Otto Peters
Dr. Otto Peters (born May 6, 1926) is the former rector[1] and a professor emeritus at the FernUniversität in Hagen (University of Hagan) Germany.[2] Dr. Peters has made contributions to the conceptual development of distance education. His main contribution to distance education was through his work on The Industrial Model.[3] In this theory he describes distance education as the most industrial form of education. He incorporated business management literature to show the industrial characteristics of distance education such as division of labour, assembly line, mass production and planning. The majority of his work done has been done in German, however efforts have been made to translate it into English. He presently holds the title Prof. em. Dr. phil. Dr. h.c. mult Otto Peters.
Education
Peters did his initial schooling from 1932 to 1940 in Berlin.
He was interested in the field of education and thus went on to do teacher training in West Prussia from 1940 to 1944. In 1947 he did further studies in History, English, Philosophy, Psychology and Pedagogy with the Humboldt-University of Berlin. While teaching he continued his studies and graduated from the Free University of Berlin in 1960. In 1972 he pursued his doctorate at the University of Tübingen. He has received four honorary doctorate degrees from the Open University in England, Deakin University in Australia, University of New York in New York and the Open University of Japan for advances in his field.[1]
Academic career
| Year/Period | Position | Institution/Place | Academic Achievement |
|---|---|---|---|
| After the world war | Teacher | Berlin-Kreuzberg | |
| 1963 | Secretary | Educational Centre of Berlin | |
| between 1963 & 1969 | Deputy Director of the Department of Methodology of Teaching | Educational Centre of Berlin | Wrote books on Distance Education |
| 1969 | Head of the Division of Comparative Distance Education | German Institute for Distance Study, University of Tübigen | |
| 1974 | Professor of Education | Berlin | |
| 1975 | Founding Rector | FernUniversität, Hagen | Traveled and studied distance education in countries such as Japan, Austria, USA and Great Britain |
| 1991 | Professor Emeritus | FernUniversität, Hagen | |
| 1999 | Professor Emeritus | Prize for Excellence from the International Council for Open and Distance Education | |
| 2008 | Professor Emeritus | Elected as a member of the Hall of Fame for Adult Education |
Research
From 1969 to 1974 Dr. Otto Peters was engaged in comparative distance teaching research whilst at the German Institute for Distance Education at the university of Tübigen.[5] For over forty years the focus of his research was on the conceptual development of distance education. He believed that culture, economics and politics are influential on educational activities.
Publications
In 1960s and 1970s Peters wrote three books, they are:
- 1965 "Distance Education". Weinheim: Beltz
- 1973 "ThePedagogical Structure of Distance Education". Weinheim: Beltz
- 1976 "FernUniversität the First Year". Hagen: von der Linepe
Over the years he continued to write and has written a number of books to date, as well as other publications. Some of the edited versions of his books as well as other books and publications are listed below:
- Peters, O. (1983). Distance teaching and industrial production: A comparative interpretation in outline. In Sewart, D., Keegan, D., & Holmberg, B. (Eds.). Distance education: International perspectives . London: Croom Helm.
- Peters , O. (1989). Further reflections on the concept of industrialization and distance teaching. In: Keegan, D. (Ed.). Otto Peters on distance education: The industrialization of teaching and learning . London and New York: Routledge, 195-209.
- Peters, O. (1993). Distance education in a postindustrial society. In Keegan, D. (Ed.). Theoretical principles of distance education , 39-58. London and New York: Routledge.
- Peters , O. (1998). L earning and teaching in distance education. London: Kogan Page.
- Peters, O. (2007). The most industrialized form of education. In Moore, M. G. (Ed.). Handbook of distance education , 57-68. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.[6]
Additional work
In his latest book, Peters tries to explain not only the pros of digitalization but also the cons, bringing together the opinions of other critics in fields related to education such as lawyers, computer scientists and philosophers. One conclusion they came to was that digitalization will have a definite impact on the world. The general idea is that we cannot take anything for granted even though everything is digitized there should be face-to-face interactions and that a balance has to be made between the digital world and the world outside of that.[7]
Additional resources
Emeriti. (n.d.). Retrieved February 22, 2015, from http://ifbm.fernuni-hagen.de/struktur/emeriti/
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. (mult.) Otto Peters. (2014, December 11). Retrieved February 22, 2015, from http://www.uni-oldenburg.de/en/c3l/bachelor-master/master-programmes/mde/the-mde/who-are-my-teachers/peters/
Otto Peters on Distance Education. (n.d.). Retrieved February 22, 2015, from https://books.google.com/books?id=1cvWAQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=All Books by Otto peters&hl=en&sa=X&ei=WFHtVIvtGMi7ggS2_YOoBg&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=All Books by Otto peters&f=false
References
- 1 2 Ries, Harald (30 November 2014). "The University of Hagen 40 -Looking back at early years". Retrieved 22 February 2015. (German)
- ↑ "Doktorarbeit über Otto Peters - Februar - Universität - FernUniversität in Hagen". fernuni-hagen.de. (German)
- ↑ "Distance education and industrial production: a comparative interpretation in outline (1967)". uni-oldenburg.de.
- ↑ "Peters - Oldenburg University — Center für Lebenslanges Lernen (C3L), Universität Oldenburg". uni-oldenburg.de. 11 December 2014.
- ↑ Portrait d’Otto Peters en lanceur d’alerte (French)
- ↑ "Pagina Peters - UNED". Retrieved 22 February 2015.
- ↑ Blaschke, Lisa Marie (2014). "Distance education in transition". Retrieved 25 February 2015.