Open education is an alternative to classroom education

A specialist says that there are no proven scientific evidences that classroom education is superior to other educational methods, such as, online teaching.

Last Thursday, March 17, 2016, the School of Engineering (POLI) of the University of São Paulo held the seminar Open Education, Society and Technology, organized by CEST (Study Center Society and Technology) and the eMundus Project.

Prof. Dr. Edison Spina, membro-fundador e coordenador do CEST
Prof. Dr. Edison Spina

After Prof. Edison Spina’s opening words, an overview of the results obtained by the eMundus research project for the online course area was presented. Program coordinator Fabio Nascimbeni spoke briefly about how this work started, and highlighted the great exchange of experiences and knowledge among different people, universities, and countries that the eMundus provides. Explaining the view and objectives of the project, Nascimbeni helped to foment the debate of the coming lectures.

Afterwards, UNESCO member Prof. Rory McGreal from the Athabasca University in Canada, and where courses are exclusively online, joined the table, and stated that there is a strong chain of educators that sees the traditional classroom as the only valid educational way.

He disagrees with this view, and says that there are no proven scientific evidences that classrooms are superior to other education methods; therefore, leaving out other education forms would be a lot dangerous for the dissemination of knowledges and ideas. In his opinion, information needs to be free, therefore, it is necessary to seek and use other means of education. And a good example would be distance education.

rory_3_2016Rory McGreal[/caption]After Prof. McGreal, FGV Online CEO, and coordinator of graduate and distance education courses, Professor Stavros Xanthopoylos exposed his ideas, praising Prof. McGreal and recuperating some of his words, besides defining the open education idea in a few words: sharing any knowledge with any person. He mentions institutions, such as, the MIT and FGV itself, which provide the public with their contents, stopping copyrights from being a problem for those who seek information and knowledge.

Then, the time to debate Open Education in Brazil came! Prof. Marineli J. Meier, founder of REA-Paraná, Priscila Gonzales, from the Educadigital Institute, and Jamila Venturini, journalist and researcher at the Center of Technology and Society of Getúlio Vargas Foundation (CTS/FGV) joined the discussion, moderated by Lecturing Professor Romero Tori.

Prof. Marineli spoke first, contextualizing her examples of experience in the Open Educational Resource Program (REA) in Paraná, and reinforcing the necessity, on the part of the universities, of investing in online subjects even when these are parts of the classroom courses.

After that, Priscila Gonzales spoke a little about the institute she founded – Educadigital – which works for open education in digital culture. She sees in public schools a potential place for disseminating this kind of education, but she ponders whether Brazil is fully prepared for that. Priscila stated that to go further on this issue it is necessary to search for private support, dialog with the editorial market, and make academic researches more applicable for society.

To close the speech, Jamila Venturini reinforced Priscila’s words stating that there are cultural obstacles in Brazilian schools, such as, social inequality, lack of infrastructure, and lack of the Internet, among others, that make it difficult to implement Open Education. In her opinion, cultural dissemination is something necessary and the participation of the universities in this process is crucial.

After each lecturer’s individual speech, an opportunity for questions and public debate was open, with the participation of moderator Romero Tori.

The seminar Open Education, Society and Technology was marked by an enriching debate that helped elucidate the issues around open education in Brazil and in the world, besides pointing out paths and solutions for the existing challenges in this area currently. The fact that the event was held at USP reinforces that relevance of the subject, once University is favorable place for disseminating this educational method.

Text by: Nelson Niero Neto, from Journalism Junior at the School of Communications and Arts (ECA), University of São Paulo (USP).

Read more about the seminar:

Open Education in the Digital Age: a necessity

Watch the video: