The Role of Professor: Archetype, Anachronism, or Work-in-Progress

1. The Role of Professor: Archetype, Anachronism, or Work-in-Progress A Panel Discussion Conceived and moderated by Boria Sax, Berkeley College Featuring: Phylise Banner, University without Walls Mary Jane Clerkin, Berkeley College Carla Payne, Union Institute & University (ret.) Anthony G. Picciano, Hunter College Cornell Reinhart, University of the Free State, South Africa Karen Swan, Kent State University

2. The role of a professor … goes back through history to such venerable models as Aesop, Socrates, Confucius, and Jesus. The standard model for the traditional classroom, however, with a podium for the teacher and smaller desks for the students, has barely changed since the ancient world. Medieval Woodblock Print of a Classroom

3. The model for the contemporary research university… was articulated by Wilhelm von Humboldt at the University of Berlin in the early nineteenth century, who envisioned scholars, motivated only by love of learning, pursuing their investigations in “freedom and solitude.” Because the institution of the university was able to continue with hardly any fundamental alteration through the upheavals of the Industrial Revolution, it began to seem like an enduring archetype, which transcended society and was impervious to change.

4. This paradigm is challenged by online learning, where, … if we believe a familiar adage, “The Professor… Egyptian scribe with ink stand and table

5. is not a sage on the stage… University Scene by Laurentius de Voltolina, ca. 1355

6. …but a guide on the side.” Dante and Virgil encounter Betram de Born (detail), by Gustave Doré, 1861

7. What are the special challenges, satisfactions, and frustrations of online teaching? How, if at all, should online teachers aspire to impact the lives of their students beyond the classroom? To impact their society? Should they be mentors? Role models? What, if anything, are the public responsibilities of online professors? How should they relate to their students? To governing powers?

8. Are the traditions of teachers such as Socrates or Confucius still relevant in an online classroom? Does it make sense to speak of teachers that are not simply “good” but “great” in the context of an online classroom? If so, what distinguishes such teachers? What might be a contemporary role model for an online professor? What should be the guiding ideals of an online professor?

9. How has online learning impacted the role, status, and image of professors? Should students and others look to professors primarily for specialized knowledge? Wisdom? Managerial skills? Should the duty and authority of professors extend beyond the classroom? If so, in what ways?

10. What will the emerging online university be like? Will the online university be a massive corporation? A decentralized cottage industry? A moral center for society? A new kind of “tribal” community? Will the primarily purpose of the university be professional training? Personal guidance? Social and institutional leadership? Organization and dissemination of knowledge?

11. Or will the university simply become superfluous and disappear? Thank you for attending. This is not the end, but…