A free and open undergraduate photography class

[Isaac]

Photography and open education

Phonar --  A free and open undergraduate photography class

[Justan]

Thanks for the link to the articles. The first one posed some classic dilemmas. Anyone who produces pictures would naturally want to protect their rights to reproducing the pictures. However as an educator, user rights can get in the way of education. For the example stated in the article, the goal was not to sell the pictures one by one and instead the payment came from the school for the instructor’s time. But that is almost an aside for the broader goal of the article.

The popularity of the classes is very impressive. Having taken photography classes for a lot of years I found that instruction and feedback were vital parts of the learning processes. In the case described, it becomes more a role of education by loose association. With up to 35,000 students there is no real chance of ever getting of 1:1 instruction or feedback. Certainty the instructor will never get to know more than a few very aggressive students. Due to this I have to question the utility of this kind of course as a real college educational tool. It amounts to little more and potentially a lot less than the kind of education that takes place on any web forum.

But, at the same time, it certainly looks like a good idea because of the vast number of people who sign up. It’s ironic: If you are looking for an opportunity to learn it is not the best way, but if you are looking for success as a teacher it shows high marks due to the number who participate. If schools get funding based on student enrollment it’s a winner. However if success is measured by the results the majority of students achieve………………

[Isaac]

It amounts to little more and potentially a lot less than the kind of education that takes place on any web forum.

The problem with web forums is the kind of mis-education that takes place :-)

Of course, although mis-information is rampant across the web it isn't confined to the web, I stumbled over this failure to reason in a book yesterday --

"If ten people were to stand on a hill and take a photograph of the same view, using the same camera, the results would be near identical. If the same ten people sat down for a few days and painted that view, the results would be markedly different. ... We'll see the things we find interesting and ignore those that we don't. Given a farmyard to paint, one person might concentrate on the hens and another on the farmer's wife." p80 What Are You Looking At?

I would have hoped that it was obvious the premise - We'll see the things we find interesting and ignore those that we don't - applies just as much to the ten people taking photos as the ten people painting, but perhaps logic was inconvenient to the point the author wished to make.