1. Crisis theme 3
Facilitator: John Cook
Inequalities of digital/cultural/social capital
http://arv13crisisforum.wordpress.com/draft-
programme/crisis-theme-3/

2. Equality & Educational equity
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_equity,
accessed 28/01/13
• Educational equity, or equity in education, is the study and
achievement of fairness in education. The study of educational
equity is often linked with the study of excellence and equity.
Fairness is often equated with equality, but equity deals with
accommodating and meeting the specific needs of specific
individuals. Such needs-based accommodation will not result in
equal treatment of all students.
• Dimensions of Educational Equity
• Educational equity has two interrelated dimensions. One is the
issue of fairness, in that achievement ought to be based upon
ability and application, and not on factors such as gender, socio-
economic status or ethnicity. The second that all individuals have a
right to basic functioning literacy and numeracy (OECD, 2007).

3. 5 minute overviews
• The following have each agreed to give a 5
miniute overview of some issues raised in
their position paper that relate to this theme
(thank you).
• Each overview is intended to promote debate:

4. 5 minute overviews & debate
• John Cook: Is it a democratic right to enable equity of access to cultural
resources?
• Debbie Holley: “16 Year Olds are being left on the scrap heap in the
UK”
• John Traxler: Differences in and of digital and cultural capital? Southern
vs. Northern hemisphere. Communities vs. state education system’s
use of TEL. Community appropriation of it to enhance or preserve their
cultural capital.
• Ilona Buchem: What should people learn in schools? What do we need
in life? Is History, geography etc. still needed in school?
• Norbert Pachler: Why are schools asking students to check in at the
door powerful devices for sense making of their life-words?
• Concluding remarks by John Cook

5. Questions
• What new kinds of inequality and disadvantage are
created (within societies as well as between societies)
when digital practices become endemic in formal
education?
• What kinds of digital capital are needed to participate
effectively in learning, formal or informal?
• How can educators promote more equal access to
opportunity in a digital learning context?
• Is it a democratic right to enable equity of access to
digital practices or more generally cultural resources?
• Are cultural resources accessed, in terms of their
educational function, by being appropriated?

6. Pre-workshop discussion
• “Exclusive: Treat white working-class boys like ethnic minority, Willetts
tells universities”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-
news/exclusive-treat-white-workingclass-boys-like-ethnic-minority-
willetts-tells-universities-8436087.html
• “Downward mobility haunts US education”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20154358
• “Is real life a social network? How do I join?”
http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/1788.html
• MOOCs, are they a game changer enabling equal access to opportunity in
a digital learning context? As Carr mentions in this article, isolation is a
problem. Also, an interesting conclusion “the Net’s disruptive forces have
arrived at the gates of academia”. The Crisis in Higher Education:
http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/429376/the-crisis-in-
higher-education/

7. • 3 thoughts on “Crisis theme 3”
• johntraxler January 23, 2013 at 1:19 pm Thanks John. Resonates
obliquely with various of my concerns … university education as
acculturation and identity transformation
• johnnigelcook January 24, 2013 at 5:43 pm Will the unwashed
masses be left with MOOCs and those that can afford it get the
face-to-face over tea version as a finishing school?
• johntraxler January 25, 2013 at 4:25 pm My personal experience of
facilitating two small MOOCs was that participants had to be fairly
intellectually sophisticated and digitally literate (all the more so I’d
guess on a truly ‘massive’ MOOC) to avoid being overwhelmed by
the richness, chaos and diversity of the interactions. As a
mechanism for increased participation, access and opportunity I
think MOOCs in their purist or original format are not a solution but
as they get progressively more corporate ….. who knows?