It was surprising to read on the World Bank link, just how developed some RTVU actually are. I thought the Open University was one of the pioneers of alternative education- how wrong was I! I never even thought that there would be anything such as this in the 1960’s. After reading the article, the Chinese seem to have a very well organised and structured system in place; however it will have its limitations and disadvantages like any other method of distance learning e.g. the article mentions limited transmission times.
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I found the part interesting where it stated RTVUs ‘share their responsibilities on the basis of balancing centralisation and decentralisation’. It got me thinking about the topic of digital democratisation we talked about in week 5. It gives the 28 PRTVUs and branch school an element of power to enable them to provide what they would deem to be educational (as long as they abide to regulations set by the CRTVU). I would imagine different areas of China to have more scholars learning certain subjects e.g. agriculture in rural areas and mechanical engineering in the more industrious areas? I may be a bit presumptuous there but if so, the lecturers providing/creating these broadcasts can focus learning on these areas more.
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The article also made me question the differences of this new media literacy offered and the traditional. Ofcom define media literacy as ‘the ability to access, understand and create communications in a variety of contexts…Media literacy has parallels with traditional literacy; the ability to read and write text’. However, in terms of education the traditional can cost substantially more for tuition fees etc. New media is able to reach a mass population and in turn provide mass education using just one piece of teaching material ‘over 1 million audio-visual copies of teaching materials are produced and duplicated each year’, which has obviously helped with the success of the RTVUs.
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I doubt that the Chinese would have provided this ‘free information’ had they not wanted to boost their education system to the standards of the developed world. Nevertheless, it seems that there is still a lot we do not know about when it comes to distance learning. It has had a very positive impact on the Chinese education, so do you think in years to come the UK will be providing university-level education TV and radio transmissions?
http://www1.worldbank.org/disted/Technology/broadcast/tv-02.html
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/advice/media_literacy/
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In years to come I think the UK will be providing higher education in more forms, but not necessarily in TV and radio, but maybe something even more 'new.'
ReplyDeleteMy first job in H.E. was to make educational TV and AV materials. This was in the mid 70s and it died a death in the 80s as HE became progressively underfunded in the UK. Media costs too much unless the distribution is to large numbers. A couple of years ago, the O.U. estimated that an e-learning course needed about 1000 students to break even with realistic charges per student.
ReplyDeleteThis unit itself only pays staff for two hours per week -plus another two for 'preparation' (reading texts ourselves, choosing which ones to use, making them available online, checking out technology etc. During your assessment week I probably spent 10hrs going through your blogs and comments etc. The initial preparation for such a unit is weeks rather than hours. But we think it's worth it because some students really find it gives them a chance to shine in ways they've not experienced before -and many more find that the format does result in them learning more, which sticks with them more.
You might ask your colleagues how many of them are actually using their timetabled slot to meet f2f in their study groups? I think you'd find that mostly, they don't.
Anyway, the broadcast media don't deliver quality education it seems (this is in comparison with UK H.E.) The O.U. has reduced its broadcast offerings largely to co-productions with the BBC which are more extended adverts for the O.U. than key elements to courses.
This occurred because they very early on found that broadcast couldn't be relied upon, and even videotapes could not provide the interactivity of printed matter (you can't highlight a section of a tape. To replay a difficult passage six times is a nightmare compared to re-reading a passage six times! In short, some of learning is a private matter, and the medium for that PAR EXCELLENCE was reading text. Has that changed with hyperlinear delivery online?