Gadget-o-person,
I know accreditation and standards are a big part of Education with a capital E.
I don’t know how people such as yourself deal with this fact in the real world, so it’s great to
get some feedback from those struggling with how to make it all work.
And I grant you that people of good will can find a way, even under very trying
circumstances to git er done. A lot of the people I have met in the cohort fit that
description.
And yet, I still wonder how, in the evolving world of online education with a small E, what
roles accreditation and standards are going to play, because I think it’s going to be
different. When people have alternate ways to buy the car, a lot of them will simply go
online and click through to the lowest prices, and forget about the “real time” dealer with his
standards and process that most people don’t enjoy.
And no, I don’t mean to compare teachers to car dealers, not at all…..although sometimes I
might be tempted to compare ed admin roles to same. That’s just me getting carried away
with a dramatic analogy…the kind Plato warned us against.
For better or worse, I just posit that a new way of thinking about standards and
certifications that adjusts to the fact that the customer is going to have a lot more “Power”
in the new online world. Or if not power, a lot of alternatives to “standard” educational
means. And I’d just guess that changes things enough for a new way of invoking standards
rather than imposing standards will be needed.
But as you noted, I’m out here on the borderland, doing my Po.
“provacative operation”:
“A notation used in lateral thinking, is Po. This stands for provocative operation and is used
to propose an idea, which may not necessarily be a solution, or a ‘good’ idea in itself, but
moves thinking forward to a new place where new ideas may be produced.” Wikipedia
