Learning Technology in Higher Education

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My experience implementing technological solutions in higher ed has been striking: some college professors are surprisingly opposed to technological change. I see some overlap with why K-12 teachers don't want to implement technological education tools such as lack of training, lack of motivation, fear of change, etc. But a few things stand out for higher education specifically:

1. Professor status. Credentialed profs aren't exactly growing on trees. Small schools have a hard time attracting and retaining anyone with a PhD or anyone who has been published in big academic journals or anyone with millions of dollars in grant money. Professor status means that if the proff is breathing and credentialed they can pretty much do what they want with impunity. Their reputation in whatever obscure field they teach precedes them... and excuses them from such bothersome things as learning technology (or good pedagogy and instructional design, for that matter).
   
   

Creation Vs. Consumption

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Education should ideally push students and educators beyond fear to experience the beauty and freedom of original creation. Creation means that students craft organic and uncensored responses to ideas. Creating means critiquing, re-working, and re-creating someone else's ideas into something entirely new, doing original research or putting theory into practice. Encouraging creation, of course, comes with built-in risks for both students and educators.

Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert sums up some of the primary risks for students:

“Let me list for you some of the many ways in which you might be afraid to live a more creative life: You’re afraid you have no talent. You’re afraid you’ll be rejected or criticized or ridiculed or misunderstood or—worst of all—ignored. You’re afraid there’s no market for your creativity, and therefore no point in pursuing it. You’re afraid somebody else already did it better. You’re afraid everybody else already did it better."

Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

Two Alternatives to Indoctrinationatory Pedagogy

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"In an indoctrinatory classroom, the employment of alternative norms or standards is seen not merely as another way of doing or judging however improper or misguided, but as nonsensical." 

- McDonough (2011)

In pedagogical terms, we often observe two extremes in educational philosophy. Liberal educators preach the twin doctrines of "rational autonomy" and "critical inquiry," while traditionalists tend toward a pedagogy of indoctrination, coercion, and rote recitation. Obviously, education exists on a spectrum between these two extremes and no institution perfectly lives up to its ideals whether liberal or conservative.

In this blog post, we will first define liberal educational philosophy and examine whether or not it lives up to its professed ideals. We will then consider an alternative third possibility that lies between the liberal and traditionalist educational philosophies called initiation, as described by McDonough and applied to Christian education by Reichard. Finally, we will consider some implications for teachers and educators at EBI, making practical recommendations for change