‘We can track within the ‘digital native’ literature and discourse an alignment with this vision of higher education as market driven and determined by a culture of enterprise. The need for institutions and individual academics to change (to become more ‘digital’) is regularly justified by referral to student ‘needs’ which come to stand as proxy for market ‘needs’’’. (Bayne, S. & Ross, J. 2003:163)

Educational institutions are implementing edutech products not in response to students’ preferences and needs, but to give them the perceived edge over competitors. What are your thoughts on this statement?

My Reflections

If the word ‘market’ suggests that education is a marketplace, this, in turn, means students are customers. Actually, my mother, a teacher of 25 years, in an interview (by me) about her use of digital technology in her classroom, was appalled at the very thought of calling students customers. Indeed, she felt that getting caught up with such terminology as ‘customer’, or ‘student’ or ‘learner’, was a huge distraction from the relative importance of teaching, “It doesn’t really matter what they’re called. They’ve just come along to get something from you, that you have, that you know and what to give them – which is your knowledge and experience to help them through their course”. (7 minute mark). Ironically, I had used that very analogy adding a more positive spin, in a recent blog post about the objectives of student-centred online learning, “If teaching is a business, and the students our customers, then in order to provide the best product/service, it is up to the individual teacher to adapt their specific learning environment to the student’s needs”.

A Chinese friend who is a Teacher Trainer in one of the districts here in Beijing, has been nominated to research digital tools for teaching primary school English, and during our weekly meetings, I try to give appropriate suggestions and advice related to tools I know of or have used. Our discussions reveal two main issues – that her superiors are more concerned with what’s popular right now, rather than why they would want to use ‘x’ tool in the classroom. The other being that English-language digital tools dominate the scene, which is problematic at best for native-Chinese teachers, even if they themselves teach English. So now we are seeking out/waiting for the “Chinese” version of tools to support language learning. Some already exist (we have Youku for YouTube, we have Weibo for Twitter etc.) And it was to my delight that I recently found emoodle (I think you know what was copied here!).

Similarly, one of the schools where we operate an outreach program has bought an interactive table, and I may be given the task of training the teachers on how to use it. I am somewhat critical of their ‘buy now, learn how to use later’ attitude, which clearly highlights the myth of the percieved ‘technological edge’. However, I do appreciate that, based on my current studies, the challenge of assessing their needs, and designing some form of training based on firm pedagogical practice, would benefit both them, and me.

Bayne & Ross, 2011, Digital Native and Digital Immigrant Discourses