's tons of static webpages out there that provide information and that is great. The 'instructional potential" of Web 2.0 is what I find exciting, however. The ability to interact and make connections while learning on one's own online is intriguing.  What do you think? Is a school in the cloud a real possibility? What about something a little less provocative but just as effective in offering free educational content? Can web 2.0 tools really allow students to teach themselves and what consequences does that hold for teachers, faculty and brick and mortar institutions? Leave me your answers! I'm excited to hear from you! Thanks again Bruce for posting that link!!