The Business of Education
Martin Weller,
The Ed Techie, May 29, 2008.
responds to my recent expression of concern about the commercialization of learning saying, essentially, that education is already a business, becoming more explicitly so, and so we'd better learn to deal with it. He calls his approach the 'pragmatic response' - that "argues that we should find practical ways of operating within this new environment" - as compared to what he styles my 'political response'. Except that I have utterly no faith in the political process to reverse the commercialization of edcucation. My response, I would say, is better characterized as a combination 'social and technological' response. The only way to respond to the commercialization of learning, I would say, is to make commercialized learning obsolete.
Comments
Re: The Business of Education
Stephen, thanks for clarifying. I think 'social' though could come under political - ie it is about a change in the cultural climate in which education operates. Whether this is achieved through conventional political means or other means it still requires a political change.
I'm not opposed to what you argue - I just lack the imagination to see how it would come about. If commercialization of learning is made obsolete, how do educators get paid in a capitalist society? If you are arguing it shouldn't be in a capitalist world, then that implies a major political change.
Or is what you are arguing more modest, just that Governments should fund higher ed (which as I've argued still makes it a business, less nakedly so)?
I'm all for technology being part of the response, and I think I know what you mean by this, but perhaps you could expand on it some more?
Anyway, thanks for starting the debate, I think it's an important one - I'm at the LAMS conf in Cadiz later this month, so perhaps we can continue it there?
Martin [Comment]
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Re: The Business of Education
Just a heads up. I wrote a short piece on your recent exchanges with Tony Hirst and Martin Weller, suggesting that the topic is too important to leave it off-line (as was suggested).
Available at http://garymlewis.com/instchg/2008/06/02/re-the-business-of-education/ [Comment]
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Re: The Business of Education
This is a great discussion and I'm really glad we are having it. Gary, thanks for the invite to jump in. I think we should hash it out and hopefully, via collaboration, get closer to solving this problem. I've added my thoughts here:
http://nixty.com/blog/2008/06/02/re-the-business-of-education/ [Comment]
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