Education Is Not an App: The future of university teaching in the Internet age

145 Pages·2017·1.735 MB·English

by  Jonathan A. Poritz, Jonathan Rees

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Education is not an app
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e While much has been written about the doors that technology can open for stu-
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D dents, less has been said about its impact on teachers and professors. Although
n technology undoubtedly brings with it huge opportunities within higher educa-
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a, tion, there is also the fear that it will have a negative effect both on faculty and on
i teaching standards.
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or Education Is Not an App offers a bold and provocative analysis of the economic
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i context within which educational technology is being implemented, not least the
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C financial problems currently facing higher education institutions around the world.
of The book emphasizes the issue of control as being a key factor in whether educa-
y tional technology is used for good or bad purposes, arguing that technology has
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s great potential if placed in caring hands. While it is a guide to the newest develop-
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v ments in education technology, it is also a book for those faculty, technology pro-
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U fessionals, and higher education policy-makers who want to understand the
y [ economic and pedagogical impact of technology on professors and students. It
b advocates a path into the future based on faculty autonomy, shared governance, and
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e concentration on the university’s traditional role of promoting the common good.
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a Offering the first critical, in-depth assessment of the political economy of educa-
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nl tion technology, this book will serve as an invaluable guide to concerned faculty, as
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well as to anyone with an interest in the future of higher education.
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Jonathan A. Poritz is Associate Professor of Mathematics at Colorado State
University-Pueblo, USA.
Jonathan Rees is Professor of History at Colorado State University-Pueblo, USA.
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Education is not
an app
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a The future of university teaching in
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1 the Internet age
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a,
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r Jonathan A. Poritz and Jonathan Rees
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First published 2017
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2017 Jonathan A. Poritz and Jonathan Rees
7 The right of Jonathan A. Poritz and Jonathan Rees to be identified as the
1
0 authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections
2 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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c All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
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a utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
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known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
9 any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
1 from the publishers.
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5 Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
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5 registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
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t without intent to infringe.
a
] British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
o A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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e
i Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
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Names: Poritz, Jonathan Adam, 1964- author. | Rees, Jonathan, 1966- author.
n Title: Education is not an app : the future of university teaching in the Internet
a
S age / Jonathan A. Poritz, Jonathan Rees.
a, Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2017. |
i Includes bibliographical references and index.
n
r Identifiers: LCCN 2016009927|
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f ISBN 9781138910409 (hardback) | ISBN 9781138910416 (pbk.) |
li ISBN 9781315693453 (ebook)
a
C Subjects: LCSH: Higher education–Effect of technological innovations on. |
f Educational technology–Economic aspects. | Internet in higher education. |
o College teaching.
y Classification: LCC LB2395.7 .P66 2017 | DDC 378.1/25–dc23
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si LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016009927
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v ISBN: 978-1-138-91040-9 (hbk)
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n ISBN: 978-1-138-91041-6 (pbk)
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ISBN: 978-1-315-69345-3 (ebk)
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b Typeset in Bembo
d by Cenveo Publisher Services
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e JP: I would like to dedicate this to Gabriel, Aiden, Raffaello, and Tristan (in merely
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D chronological order), with whom I have seen the educational system from yet a
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a third role, that of parent—which is sort of like the student role, but with the age
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a, and life experience (particularly since I am a professor) to be far more pissed off or
i abjectly grateful, on your behalf. Hopefully, this will also make me a more effective
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or and empathetic teacher! Thanks to you four, and all my love.
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C JR: My greatest thanks go to the readers and commentators on my blog, More or
of Less Bunk [http://moreorlessbunk.net/blog]. Without you this book would not
y exist. Besides my co-author, my greatest influences with respect to the issues cov-
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rs ered here have been Kate Bowles, Audrey Watters and Jim Groom. Thanks also to
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v David Mazel, Ann Little, Bonnie Stewart and Jeremy Adelman. Special thanks to
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U Routledge Editor Terry Clague who convinced me that writing a book based even
y [ partially upon a blog was actually a good idea.
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contEnts
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e Preface viii
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S 1 Introduction 1
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r 2 Online Education: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly 11
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C 3 MOOCs 26
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y 4 Free/Libre/Open-Source Edtech 39
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v 5 Unbundling 55
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y [ 6 Electronic Taylorism 68
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e 7 Social Media in the Classroom and Out 83
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nl 8 The Zero-Marginal-Cost Education 94
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9 Conclusion: Higher Education in a Digital Age 110
Appendix: Jonathans’ Laws 117
Bibliography 118
Index 129
prEfacE
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e University professors are really busy people. We know this because we are both
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D university professors—of math and history. Nevertheless, we have taken the time
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a to follow developments in education technology because of its possible effects upon
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a, both of our fields, as well as upon faculty in general. Indeed, because of our par-
i ticular interests—in computer science and the history of technology, respectively—
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or we’ve followed these developments very closely. We have written this book so that
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li our colleagues at universities around the world who haven’t been following such
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C developments can catch up. In the course of this long explanation, we’ve tried to
of analyze a fast-developing situation that should make university professors of all
y kinds very nervous.
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i
rs Neither of us are anti-technology. We both believe that computers, the Internet,
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v and Internet-related tools can help faculty do every aspect of their job (from teach-
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U ing to research—even service!) better, and therefore serve as an enormous benefit
y [ to us and our students. However, the introduction of labor-saving technology into
b higher education is hardly a neutral act. The primary reason that we have written
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e this book is our concern about who controls these technologies and how the intro-
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a duction of such technologies will affect the distribution of power between faculty
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nl and administrators going forward.
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Many of our sources for this analysis of education technology are in the higher
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D education press, especially stories about how new programs are changing the way
higher education operates on a day-to-day basis. On one level, many of these sto-
ries will be irrelevant by the time you read about them here. After all, the news is
ephemeral almost by definition and many of these kinds of experiments are doomed
to fail. However, on an abstract level, even failed experiments in higher education
can tell us a lot about the power dynamics inside our institutions and this is the
ultimate subject of this book. If faculty are not at the table for discussions about
higher education technology, they risk being on the menu.
Preface ix
University professors are workers. New technologies have put the value of
professors’ skills at risk, just as they have for other workers in our changing econ-
omy. Nonetheless, we contend that faculty differ from other groups of workers in
some important respects, and play a particular role in economy and society.
Around one hundred years ago, the American Association of University Professors
released an enormously influential statement (AAUP 1915) that included an expla-
7 nation of
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h the purposes for which universities exist. These are three in number:
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a a. to promote inquiry and advance the sum of human knowledge;
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b. to provide general instruction to the students; and
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1 c. to develop experts for various branches of the public service.
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0 While the mention of public service here may seem quaint in the current neoliberal
at moment, the assertion here that universities—and education, in general—help to

o] shape the current and future zeitgeist is one that neoliberals and their opponents
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e both accept (albeit some with dismay and others with approval). We might repur-
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pose a famous quote (originally about writers and artists) by saying that teachers are
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a the engineers of human souls. Probably, then, it makes sense to approach with great
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a, caution proposed radical transformations of the structures of universities and the
i jobs of their workers.
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or Radical transformation on the back of technological change does seem hard to
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li avoid. Cheerleaders for this change point with derision to the “traditional” modes
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C of teaching in which many professors have decades of experience: lectures, written
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o examinations, chalkboards, office hours, and so on. But while technology offers a
y means to explore all kinds of new ways to teach old things, no method of pedagogy
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rs is necessarily bad simply because it’s old and none is good simply because it’s new.
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v While university faculty can no longer reasonably expect to be the sole arbiters of
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U success in their classrooms, the fact that the Internet exists is no excuse to destroy
y [ all of the traditional prerogatives that faculty have employed in their traditional
b classes since higher education began one or two thousand years ago (depending
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e upon whether you start counting with the University of Bologna or Plato’s
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a Academy).
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nl While these prerogatives are important, faculty should not have to enter a per-
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manent state of class warfare with administrators in order to protect them because
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D there are more than just two interest groups that will ultimately determine the
outcome of this struggle. Students have an interest in a quality education. Whether
that education includes educational technology, or not, depends upon the willing-
ness of faculty to employ technological tools in their classes. It also depends upon
the interests of thousands of companies based around the world that hope to profit
by selling their educational technologies to universities. Particularly for those of us
who work in state-run institutions, it also depends upon the wishes of the general
public as expressed through their elected representatives.