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Altahair Attia Adelkarim

Innovation

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Yes, but more importantly, they should be needed. There will always be those opposed to innovation, either through resistance to change in general, or through resistance to a specific change.

In my own teaching context, one big innovation has been the use of skype; through using this medium, I can sit in my home in Bristol and conduct a one-to-one Spanish lesson with a student in Hyderabad, starting a lesson at 12:00 local time, which is 17:30 for the student. In the one hour lesson, I can teach as I would if the pupil was present in my home, with live discussion, and speech in Spanish.

The organisation which organises these classes (3A Tutors) offers iGCSE to students worldwide, and is therefore very innovative in its use of technology for teaching, with a choice of tools; skype, E-lecta (a flipped classroom) and other online facilities. This does not really need a policy or statement; it is simply a necessity for a company of this type to use technology and innovation in teaching.

This has not directly affected my own views on the use of innovation, since I have always had an interest in technical advances, and did my first degree through distance learning with the OU. That qualification is respected and accepted worldwide, and the University of the West of England, where I did my PGCE (at Master’s level) Secondary MFL were more than happy to accept that I was at the same level as other students who had obtained degrees from conventional universities. In fact, the distance learning gave me advantages over some of these students, since I was able to bring experience of the work and the world to my studies.

Permalink 1 comment (latest comment by Linda Audsley, Saturday, 15 Feb 2014, 14:19)
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Altahair Attia Adelkarim

OER and Payment for Education

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There is a danger that learning may become degraded by its availability, but in reality what could happen is that the splits in society could deepen and widen, and the new groups would not be the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’, but the ‘knows’ and the ‘know nots’. Another danger of this is also that made by Naughton (2008), that students study on line in order to avoid actually reading about the subject they are studying.

Innovation and creativity go together -  they cannot really be separated, since creativity must innovate, ‘creating something old’ would be a true oxymoron, and also innovation, by definition must create a new way of doing things.

The financial aspects of innovation in teaching are wide reaching, but the capitalist view that something which is free also has no value is difficult to overcome in this context. If education is to have a value, surely it must have a cost? If it has a cost, who will pay? If the learning is ‘sponsored’ then surely it will also be biased?  Traditionally, primary and secondary education is ‘paid for’ by the state, or by parents who wish to give an enhanced education to their children. Tertiary education education, college, university, etc. was paid for by the learner, the learners parents, or a grant from an employer or the government. Access to tertiary education has become steadily more ‘open’, and in some respects more affordable, but at what point do the cost and the value cross? This is the point where higher education begins to be seen as having no value.

How can we bring a percieved value to free and open further education? This I think is the challenge facing the educational establishment, in that they are willing to share their knowledge and learning, but unless someone, somewhere, pays for it, they cannot afford to continue to exist. Perhaps there is some way of allowing free access for all, but ensuring that those (relatively few) who want to have an accredited qualification would need to pay, whilst those who were contnent simply to learn, without being tested or questioned, would not pay, but such a system hardly seems fair with the minority paying the overall costs whilst the majority sit back and enjoy the free education.

Reference:

Naughton, J., 2008. Thanks, Gutenberg - but we're too pressed for time to read. From: 'The Observer'. [Online]
Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2008/jan/27/internet.pressandpublishing
[Accessed 4 February 2014].

Permalink 2 comments (latest comment by Linda Audsley, Thursday, 13 Feb 2014, 16:29)
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