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Students’ True Purposes and Third Millennium Realities

Authors:
Philip Uys at The University of Adelaide
Philip Uys
Mike Douse at Freelance
Mike Douse
  • Freelance
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Abstract

Across the millennia, education has been misapplied in the service of particular magical, religious, military, ideological, empire-governing, social justice, ecological, and economic development objectives. Irrespective of how noble the intention – such as rebuilding our relationships with each other, with the planet and with technology – we do our students a serious disservice if we treat them primarily as future adults. It is primarily what they “are” rather than what they may “become” that is significant – and what policymakers should consider in the first instance. Education is not exclusively (nor even predominantly) a preparation for a career, nor for citizenship, nor for life in general, any more than going to the beach or the bowling alley or the cinema is a foundation for something else. Any more than retirement is preparation for death. Education is education. Education’s forthcoming and fundamental transformation, made necessary and possible by contemporary technology, takes full account of the tangible/virtual consciousness duality and of immediate worldwide connectivity. Learners of all ages’ essential e-lived existences necessitate and make possible an immersive educational experience that involves integrating and building upon the synergistic coexistence of the online and the face-to-face. Digital technology offers incredible potential in tertiary practice to develop relationships (though global digital interactions with other learners and teachers), curiosity (through challenging learners through Artificial Intelligence), creativity (through creating virtual reality experiences for peers), and resilience (through exposing learners to a range of learning technologies and flexible learning options): it is a vehicle for inspiring and engaging learners. But EdTech is currently characterised by vast investment, widespread hype and minimal achievement. The underlying problem is one of applying third millennium technologies in second millennium settings: driving a Formula One vehicle along ancient cart tracks; while further not applying EdTech to address learners, teachers, curriculum, governance and technology in systemic and synergistic way. Assuredly, ‘tertiary education’ involves vocational training as well as liberal education: let them live in happy harmony. In particular, the colonisation of the lecture hall or laboratory by the workplace must, it is urged, be stubbornly resisted. Undoubtedly, professional criteria must be achieved – but even future doctors, engineers, lawyers and suchlike need no longer to be led by the firm hand along carefully prescribed and meticulously supervised pathways. From secondary onwards, through tertiary and lifelong, we argue that the learner should lead. Tertiary learners should not and need not be unduly directed and restricted in the manner of second millennium novices. At this level a blend of education and training integrated with a multi-disciplinary approach and encompassing the international dimension will enable learners to plan and contribute to preparing themselves for life (and, to the extent that they may choose, work) in such proportions as they determine. Our presentation explores how tertiary education may best apply technology and creativity in order to gear itself to the contemporary imperative of universally connected students taking the lead in pursuit of their own purposes and aspirations. By such means may the world’s universities and colleges now become true and convivial 21st century settings for the fulfillment of such purposes as the learners primarily themselves may determine.
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Reconnecting relationships through technology POSTER
ASCILITE 2022 The University of Sydney e22194-1
Reconnecting relationships through technology
Students’ True Purposes and Third Millennium Realities
Philip Uys1 and Mike Douse2
1New South Wales-based senior international education consultant: philip.uys@globe-online.com
2South Wales-based international educational development advisor: mjdouse@gmail.com
Across the millennia, education has been misapplied in the service of particular magical, religious, military,
ideological, empire-governing, social justice, ecological, and economic development objectives.
Irrespective of how noble the intention – such as rebuilding our relationships with each other, with the
planet and with technology – we do our students a serious disservice if we treat them primarily as future
adults. It is primarily what they “are” rather than what they may “become” that is significant – and what
policymakers should consider in the first instance. Education is not exclusively (nor even predominantly)
a preparation for a career, nor for citizenship, nor for life in general, any more than going to the beach or
the bowling alley or the cinema is a foundation for something else. Any more than retirement is preparation
for death. Education is education.
Education’s forthcoming and fundamental transformation, made necessary and possible by contemporary
technology, takes full account of the tangible/virtual consciousness duality and of immediate worldwide
connectivity. Learners of all ages’ essential e-lived existences necessitate and make possible an immersive
educational experience that involves integrating and building upon the synergistic coexistence of the online
and the face-to-face.
Digital technology offers incredible potential in tertiary practice to develop relationships (though global
digital interactions with other learners and teachers), curiosity (through challenging learners through
Artificial Intelligence), creativity (through creating virtual reality experiences for peers), and resilience
(through exposing learners to a range of learning technologies and flexible learning options): it is a vehicle
for inspiring and engaging learners. But EdTech is currently characterised by vast investment, widespread
hype and minimal achievement. The underlying problem is one of applying third millennium technologies
in second millennium settings: driving a Formula One vehicle along ancient cart tracks; while further not
applying EdTech to address learners, teachers, curriculum, governance and technology in systemic and
synergistic way.
Assuredly, ‘tertiary education’ involves vocational training as well as liberal education: let them live in
happy harmony. In particular, the colonisation of the lecture hall or laboratory by the workplace must, it is
urged, be stubbornly resisted. Undoubtedly, professional criteria must be achieved – but even future
doctors, engineers, lawyers and suchlike need no longer to be led by the firm hand along carefully
prescribed and meticulously supervised pathways. From secondary onwards, through tertiary and lifelong,
we argue that the learner should lead. Tertiary learners should not and need not be unduly directed and
restricted in the manner of second millennium novices. At this level a blend of education and training
integrated with a multi-disciplinary approach and encompassing the international dimension will enable
Reconnecting relationships through technology POSTER
ASCILITE 2022 The University of Sydney e22194-2
learners to plan and contribute to preparing themselves for life (and, to the extent that they may choose,
work) in such proportions as they determine.
Our presentation explores how tertiary education may best apply technology and creativity in order to gear
itself to the contemporary imperative of universally connected students taking the lead in pursuit of their
own purposes and aspirations. By such means may the world’s universities and colleges now become true
and convivial 21st century settings for the fulfillment of such purposes as the learners primarily themselves
may determine.
Keywords: Discontinuities, Education, Training, Purpose, Educational Technology
References
Adiseshia, M.S. (1970). The Education continuum, a neglected university responsibility.
UNESCO. Available at: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000000641?1
=null&queryId=740b6224-2577-4794-8268- 169eadeed26c
Douse, M. (2005) Learning and Laughter—and let the Livelihood come After, presentation to the 8th UKFIET
International Education and Development Conference on “Learning and Livelihood”. Oxford, UK.
Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/pub lication/328419757_Learning_and_Laughter_-
_and_let_the_Livelihood_come_after
Douse, M. (2013) Chalkboards and Cheeseboards—Resisting the Workplace’s Colonisation of the Schoolroom.
Network for Policy Research, Review and Advice on Education and Training, July 29, 2013. Available
at: https://www.norrag.org/chalkboards-and-cheeseboards-resisting-the-workplaces-colonisation-of-the-
schoolroom/
Douse, M. (2022) EdTech: the Miracle that Failed. Available at:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/361366169_Edtech_The_Miracle_that_Failed_-
and_how_it_might_be_Resuscitated
Douse, M. & Uys, P.M. (2020) One World One School - Education’s forthcoming fundamental transformation.
Available at: http://www.globe-online.com/ oneworldoneschool.pdf
Uys, P.M. & Douse, M. (2020, 30 Nov - 1 Dec). The Post-Pandemic Blended University in the Time of
Digitisation [Paper presentation]. The 37th International Conference on Innovation, Practice and
Research in the Use of Educational Technologies in Tertiary Education (ASCILITE 2020): Ascilite's
First Virtual Conference, Online.
Douse, M. & Uys, P.M. (In press) In Defence of Discontinuities, Network for Policy Research, Review and
Advice on Education and Training.
International Labour Organization. (2019). Work for a brighter future [Report]. Available at:
http://www.ilo.org/global/publications/books/WCMS_662410/lang-- en/index.htm
UNESCO. (2021). Reimagining our futures together: A new social contract for education—
UNESCO Digital Library. Available at: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379707.locale=en
United Nations. (2015). Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development. Available at: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/trans
formingourworld/publication
Uys, P. M. & Douse, M. (2022, December 4-7). Students’ True Purposes and Third Millennium Realities [Poster
Presentation]. 39th International Conference on Innovation, Practice and Research in the Use of Educational
Technologies in Tertiary Education, ASCILITE 2022, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
https://doi.org/10.14742/apubs.2022.194
The author(s) assign a Creative Commons by attribution licence enabling others to distribute, remix, tweak, and
build upon their work, even commercially, as long as credit is given to the author(s) for the original creation.
© Uys, P. M. & Douse, M. 2022
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
The post-pandemic blended university in the time of digitisation
Conference Paper
Full-text available
  • Nov 2020
This paper documents the inevitable emergence of the ‘Global School’, assesses how the Covid-19 pandemic is hastening that transformation, and then focusses upon how these elemental educational developments may apply at the post-school level. Digitisation involves a pivotal leap in human potential as profound as the wheel in terms of development, as significant as the book in relation to information, and as iconoclastic as anything dreamed up by the deepest analyst/therapist in terms of the human psyche. Given that we are moving inexorably and joyfully into the One World One School situation, do we envisage the one global and blended university – where universal access and organisation are intermingled with local needs, cultures and priorities? Are we also progressing towards a blended post-secondary assessment and learning pedagogy in which the digital is dominant? And, if so, how will the pandemic – and the responses to it – pave the way towards that desirable destination?
View
ONE WORLD ONE SCHOOL: Education's forthcoming fundamental transformation
Book
Full-text available
  • Mar 2020
Digitisation is creating an entirely new and wonderfully inter-connected world. This fundamental and forthcoming transformation necessitates and makes possible utterly original understandings, approaches, arrangements and aspirations. However, while sectors such as communication, banking, entertainment, defence, information, retail and security have been radically restructured by digitisation, the applications of ICT in education have been characterised by four decades of disappointment, disillusionment and frustration. Clearly, isolated and piecemeal digital innovations can achieve little of value within twentieth century schools and archaic educational systems. Given that we are in a time of unparalleled challenges and opportunities, One World One School recognises that, as our starting-point, we must agree upon a fresh comprehension of what education is really for in the third millennium and beyond. Mike Douse and Philip Uys affirm that it needs to be totally restructured with digitisation as the cohesive force. Moreover, the novel Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic (appearing as this book was on the point of completion) necessitates an immediate and inspirational online educational response which may well pave the way towards that fundamental transformation. Education’s substance, practice and consequences may now become much more equitable, ethical and enjoyable (and far less competitive, test-oriented and world-of-work-dominated). Billions of learners are yearning for education. Instead, nine-tenths of them are fobbed off with job preparation – and discriminatory job preparation at that. Just as there is now, virtually, just the one global library, so also we are moving towards the worldwide universal school, consigning contemporary educational arrangements (including competitive examinations, imposed curricula, indoctrination and propaganda, the reproduction of inequality and the demeaning power of PISA) to the rubbish bin of history. As delineated in One World One School, the primary phase is the time of preparation – enjoyable and stimulating years aimed at enabling each child to become ready for self- directed learning. From then onwards, throughout life, the curriculum may and must be learner driven (rather than designed externally from and directed at learners as victims) embodying a convivial learning-supporting pedagogy, with teachers playing (dramatically altered, more professionally fulfilling and essentially responsive) concierges of learning and escorts to wisdom roles. The Digital Age creates the universal consciousness embodying the tangible/digital duality that characterises these petrifyingly exciting times. These coming COVID19 months offer an opportunity to invest substantially in effective and enjoyable online education for all. Digitisation involves a pivotal leap in human potential as profound as the wheel in terms of development, as significant as the book in relation to information, and as iconoclastic as anything dreamed up by the deepest analyst/therapist in terms of the human psyche. Nothing – educationally – will ever be the same again [just as nothing – economically and socially – will ever be the same post-pandemic] and all of this is thoughtfully and entertainingly explored in One World One School.
View
The Education Continuum - A Neglected University Responsibility
Article
  • Feb 1972
With the acceptance of the concept of life-long integrated education, education is seen as a global system which not only prepares people for life, but which is an integral part of life itself. Before the introduction of Western systems of education, Asian education was related to one's position in society. However, Asian countries now show their belief that education is one of the most important keys to development by devoting high proportions of national budgets to it. The current difficulties of formal education include: (1) education-employment antinomy, (2) education-manpower inbalance, (3) education and its anti-rural bias, (4) the closed system of education, and (5) the cost of education. To solve these problems, entire school systems will have to change. This process can be accelerated by fuller university involvement in adult education. Asian universities have a solid base to build a program of continuing education. Thousands of adult students are being served by extension courses. Up to now, the role of the universities has remained limited in the field of continuing education. This condition results from unchanging attitudes from within and lack of financial support from without. There is, in addition, a need for smooth working machinery; organizational patterns must be worked out on a country by country basis. UNESCO will extend aid to those governments engaged in adult education programs. (CK)
View
Learning and Laughter-and let the Livelihood come After, presentation to the 8th UKFIET International Education and Development Conference on "Learning and
  • Jan 2005
  • M Douse
Douse, M. (2005) Learning and Laughter-and let the Livelihood come After, presentation to the 8th UKFIET International Education and Development Conference on "Learning and Livelihood". Oxford, UK. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/pub lication/328419757_Learning_and_Laughter_-_and_let_the_Livelihood_come_after
Chalkboards and Cheeseboards-Resisting the Workplace's Colonisation of the Schoolroom. Network for Policy Research
  • Jul 2013
  • M Douse
Douse, M. (2013) Chalkboards and Cheeseboards-Resisting the Workplace's Colonisation of the Schoolroom. Network for Policy Research, Review and Advice on Education and Training, July 29, 2013. Available at: https://www.norrag.org/chalkboards-and-cheeseboards-resisting-the-workplaces-colonisation-of-theschoolroom/
EdTech: the Miracle that Failed
  • Jan 2022
  • M Douse
Douse, M. (2022) EdTech: the Miracle that Failed. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/361366169_Edtech_The_Miracle_that_Failed_-and_how_it_might_be_Resuscitated
Reimagining our futures together: A new social contract for education-UNESCO Digital Library
  • Jan 2015
  • M Douse
  • P M Uys
Douse, M. & Uys, P.M. (In press) In Defence of Discontinuities, Network for Policy Research, Review and Advice on Education and Training. International Labour Organization. (2019). Work for a brighter future [Report]. Available at: http://www.ilo.org/global/publications/books/WCMS_662410/lang--en/index.htm UNESCO. (2021). Reimagining our futures together: A new social contract for education-UNESCO Digital Library. Available at: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379707.locale=en United Nations. (2015). Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Available at: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/trans formingourworld/publication