Complete Intellectual Freedom: Blessing or Curse?

Tech-mediated self-directed distance learning… Now that is a mouthful! Let me first get to the bottom of what this actually means by breaking up the concept in its constituent parts.

“Tech-mediated” implies a process that is mediated or brought about by the means of technology. For me, this constitutes “internet-mediated”.

According to the Oxford Online Dictionary, “self-directed” implies an activity that is under one’s own control.

Also according to the clever dudes at Oxford, “distance learning” implies a method of studying in which lectures are broadcast or lessons are conducted by correspondence, without the student needing to attend a school or college.

Thus the concept implies a method of studying completely under the control or discression of the student in which lectures or lessons are accessed via the internet without the student needing to attend a school or college. We are asked to argue the potential of this approach to learning.

The aforementioned approach is basically the model of The Independent Project as initiated in 2009 by a learner, Sam Levin, at Monument Mountain Regional High School in Massachusetts, USA. This concept is very radical in my view and definitely has its pro’s and cons.

As pro’s, I would list the following:

-It makes room for the intelligent but a bit rebellious learner who tends to be at loggerheads to conform with the rigid structure of the public schooling system.

-Because the learners choose their own fields of study, it ensures that they study subject matter which interests them and which they might feel are useful for them.

-It ensures that no limit is placed upon the creativity of learners.

-It ensures that intellectually gifted learners keeps being stimulated and being paced at their own speed, ensuring that they don’t become bored with the learning process.

-If successfully utilised, it teaches young learners to be very responsible for their own learning, careers and lives.

As to cons, here is my list:

-This system would probably only work with a small portion of responsible and very independent learners.

-Very few public school systems would make room for this system in their midst. In an article by Matthew Whalan in The Berkshire Edge of 14 July 2014, he alludes to Monument that it “may very well be one of the best, most creative public schools for miles in every direction” but he also follows on to say that its principal “may be one of the bravest principals for miles as well”.

-The same article also mentions how expensive this system of learning is. This is thus definitely not a model for teaching the masses and therefore I doubt that it is very suitable for the South African context.

-It is difficult to evaluate the success of this system. Whalan makes the following statement in this regard: “The Independent Project has become a mess in some ways. No one can ever seem to tell if it is “succeeding” or not, and no one can seem to even define “success” anymore…”

I have serious doubts about the viability of The Independent Project for mass education, but can see its merits for small groups of special students with unique learning expectations. I thus see The Project only as an educational experiment from which we as educators can learn from and see how we can apply its pro’s to our current educational reality.

I think there is much to be learnt from Whalan’s statement that “students will be more powerful, more passionate, more intelligent and more creative human beings if they have control over their world, rather than being forced to be uniform creatures who they may not want to become”. For me, this statement begs for more independence of learners and warns of the dangers of boxing in our learners into mass identities in which they have no say in.