Professors-keep out 18th October 2007 Independent

An interesting article in today's Independent Education P8. Looks at social spaces and how students are using them to the consternation of some lecturers. The academics worry about the control of the content and the fact that big money players are now content providers.

Seems to me that if we are sold on student centred learning and constructivist education we only need to be concerned about what is submitted for evaluation and to be sure it is adequately referenced and contextualised. The source becomes unimportant provided that the material is adequately analysed and evaluated by the student. Our goal should be to teach students to analyse and then synthesise solutions, that is to become problem solvers.

In a past life I was involved perifally with a fully on-line degree and the provided social space was an important part of the student experience, but importantly it stood outside of a highly structured VLE, and was thus widely available.

We need to encourage lecturers and others to embrace the changes and push the limits and use the technology in innovative ways. If this means that Institutions need to change there entrenched attitudes to learning by students then so be ii