Podcastin’ and Skippin’ class, Academic Transparency

Friday’s article “iPods offer note-taking alternatives to lectures” from the Cavalier Daily reveals that Texas A&M is moving forward aggressively podcasting instructor lectures. This quotation from the article stuck out to me:

Wilcox said he isn’t worried students will stop attending class.

My response is, if students could stop coming to class and just listen to podcast lectures of class sessions– and have an equivalent intellectual experience, is that teacher really teaching? There is a time and a place for lecture, for being the sage on the stage, but there are also times for other teaching roles. If an instructor is not taking advantage of the unique teaching and learning opportunities available in a face to face (F2F) context, by all means– please teach that portion of your class (or the entire class) in an asynchronous online format.

Those teachers / instructors who are merely delivering content to students in lectures– and not doing anything else in the way of engaging students authentically– are missing the educational boat, and are in desperate need of reform themselves.

Interesting times we live in. I perceive some faculty feel very threatened about the greater transparency which our technological age encourages and may even demand. When course syllabi/outlines are placed online, there is a level of transparency to the educational activities and studies taking place in that classroom. This is scary to some, if not most educators. But I don’t think anyone should be afraid. If you are doing great stuff, then let’s see it! Why are we in education anyway? If you want to get patents for keeping secrets, get out of the classroom and join the business world. We are in education to intellectually stretch ourselves and others. I write and publish precisely because I want others to read and think about what I’ve written. From my perspective, having my course outlines online (which I do) as well as other writings is a beautiful thing. And I publish with a Creative Commons license. So the attribution clause is already there for all to see (and hopefully follow).

I visited today with a former Education Dean who commented that this is the age old educational debate, where the teacher says “let me close my door and do my own thing.” Living as we do in both an age of educational accountability and an age of technologically inspired transparency, that attitude is less and less of an option.

On the whole, I think this trend toward academic transparency is a good thing. From a student’s perspective, if I can see what sorts of things are in the instructor’s actual syllabus– what we will be studying and doing on a weekly basis– that is a HUGE benefit when deciding whether or not to take a particular course. From an institutional standpoint, I think this transparency could be a great thing for hiring committees. Want to see who I am, what I write about, and what I think is important? Read my blog. Yes, I’ll send you my vitae, pedagogic creed, references, research interests, letters of recommendation, and whatever else your application requires– but the lion’s share of what you need to know about me in order to make a hiring decision you can learn online. That is academic transparency.

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On this day..

• A Return to the Simple Pleasures of Daily Blogging – 2020
• 2nd PLAYDATE PD Event in Oklahoma: Saturday October 4th! – 2014
• iPhone5 Weight & Form Factor – 2012
• Blocked Sites in China – 2010
• Purchase a new webkinz or say goodbye to WebKinz World Online – 2009
• An Exemplary Interactive Mobile Conference Website (Vision 2020 Conference) – 2009
• Deer Creek (Oklahoma) Students and Teachers Using Skype – 2009
• Edmond Parents Protested President Obama’s Speech – 2009
• Learning 2.0 Conference opening panel – 2007
• Fourier Systems Nova5000 – 2006