Crisis, What Crisis? February 2
Yes, it’s on old line (the name of Supertramp’s 1975 album, a line in Day of the Jackal, and apparently a headline that brought down the UK’s labour government in 1979) but I’m wondering if it’s applicable to a theme in current conversations around technology and education.
The ‘crisis’ in education is invoked by many, in many different contexts. In the field I’m actively involved in, educational technology at the post-secondary level, the crisis is usually framed around the notion that current curricula and teaching methods are out of step with today’s students. Technology usage among millenials (or whatever the term used to describe the generation entering university), backed by Pew or JISC studies indicate a turned in, tuned in, always on, always connected, media literate generation. An argument is made that education has to adapt to meet the learning needs of the millenials using the technologies and habits that they are comfortable with. The old ways don’t work anymore. The arguments for change are well supported within the frameworks, and the data, in which they are couched.
Yet, the system itself does not seem to be in crisis. Notwithstanding that all systems claim never to have enough money, university enrolments are stable or predicted to increase, governments continue to increase funding to universities. In Ontario, the Globe and Mail on November 30, 2007 reported that “Despite a $6.2 billion infusion into the PSE sector by the Ontario Liberal government, many groups are trying to get higher ed funding into the election spotlight with the argument that it simply wasn’t enough. The Council of Ontario Universities estimates that due to enrolment increases Ontario could see 120,000 extra students in the system by 2021…OCUFA is asking for an immediate investment of $1.6 billion.” So it’s clear that the crisis hasn’t reached the ears of government who continue to increase funding to universities. From the institutions perspective the crisis is about underfunding, if we only had more money we could … fill in the blank … but usually it’s do more of what we currently do.
But has it reached the ears of students? Are they lobbing the government or occupying the president’s offices demanding better teaching, a revised curriculum, or more use of technologies. Maybe some are quietly unsatisfied, but the majority of student activism is centered on money – the cost of tuition, books, ancillary fees, and student loans seem to be the focus of the student agenda.
Every sector of society is in crisis according to some group all the time. Change occurs incremently, often very slowly but it does occur.
Maybe the arguments are right and we need a revolution in education – but the arguments aren’t coming from many instructors, educational administrators, governments, and most tellingly not from students or their parents.