deinnovatie

Podría decirse que estamos conversando continuamente alrededor de lo mismo: pensar la libertad individual, la confianza en las personas y los grupos libremente constituidos (son sólo algunos ejemplos), como ‘motores’ de múltiples procesos de transformación que generan a su paso, la total fragmentación de las instituciones que conocemos, y el más duro de los cuestionamientos sobre las prácticas que tenemos aprendidas desde hace siglos (i.e. enseñanza, organización productiva, dinámica familiar, etc.).
Es que si a esto agregamos la tecnología, que está acelerando la tasa de interacción entre las personas y la velocidad de acceso a contenidos, habilitando la creación de nuevos objetos culturales de alta complejidad, entonces podemos entender la velocidad con la que semejantes deconstrucciones se están llevando adelante.
Si bien puede resultarnos imposible ‘ver’ un par de pasos adelante, lo que no podemos dejar de hacer es un inventario mínimo de las cosas que se desarman a su paso: y una de ellas es la forma en la que aprendemos.
En esta línea, quisiera citar algunos párrafos seleccionados de un artículo de Don Tapscott publicado hace algunas semanas: “The impending demise of the university“. Espero sus comentarios!

The Model of Pedagogy

Whatever the merits of Taylor’s call to restructure higher education, I think he is right to call for a deep debate on how universities function in a networked society. Yet I think he misses the most fundamental challenge to the university as we know it. The basic model of pedagogy is broken. “Broadcast learning” as I’ve called it is no longer appropriate for the digital age and for a new generation of students who represent the future of learning.
In the industrial model of student mass production, the teacher is the broadcaster. A broadcast is by definition the transmission of information from transmitter to receiver in a one-way, linear fashion. The teacher is the transmitter and student is a receptor in the learning process. The formula goes like this: “I’m a professor and I have knowledge. You’re a student you’re an empty vassal and you don’t. Get ready, here it comes. Your goal is to take this data into your short-term memory and through practice and repetition build deeper cognitive structures so you can recall it to me when I test you.”

The New Generation of Students

The professors who remain relevant will have to abandon the traditional lecture, and start listening and conversing with the students — shifting from a broadcast style and adopting an interactive one. Second, they should encourage students to discover for themselves, and learn a process of discovery and critical thinking instead of just memorizing the professor’s store of information. Third, they need to encourage students to collaborate among themselves and with others outside the university. Finally, they need to tailor the style of education to their students’ individual learning styles.
Because of technology this is now possible. But this is not fundamentally about technology per se. Rather it represents a change in the relationship between students and teachers in the learning process.

Old Paradigms Die Hard

Yet the Industrial Age model of education is hard to change. New paradigms cause dislocation, disruption, confusion, uncertainty. They are nearly always received with coolness or hostility. Vested interests fight change. And leaders of old paradigms are often the last to embrace the new.
Bannister was right. A powerful force to change the university is the students. And sparks are flying today. There is a huge generational clash emerging in these institutions. It turns out that the critique of the university from years ago were ideas in waiting — waiting for the new web and a new generation of digital natives who could effectively challenge the old model.
Changing the model of pedagogy for this generation is crucial for the survival of the university. If students turn away from a traditional university education, this will erode the value of the credentials universities award, their position as centers of learning and research, and as campuses where young people get a change to “grow up.”