Title: History in the Making
Competency: self-development
Who benefits: concerned citizens
Consultant Usage: website reference
What’s it about? What’s new in the New Year? I would like to offer an “eye-openerâ€, albeit down several paragraphs.
As regular readers of my weekly columns know well, I continue to gush (harp?) on Coursera, the 2.0 Online FREE University. The initial purposes of this innovative venture was (1) to bring university learning to people and places where university education was not permitted and/or possible and (2) learn more about how people learn.
The website is 1-year old this month. Already exciting and perhaps unintended consequences are underway. The first is analyzing who are taking these courses. Students are enrolled worldwide, as expected. But certain demographics were likely not anticipated, at least in such large number. Seniors (55+) constitute a large percentage of those enrolled. Coursera is meeting the needs of those seeking continuous learning (and not driven by grades or credits). A second group likely also unexpected is a significant number of pre-college age children. Many of them appear to be home schooled and are using Coursera to supplement their education.
There are two other innovations, initially intended or not, are underway. As more universities join in from around the world, more courses are likely to be offered in other languages. Last month there was only one (French), but I wouldn’t be surprised to see several more in 2013 and many more down the line. The other innovation, driven by both popular demand and economics, is finding ways to offer university credit for the courses completed. It certainly offers the potential of driving down (or at least mitigating) the cost of education.
While I find all of the above fascinating (and I hope you at least find it interesting), it is not why I am writing this post today. I have gained some new knowledge, but I am not sure I have learned anything. I am puzzling with something I would like to share with you.
I have just completed my first course, The History of the World Since 1300. The course was moving along smoothly for the first 75-85% of the material. After all, as one wit put it, it was the study of dead people. In that respect it was just like any other course you or I ever took. One thing the study of history rarely provokes is passion. One is more like to suffer from boredom.
But something happened in the last few weeks of this course. As history began to merge with the present, emotions began to rise, scholarship began to decline. There were several issues that raised hackles, but none more so than what I shall refer to as the Israel/Palestine or Palestine/Israel debate (see how cautious I have to be in order not to offend).
A thread was created on this history course site and hundreds of passionate people have posted. It’s not great grammar. It’s not great scholarship. Often it is not even coherent. It is as if words are being spit out so fast they are in disarray. But it offers glimpses of the world not found in history books.
It is living history. What intrigues me the most is that some of the respondents are living inside the region. To them it is not an academic debate. For them it is belief and principle. It is not about book learning, it is about living guns, bombs, bullets on a daily basis. For most of us it is an abstract concept. For them it is right outside the door.
It changes how we learn when students are living history. Being an internal participant brings an entirely new perspective.
What does it all mean? I don’t know yet. Does anyone? But it suggests that social learning in the future may come less from books and the New York Times and more from our classmates looking out their front door and describing what they see. One of my next classes is sociology. Maybe I will be learning from classmates living in the favelas of Brasil or the slums of Mumbai. Something about learning has changed. I think for the better.
Catch you later.
Bill Bradley
Bill Bradley (mostly) retired after 35 years in organizational consulting, training and management development. During those years he worked internally with seven organizations and trained and consulted externally with more than 90 large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools.
This is a really thoughtful and meaningful post Bill. What a nice way to start the new year and I cannot wait to continue learning from both your questions and your insights. Thanks.
Living history can no longer be seen as a contradiction in terms. Perspective can be everything in education. Once I was rattled out of complacency while conducting a corporate training. Perhaps too pleased with the similarity of a student’s answer to my own thinking, I remarked, “Great minds think alike.” To which another student could be heard to whisper, “Fools seldom differ.”