Evan Steiner

Peter Drucker has been quoted in Forbes (March 10, 1997) as saying, "Thirty years from now the big university campuses will be relics. Universities won't survive. It's as large a change as when we first got the printed book...Higher education is in deep crisis...Already we are beginning to deliver more lectures and classes off campus via satellite or two-way video at a fraction of the cost. The college won't survive as a residential institution"(Lenzner and Johnson 1997).

As more and more educators make use of new information technologies, their benefits become more evident.

In this work I plan to illuminate some of the advantages of using new information technologies in education, as well of some of its inherent shortcomings.

Beyond the simple use of these technologies as a supplement to traditional, classroom, education, some have gone as far as to put an entire "virtual institution" on the World Wide Web. For example, Coach University is an on-line education service, providing students with an entire education via the Internet.

There are many advantages to this notion of a virtual classroom.

In considering this, Thomas J. Leonard, founder of Coach University, has noted a top 10 list of unique features and benefits of the virtual classroom.

1.

Leverage: 100,000+ students can learn from a single professor. Using mega-teleconferencing and chat-based systems, potentially 100,000 students can be in the same class at the same time, listening and learning via voice, watching the professor write on the electronic whiteboard, posing questions via chat/email and viewing related materials during class time to facilitate learning. Plus, the back-end class management systems can support homework submission, immediate Web-based testing of the students' knowledge of facts, concepts and applications and quick links to chat rooms for after-class student discussions on every aspect of the professor's points that day...



2.

Cost Savings: Virtual school/program admin/delivery costs are 80% less than brick-and-mortar schools. Due to the fully automated, no-real-estate-needed, high-capacity virtual classroom, a university can eliminate 80% of their facility, faculty, and administrative costs, overnight...



3.

Quality: Students can learn from the best instructors and experts. Worldwide, the student is becoming a smarter consumer and will continue to demand only the best instructors-not teaching assistants, not name-only professors who can't teach, not wanna-be's. With the Internet and large virtual classrooms, this demand for quality can be met. Students will not mind the class size-they just want the best instructors.



4.

Accessibility: Students from over 100 countries can be in the same virtual classroom. The world is getting smaller when you can now have students from 100 countries in the same classroom. The social and economic benefits of this interchange are enormous and will redefine education itself... With the introduction of...high-end Web-based classrooms, students from over 100 countries will be able to participate, given that there are no "long distance" phone charges to access the Web.



5.

Convenience: Students and faculty alike can learn and teach from home or from Bermuda. This is a tremendous benefit to both parties. As work and play continue to become more integrated, both professors and students will prefer to have a LIFE, and fit their education/teaching into that life. The geographic flexibility and highly efficient teaching process available via a virtual classroom makes this high-quality of life a reality...



6.

Flexibility: Students can learn in the teaching format that best suits their learning style. Brick-and-mortar classroom learning is highly inefficient and is only moderately effective. It simply does not value the students' time or need. Virtual classrooms offer instant solutions to problems, individual attention, immediate feedback and a self-paced learning environment that every student deserves and will soon demand...



7.

Efficiency: Students can learn just-in-time, as-they-need-it vs. investing a strait 7 years in college. The real cost of education is far more than just tuition expenses-it's the opportunity cost that is the highest of all. However, with the development of virtual education and classrooms, training can occur just as the student needs it, which also integrated learning as a life-long process, not a 7-years-and-that's-it one...



8.

Competition/free market: The best teacher will reign supreme, not the school's reputation (aka Harvard). Schools and universities face competition with each other, certainly, but nothing in comparison to business. This is because of the excellent reputation, limited availability and high demand for entrance into the prestigious universities. I predict that the smartest, savviest and most able professors will leave even prestigious universities such as Harvard when they can see a way to teach 100,000 students electronically and skip the politics, publishing pressure and constraints imposed by every brick-and-mortar institution. I predict a brain drain as these experts set up their own virtual schools and programs and build a name for themselves, not for their brick-and-mortar institutions...



9.

Professor's income increased: Due to volume of students and fees from downloading of texts/materials. The professors-as-entrepreneurs- and-electronic-authors is the emerging model for education today. Professors with a solid reputation can earn hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in tuitions, program fees, consulting and book sales (not just royalties, given the books can be downloaded electronically-who needs a publisher?!)...



10.

Administration automater: Web-based student registration and program administration lowers cost. This is key. Every aspect of a virtual school can be automated, systemized and made electronic, offering instant service to students at any hour of the day or night...

INTERNET AS A SUPPLEMENT

This is one view of the awesome potential that is available if one is to employ the Internet to its fullest potential. Even without going as far as conduction entire courses via the Web, new information technologies, such as networks have greatly changed the shape of education.

For example, email distribution lists have given professors and students new access to one another.

Eric Godfrey, professor of Sociology at Ripon College, has noted that, I [now can] answer questions by email in various courses. Thus, a student can ask a prof a question at any time you think of it, and likewise I can receive student questions in effect 24/7 with out disrupting my personal life. It really opens up communication channels in that respect."

He goes on to note, "I use a bulletin board in my Sociology of Health and Medicine course to post specific answers to each weekly quiz (with sources) the same night I give the quiz; the BB has a section for my hints (which I post as I think of them) on writing the next weekly paper...and yet another section in which I post answers to student email questions so everyone in the class can read them."

"In an SPSS course I taught several times in the early 1990's, I used an email distribution list for the class to send out study hints the evening before each weekly quiz. In that course I answered a lot of questions by email. If a student was unable to get a weekly program to run, I would look at the file on their account, find the errors, and email them suggestions."

INTERNET AND COURSE INFORMATION

More and more colleges and universities around the country are gaining access to the World Wide Web, thus giving students the opportunity to take information about the classes that they are enrolled in directly from the computer. It is becoming increasingly common for professors to post the course description, syllabus, class assignments, bibliographies, and reference materials and even the text of some assigned readings on the Web, notes Stuart White, Ph.D.

The use of Hypertext is making it easier than ever for professors to direct their students to the information that is necessity to succeed in a given course.

By simply linking into their page, that a student can click on, the professor has thus given them access to a wealth of relevant information. This may be seen, however, as having both positive and negative consequences.

On the negative side of things, this form of information gather does not teach the student some very important methods of information gathering. What it does, basically, is put the information right there in front of them, putting no duty on the student to go out and actively look for it.

On the other hand, in this electronic age, it is becoming increasingly easy to find and gather information.

The ability to use these informational resources, i.e. the computer/Internet, is a skill whose importance is growing.

Being able to use these media is becoming an absolute necessity for today's students.

PROFESSORS' HOME PAGES

One example of a professor's home page is that of Rik Scarce, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Montana State University. This Web page is for his students in an Introduction to Sociology course, given them important information.

Included on the page is a Web-based assignment. He asks the students to "begin by visiting at least five of the Sociology World Wide Web sites listed below." He continues with instructions as to how one may do this.

Professor Scarce then asks his students to explore the sites and take notes of new ideas, concepts, and insights that they come across, in their exploration.

Next, the students are to write a 500-word essay about one or two of these pieces of information.

In this way, Professor Scarce is able to give his students a gentle introduction into using the Web, starting out with some simple searches using links that he has provided.

For a number of students this may be their first exposure to the World Wide Web, or for that matter, even to computers.

COMPUTER SKILL REQUIREMENTS

This leads us to a major problem with computer-based learning. As more and more students gain access to these means of communication, there is a gather need for a standardized level of competency.

It has been pointed out that there needs to be some kind of testing for at least a minimum degree of skill, with respect to computer usage for students enrolled in Web-based, or computer intensive courses.

Before that can be measured however, there must be an established set of skills that can serve as a sort of minimum requirement.

Should an introductory course in computer/Internet use be required of all first-year students at the university level? Or, should that be a prerequisite to acceptance in the the university system?

I feel that it is in fact probably the latter. As we move into a computerized society, these skills are absolutely essential, and should be possessed by all incoming first-year university students.

TECHNOLOGY TEACHING KIDS

Another issue that is raised when one discusses this topic is that technology does not teach kids, teachers teach kids.

In an article by Randall Nichols (1994) one understands that not all see the computer and computer technology as the great savior that some in the industry do. He writes:

"If we listen closely toward a place beyond the incessant whir of the fans cooling millions of computers, those of us who care about educational technology may hear the sound of Michael Schrage's (1993) voice as it echoes ever so faintly around the hallways of school houses. It is so faint that in the wide world almost nothing like he is saying about educational technology in 'Beware the Computer Technocrats: Hardware Won't Educate Our Kids' gets spoken. It really is rare to have someone go against the grain of commonly accepted characteristics of educational technology, though occasionally it is done. For example, Taylor and Johnsen (1986) called the frenzy over spending for educational computing the 'gold rush mentality.'

CONCLUSION

It is true that information technologies do not offer a panacea to all of our educational woes, but they do however offer us new avenues for our pursuit of knowledge.

There are many advantages to making use of these new technologies in education, as noted above, but there are still many more implications that I have not discussed here, in this present work.

For instance, what will happen to the 'brick-and-mortar' universities of today, if all of the professors are to leave?

Or, what will a near complete lack of face-to-face interaction between professors and students and students and other students mean to our greater society?

What kind of a degree does one receive from an on-line university? Or, a better question may be, how will a prospective employer view such a degree?

There are still a number of questions to be addressed with respect to this issue.

I have simply attempted to illustrate some of the benefits and advantages, as well as some of the shortcomings of using new information technologies in education.

As we move into the twenty-first century, we find ourselves riding atop a wave of new technology. Grab a surf board and get out there!

NOTES AND SOURCES

First of all, I would very much like to thank all on the teaching Sociology network, as well as others for all of the valuable insight that you were able to give me on this topic. I hope that you enjoy the finished product.

Coach University notes on their home page that they do not offer degrees of any kind and do not plan to. For more information, please visit the Coach University Web site. Coach University.

Godfrey, Eric P. Professor of Sociology, Ripon College. godfreye@acad.ripon.edu

Leonard, Thomas J. 1997. "The Top 10 Unique Features and Benefits of the Virtual Classroom." Top Ten Lists, Inc. May be reached at: thomas@thomasleonard.com

Lezner, Robert and Johnson, Stephen S. 1997. "Seeing Things as They Really are." Forbes. March 10, 1997.

Nichols, Randall G. 1994. "An Incomplete Caution: 'Beware the Computer Technocrats.'" EDUCATIONAL MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGICAL YEARBOOK. Vol. 20. Ed. Ely, Donald and Minor, Barbara. Libraries Unlimited: Colorado.

Scarce, Rik. Assistant Professor of Sociology, Montana State University. http://www.montana.edu/wwwsi/scarce/rik's.htm

Schrage, M. 1993, May 7. "Beware the Computer Technocrats: Hardware Won't Educate Our Kids." Washington Post.

Taylor, W.D. and Johnsen, J.B. 1986. Resisting Technological Momentum In Technology and Education. ed. J.A. Culbertson and L.L. Cunningham University of Chicago Press: Chicago.

White, Stuart. Michigan State University School of Social Work. stuart@sojourn.com

Evan Steiner was student in my Honor's Seminar in Communication at U/Vermont, 1997.  This is his Honors Paper for that course.