Imperial bringing in budget holograms to teach students

Next up: Hard light?

In Imperial's case there is probably an argument for letting as many students as possible live as far out of London as possible. Accomodation and general living expenses are pretty eye-watering in central London if you are on a student budget. Also, rumour has it that some lecture theatres aren't always large enough for the number of students eligible (and, one supposes, expected) to attend. It's all very well letting universities compete for students on an open market but growth in numbers needs growth in facilities and that doesn't happen overnight. It's not surprising, then, that all the top universities are exploring ways of extending their geographical reach. It may not be long before they are all indistinguishable from the Open University.

The sticking points are activities that require group participation or particular hardware or expert supervision. (Science practicals would be particularly challenging example.) I suppose you could sort that out by having a dedicated week or fortnight per term where a subset of your student population "moved in" for the period and did nothing else except the activity, before receding into the suburbs (or home) to complete the theoretical parts of the course on the cheap. Of course, you'd lose the "student experience" of unlimited booze, sex and mis-behaviour, but I don't suppose the policy-makers will be too sorry about that.

I see no problem with holograms, it's not like the students are paying £9,250 per year each for the privilege. Though I'm guessing most of that goes on the £150,000 salary for the heads so anything to balance the books is a good thing.

Education is getting more messed up by the day. Why can't the people in charge that want this country to prosper see that by making education out of reach we are going to become a joke or is that the plan?

reserved for the business school

The whole thing wreaks of a typical ivory towers PR stunt.

Lets just say that well informed friends tell me that Imperial's Business School has never had a particularly stellar reputation and has certainly never been one of Imperial's finest establishments.

One might cogitate as to whether this may be an attempt to keep the unwashed masses (students) quiet by getting them some higher quality lectures on the cheap (in relative terms).

Higher grade international professors (especially of American descent) tend to come attached to demands for business class flights, per diems and such like. So a hologram could be a lot cheaper than the usual list of demands, especially if you get a license to use the recording multiple times.

"much greater sense of [BS]"

He did, however, attempt to justify the decision not to use tried-and-testing video-conferencing software by saying that these ‘holograms’ “have a much greater sense of presence”.

Only yesterday we had some perfect idiot from Apple drivelling to the Guardian about how the iShiny Shops were really "town squares" (read it: it's hilarious shyte), and now we have someone else infected by marketurd-itis: the shameless ability to talk transparent crap in defending the indefensible.

They're not holograms. They're not even Pepper's Ghost. They're not even particularly cleverly implemented, by modern standards. They add nothing to education. They don't help to convey information better, or even as well as, the presence of one of those rare birds, a good teacher.

They are, in short, a facile gimmick.

Try giving the students a variety of good text material, written with different perspectives and explaining things using different models, analogies and examples. Try giving them bi-weekly personal access in small numbers to really good tutors to help them through the thickets and monitor progress. Try giving them fortnightly lectures by serious experts who communicate well, inspire and motivate. Those with interest and ability will flourish.

Finally, try ever so hard not to be tempted to 'cheap out' with third-rate YouTube presentations, murkily rendered pages askew from a printer, soul-deadening computerised 'learning', constant testing and hasty meetings with the cheapest tutors you could find.

'Education' is derived from Latin meaning roughly 'to lead into the light'. This is done by real, competent, intelligent, inspiring people in close proximity to other intelligent and motivated people.

Technology may offer cheap, lazy, superficially convincing ways of pretending to do the same thing ... but it isn't the same thing and mostly, it just does not work.

Getting the managers of the future

to pay lots of money for worthless tat and gimmickry, using a risibly cheap and tacky version of an already shit idea seems to me the perfect preparation for a 21st century career in the higher echelons of a world drenched in crappy technological hype.

Jeremy Bentham

Does this mean he won't have to attend UCL meetings any more?

Appropriate that it should be Imperial

While the whole thing smacks of a publicity stunt at the time of year when sixth-formers are honing their UCCA selection, it would be appropriate for Imperial to be first as holography was invented there by Prof. Dennis Gabor, a senior lecturer and research fellow. I was privileged to attend one of the last lectures he gave in retirement.

As to Eric Laithwaite, it can't have escaped his notice that his undergraduate lectures were attended by far more students than were registered for his modules, including some from different departments, but he never seem to mind.

Underwhelming

There's no more to say