LETTER: Mr. Chips or Computer Chips?
James Hilton’s Goodbye, Mr. Chips was a nostalgic recollection of a dedicated and inspiring teacher. The new “Mr. Chips” is a computer. With online classes now often replacing traditional face-to-face classes, and the live professor disappearing behind a computer screen, we have to ask once again, what is the purpose of a university, and will online learning promote or frustrate that purpose?
The purpose of a university today is what it has always been: The creation and dissemination of knowledge. But what is knowledge? Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of knowledge – knowing that and knowing how. You know that Paris is the capital of France; you know how to ride a bicycle. Both kinds of knowledge are essential for mastery of an academic subject, but each kind is learned in very different ways. You can learn about national capitals from a computer; to learn how to ride a bicycle you have to actually get on a bicycle. Similarly, you can learn how to be a laboratory scientist only by putting on the white coat and mixing it up with the test tubes. You learn how to be a philosopher by undergoing the rigors of Socratic interrogation.
Computers are good for “learning that,” but they lag far behind in “learning how.” You can have a philosophical discussion by e-mail, but it is an extremely inefficient form of communication. You can say more in ten minutes of live conversation than in an hour of e-mailing. Besides, human communication is largely nonverbal. In a face-to-face setting I can read facial expressions and body language to tell when a student is confused or inattentive and change my presentation accordingly. Further, I communicate my own enthusiasm by expression, tone, and gesture. When a computer screen comes between me and my students it compromises the immediate, personal, and direct nature of that crucial exchange. Consider: Millions of years of evolution have adapted human beings to the nuances of face-to-face communication. We have been staring at computer screens for only about thirty years. Even face-imaging technologies are a distant second-best.
The upshot is that computers have many disadvantages compared to face-to-face learning. But wait. Don’t studies show that computer learning is often as effective as face-to-face? What these studies mostly show is that – surprise, surprise – the most important factor in student achievement is not the medium of instruction, but the amount of effort that the student puts into learning. In all the roiling debates about education this one obvious fact gets overlooked: All that any teacher can ever do is to lead the proverbial horse to water. Whether students drink deeply at the fountain of knowledge or only gargle is up to them. But a great teacher can be a great motivator, and you will have lifelong memories of an inspiring teacher. If the new Mr. Chips is a computer, will the memories of future generations of former students be quite so warm?
Keith M. Parsons
Professor of Philosophy
