by
Kostas Neofotistos
Translation: Maria Galanaki
Hence, a new field that appeared in the digital world, is the university education and learning. However, it is not a totally new idea, taking into consideration that a great amount of university activities has been transferred to digital platforms and students accounts that are being used by smartphones.
Although this is not the only case, I will, for example, use the University of Sheffield to describe a daily routine that already exists in most British Universities. Each student has the smartphone as his main tool. No one forbids them to use a tablet or a laptop, but the degree of portability and the convenience of the phone make it the first choice. With one or more applications installed, the students have access to their personal university account and can be informed about anything related to the studies in a two-way communication.
The scholars will go to the library to find any text or article, to find out if it is available in a hard copy (in order to find it and keep notes) or digitized (in order to download it immediately). Then the students will see the menu of the day in the university restaurant, and they will order whatever they want, letting the restaurant know even the time that they will eat. The students will receive last minute updates and notifications of some tweak in the daily schedule and they will arrange meetings discussing upon a specific subject with members of the teaching staff.
They will get the special notes that the teacher distributes (digitally) or the corrected work that they have sent (digitally again) some days before. The medical department of the university will remind them that next week the a vaccine is scheduled and the swimming pool will alert them that their afternoon bath has been canceled because of a sudden damage to the swimming pool pump that needs to be repaired.
These may look very sophisticated for the "proud youth" of the Balkans, but it is a routine for students of the British espionage. But, on the other side of the Atlantic, things have gone even further. As we read, the American audience (that has chosen to be concerned about such issues rather than university asylum and political party notes) appears to be divided in terms of accepting this new trend towards the complete abolition of live classes in the university halls and their transfer to live presentations via Internet.
Obviously, online teaching will allow many more people to get involved with learning process. Low or even zero costs, as well as the access to the teaching process from distant regions, are some important advantages and it is logical to gain a large number of supporters.
On the other hand, there are equally serious supporters, expressing wariness about this new trend, either as a result of natural resistance to change or because of personal interests (loss of income or jobs). Although we are still in the early stages of shaping this digital university environment, developments show that there will be significant changes in a short time, taking into account the rhythms that the country on the other side of the Atlantic is following.
Of course, while we are running towards an increasingly digital future, it would be impossible for the process of university education to escape the Digital Procrusian's table. As for the reservations that have been expressed by a part of the public that is directly or indirectly connected to this topic, I agree with them but with some subtle differences.
The first (difference), concerns the personal learning mechanisms of each person, what is best known by the term "learning style". Every person has his/her own individual characteristics as to the combination of perceptual processes with which he/she learns. These procedures are largely linked to each student's personal learning options.
For example, a student of purely theoretical sciences usually has a specific (grosso modo) learning profile, with increased participation of the visual, reading, and graphic factors. But what about someone else who is science-oriented?
Using as an example a personal case, this student has a learning profile with index 8 for visual factor, 4 for audio, 4 for reading and writing, but 11 for kinesthetic. In simple words, the main focus of learning, goes through a live process, in contact with the known object, through visualized examples and applications, or even with the trial and error method, which will enable him/her to repeat a process until he/she gets the right result.
Of course, modern digital media tools can cover several of the above learning processes, but we cannot exclude the direct practical involvement of the learner through a specially designed environment (e.g. a workshop). Equally important is the human contact and presence, and the greater directness and importance that physical presence has over the digital presence of the instructor. No matter how well a digital platform has been designed, it is different to interact with 1-10 students in a laboratory environment, and different to communicate online with 2,000 viewers connected to a particular link.
The second differentiation concerns only the deeper feeling of each student as to the motivation of his studies. Different learning needs have those students who have chosen a field for in-depth learning and further scientific research, and different ones have those who have chosen their field in order to achieve a fast and safe professional rehabilitation and advancement.
Without accepting the term "pre-do" I believe, that direct absorption of a course of study into a particular job has less complexity, more standardized learning processes, and can be better achieved in a digital environment. On the contrary, learning that is characterized by pure knowledge has more complexity, it raises questions and opens new paths and, overall, definitely needs more than a platform of distant learning.
May all these details be of some tiredness for you about the innovations that have been designed and applied by the silly, so let me conclude with something light and progressive: There is a problem with the free textbooks of the Greek students because the publishers have been unpaid for many months now. Apart from the primary surpluses of money, the immortal Greek state has surpluses of incapability.
Cheers!
By: N. Peter Kramer
