Saturday, June 17, 2006

Teacher's new "PET"

In this interview from 2000, the late David Squires outlines his vision for Peripatetic Electronic Teachers, freelance instructors who attract students globally. While the idea isn't new (as he points out), he covers all kinds of interesting ideas in the subsequent discussion:
"Higher education is becoming much more market driven with a heavier emphasis on client led delivery. Learners now want bespoke learning experiences that match their needs and interests. This corresponds with the notion of the Internet as a market driven social space. Within this space there will be a role for entrepreneurs - freelance teachers who use the features of new technologies to create and deliver learning experiences."
And this:
"It is essential that the Education Establishment engages in the Information Society issue now so that it can have an influential - hopefully the most influential - voice in the developments of technology-mediated learning and teaching. If not other agents - the mega-publishers, telecom infrastructure providers etc. - will take sole/primary charge of education."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've never used Nuvvo - http://www.nuvvo.com/ - but it seems to be a practical method of allowing "PET"s to teach worldwide.

Jeremy said...

Very cool, thanks for this.

I guess a huge issue will still be credentialing, but perhaps we'll come up with creative ways to recognize the value of different kinds of learning over time.