The disruption resulting from academics and students expressing their concerns with the changes to higher education that the coalition government proposes may trigger important changes. Can disruption be useful as a way of understanding the OU?
Open universities have engaged in such a wide range of activities besides research and teaching adult higher education that Alan Tait concluded that ‘what remains constant is the development function and I suggest that it is helpful to define the purposes of an open university in this way’ (Alan Tait, ‘What are open universities for?’, Open Learning, 23, 2, 2008, pp. 85 – 93 (p. 93)). (more…)
The wealthy and philanthropic American, William Benton (1900-1973) was an early enthusiast for The Open University. A staunch Democrat he played an important part in bringing down Joseph McCarthy when he challenged McCarthy’s claims that the State Department was infiltrated by numerous Communists. Despite lack of support from at least some on his side of the House Benton was victorious over McCarthy. The owner of the Encyclopedia Britannica, Benton was a keen advocate of using radio and television to support learning. He financed Harold Wilson’s trips to the USA and maintained a relationship with the Wilson family for many years, including with Harold’s son Robin, who later worked at the OU. He was also close to Geoffrey Crowther and met Arnold Goodman and Walter Perry. His papers can be used as evidence as to how influential he was on Wilson’s development of the idea of what became the OU. They are housed in the University of Chicago and I’m there at present, taking a look at them. One thing I’d like to check is the statement by B. MacArthur, ‘An interim history of the Open University’ in J. Tunstall (ed.) The Open University Opens, Routledge, London 1974, that the idea of the Open University was really born at Easter 1963 in Wilson’s home in discussion with officials of the Labour Party. My suspicion is that it has longer roots and that Wilson’s connection with Benton is of significance.
The BBC had a long history of producing discussion materials to accompany educational talks on the radio. This experience of combining material presented in one medium with that presented in another was of value when the university of the air was being designed. Thanks to Allan Jones and the BBC Archives for this image.
Whilst others (for example here, here, and here) criticise aspects of the Browne report published this week, particularly the huge additional burden to be placed on students and the increasing marketisation of higher education, the Open University appears to be the only progressive voice welcoming any of Browne’s recommendations.
This should come as no surprise. One of Browne’s recommendations is that ‘Part time students should be treated the same as full time students for the costs of learning.’ While the rest of Browne’s proposals can be debated, as those familar with the OU’s history will know, this particular recommendation has been a long time coming. If implemented this would effectively be the culmination of a campaign the OU has been waging since its foundation.
Official documents from the 70s, 80s, 90s right up to the present day consistently highlight the unfair treatment of part-time students, and the action being taken to lobby the government to redress this. Now the OU has launched a new campaign calling on the government to ensure part-time students in the UK get a fair deal. See www.fourinten.org.
Forthcoming History of Education seminars to include contributions by Hilary Perraton and Dan Weinbren in Spring and Summer 2011. Seminars take place on Thursdays at 5.30pm
In ‘The Shallows: What the Internet is doing to our brains (Norton, 2010) Nicholas Carr suggested that acquiring new tools and skills changes us because using them forms new connections in the brain. This echoes the ideas of Marshall (the media is the message) McLuhan, who once said that ‘the future of the book is the blurb’. Long before him Plato also took the view that our tools affect our thoughts.
There is plenty of evidence that the brain is adaptable. A London cab driver who knows how to get about the capital, that is has ‘the knowledge’, has a hippocampus (the part of the brain where such information is stored and used) larger than most of the rest of us. Brain scans indicate that the web strengthens our “primitive” mental functions (quick decision-making and problem-solving). Many studies (in Nature and elsewhere) have concluded that gaming leads to improvements in performance on various cognitive tasks, from visual perception to sustained attention. Bjarki Valtysson ‘Access culture: Web 2.0 and cultural participation’, International Journal of Cultural Policy, 16, 2, 2010, pp. 200 — 214, demonstrated how digital communication and new media platforms enhance cultural participation.
However, Carr argued that another aspect of this plasticity is that, given the opportunity to dip and sample, we tend to be more easily distracted and interrupted and to use the processes associated with reading less. To employ the analogy of the brain as a computer, our circuits are being reprogrammed by our gadgets. (more…)
On 15th July 2010, former Labour councillor and economics lecturer at Glasgow University, Vince Cable MP who was, according to his autobiography (‘Free Radical – A Memoir’) ‘one of the first generation of Open University tutors” made his ‘first attempt to set out my views on the university, and wider, HE sector and my aspirations for it’ (see here). In regard to The Open University, which he called ‘a world leader in distance learning’, the Business Secretary in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills proposed that more students could be encouraged to save money by staying at home and studying for university degrees externally, along the lines of Open University courses. (more…)