A presentation by Prasena to National Family Planning Board of Indonesia by Lukas Ritzel, December 20th, 2002 lritzel@prasena.com
As the relevance of traditional education systems is questioned, the whole process of learning is being transformed into ‘e-learning’, a multi-channel multimedia activity that alone will enable the mass-customized education necessary to help illiterate masses catch up with their environment. Indonesia’s BKKBN will need to embrace this concept not only to ensure that its employees become and remain knowledge workers, but also to ensure that Indonesians can fully benefit from medicine/technology partnership.
Lukas Ritzel, co-founder and Infostructure Director, is Prasena’s backbone, in that he is the organization’s infostructure architect. In charge of all technical aspects, from web design to database development, networking, virtual work systems and IT support, he has the heavy responsibility to guarantee the efficiency of Prasena’s processes and communication networks. Moreover, he identifies, tests and selects the ever-changing technologies that will ensure that both Prasena and its clients benefit optimally from the Cybernetic Revolution.
Lukas is Swiss. He
speaks French, English, German, and Thai.
Detailed online CV:
http://www.prasena.com/public/cvlor.htm
In January 1948, before
three pistol shots put an end to his life, Gandhi had been on the political
stage for more than fifty years. He head inspired two generations of India
patriots, shaken an empire and sparked off a revolution which was to change
the face of Africa and Asia. To millions of his own people, he was the
Mahatma- the great soul- whose sacred glimpse was a reward in itself.
By the end of 1947 he had lived down much of the suspicion, ridicule and
opposition which he to face, when he first raised the banner of revolt
against racial exclusiveness and imperial domination. His ideas, once
dismissed as quaint and utopian ,had begun to strike answering chords
in some of the finest minds in the world. "Generations to come, it
may be", Einstein had said of Gandhi in July 1944, "will scarcely
believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon earth."
Though his life had been continual unfolding of an endless drama, Gandhi
himself seemed the least dramatic of men. It would be difficult to imagine
a man with fewer trappings of political eminence or with less of the popular
image of a heroic figure. With his loin cloth, steel-rimmed glasses, rough
sandals, a toothless smile and a voice which rarely rose above a whisper,
he had a disarming humility. He used a stone instead of soap for his bath,
wrote his letters on little bits of paper with little stumps of pencils
which he could hardly hold between his fingers, shaved with a crude country
razor and ate with a wooden spoon from a prisoner’s bowl. He was,
if one majwere to use the famous words of the Buddha, a man who had "by
rousing himself, by earnestness, by restraint and control, made for himself
an island which on flood could overwhelm."
Gandhi’s, deepest strivings were spiritual, but he did not-as had
been the custom in his country- retire to a cave in the Himalayas to seek
his salvation. He carried his cave within him. He did not know, he said,
any religion apart from human activity; the spiritual law did not work
in a vacuum, but expressed itself through the ordinary activities of life.
This aspiration to relate the spirit- not the forms-of religion to the
problems of everyday life runs like a thread through Gandhi’s career;
his uneventful childhood, the slow unfolding and the near- failure of
his youth, reluctant plunge into the politics of Natal, the long, unequal
struggle in South Africa, and the vicissitudes of the Indian struggle
for freedom, which under his leadership was to culminate in a triumph
not untinged with tragedy.
<http://www.mkgandhi.org/biography/index.htm
1847: Ralph Waldo
Emerson, Poems.
1847: U.S. starts selling postage stamps.
1847: Honoré de Balzac's novel of deception, Cousin Bette
1847: The first Merriam-Webster dictionary.
1847: First use of telegraph as business tool.
1847: In England, Bakewell constructs a "copying telegraph."
1847: The Communist Manifesto, a pamphlet by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
1847: Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre is greeted with success.
1847: Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights is also immediately successful.
1847: William Makepeace Thackery's Vanity Fair is serialized.
1847: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem, "Evangeline."
1977: Columbus, Ohio,
residents try 2-way cable experiment, QUBE.
1977: Oscars: Annie Hall, Richard Dreyfuss, Diane Keaton.
1977: Also at the movies: Star Wars, Saturday Night Fever, Looking for
Mr. Goodbar.
1977: Foreign language film Oscar: Madame Rosa, France.
1977: Star Wars released in 46 theaters equipped with Dolby Stereo.
1977: Atari introduces a programmable home video game system in a cartridge.
1977: The Apple II microcomputer is a best seller. Also: Commodore Pet,
TRS-80.
1977: Nobel Prize in Literature: Spanish poet Vicente Aleixandre.
1977: Disco music becomes the rage.
1977: John Cheever's novel, Falconer.
1977: Toronto Globe and Mail offers public access to newspaper text database.
1977: As a TV miniseries, Roots draws 130 million viewers over 8 nights.
1977: Stephen King's novel, The Shining, like Carrie, will become a hit
movie.
1977: Nintendo begins to sell computer games.
1977: In Chicago, AT&T transmits telephone calls by fiber optics.
Steven Biko Dies:
Steven Biko, leader of South Africa's "Black Consciousness Movement,"
dies of severe head trauma on the stone floor of a prison cell in Pretoria.
Six days earlier, he had suffered a major blow to his skull during a police
interrogation in Port Elizabeth. Instead of receiving medical attention,
he was chained spread-eagled to a window grill for 24 hours. On September
11, he was dumped, naked and shackled, on the floor of a police vehicle
and driven 740 miles to Pretoria Central Prison. He died the next day.
In announcing his death, South African authorities claimed Biko died after
refusing food and water for a week in a hunger strike.
2002: 9 of 10 American
school children have access to computers at home or school.
2002: "Googlewhacking" fad looks for odd word combinations in
Internet sites.
2002: On the Web, creators of online journals, or "web logs,"
now "blog on."
2002: Comic book publishers join to publish views on 9/11 destruction.
2002: Found in a South African cave, 77,000-year-old geometric carvings
on stones.
2002: 9 of 10 American
school children have access to computers at home or school.
2002: "Googlewhacking" fad looks for odd word combinations in
Internet sites.
2002: On the Web, creators of online journals, or "web logs,"
now "blog on."
2002: Comic book publishers join to publish views on 9/11 destruction.
2002: Found in a South African cave, 77,000-year-old geometric carvings
on stones.
For example on back
office / administration of universities:
In the past, universities chose the best available solution for managing
their data /communications - that meant a single-vendor solution based
on proprietary software, running on a dedicated hardware platform, supported
by a large, on-campus professional IT staff. That time has PASSED, but
many of today's colleges and universities are still running their back
office with these outdated, costly technologies and legacy systems or
nothing at all.
With today's students using the latest technology tools as part of their
daily lives, they approach their college experience with the expectation
of open, multi-tiered administrative systems which integrate with other
familiarly and developing technologies. They expect to access their information
from a web browser whenever and wherever they want, at a click of a key
or touch of a screen. Why should administrators expect anything less?
If we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of only 100 people, it would look something like this:
57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 North and South Americans
8 Africans
If we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of only 100 people, it would look something like this:
30 white
70 nonwhite
6 people would possess 60% of the world’s wealth, and all 6 would be from the United States
If we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of only 100 people, it would look something like this:
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer malnutrition
would have a college education
1000s of islands
Population 216 million growth rate 1.5%
Area 1’904’000 sq km
After IBM s ebusiness ,soon came eLearning
Computer Based Training (CBT) is self paced learning using a computer package to present the information, rather than a person. There are a variety of delivery methods: over Intranet or Internet, CD, installed on hard drive, etc. There are also a variety of levels of interaction and types of material presented from reading text on the screen and click for the next page to graphics, video, animation, interaction, simulations, tests, quizzes and so on.
History
In February 1998, an initial evaluation of commercially available CBT for technical subjects was carried out. Two companies, SmartForce (then CBT Systems) and NETg, came to OUCS to give presentations. As a result of the evaluation, it was determined that SmartForce product was preferred. It used graphics, animation, clearly laid out screens with glossary terms, note taking, links to further information, interactive sections, simulations and several ways of testing including discovery questions, a feature the others lacked. It did not include video or sound. This was seen as a positive attribute as it enabled the user to move at their own pace without having to wait for material to be presented.
In June 1998, I presented an ITSS Seminar entitled Accreditation and Certification at which using CBT as cheaper way to train people in technical topics was proposed and received strong support. A similar workshop was run at the 1998 ITSS Conference, and again the ideas proved popular. See also the minutes of ITSSG 8 June 1998 and minutes of ITTEG 19 June 1998.
In 1999, funding was requested for IT Support Staff training, including a training budget, part of which would have been used to purchase CBT. This was turned down.
In mid 1999, Dave Rischmiller was looking for a means of training the Network Systems Management Service staff and was the driving force behind OUCS purchasing a single user licence for a number of Novell Netware and Microsoft NT titles from SmartForce.
The licence was for a single user, however, the CBT was delivered on four CDs and SmartForce agreed that it would be acceptable to have one user per CD at any one time. A pilot project was designed up to try to get the best value for money from this training and to evaluate its usefulness
A student-centric global learning infrastructure extends far beyond the individual virtual university to include the new digital marketplace. With its emphasis on creativity and competition, it enables a wide range of players -universities, media, publishers, content specialists, technology companies- to market, sell, and deliver educational services online
<Carol Twigg, VP of Educom, “The global learning infrastructure: The future of higher education” – Blueprint to the Digital Economy, 1998
The existing methods and educational systems are not sufficient and are neglecting many aspects of today’s economy. We need to find a better way. A way that is adapted to a new world that gives a chance to new education
Prasena considers
CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION as key drivers of the today's education systems.
We do a lot in the educational sector; and lecture at various Bangkok
Universities Bangkok U, AIT, ABAC and at business seminars such as for
Asian business forum, global learning days, ministries in Singapore as
well as our own idea of a virtual university http://www.prasena.com/public/virtual_u.html.http://www.prasena.com/public/innovation.html
We have as well worked on different projects related to creativity and
innovation, together with Dr Passi's http://www.prasena.com/public/innovation/innovation_seminar.html
and http://www.prasena.com/public/innovation/creativity
day.html
and have put on ideas and teasers just for fun: http://www.prasena.com/public/innovation/brain_teasers.html
/ http://www.prasena.com/public/innovation/mirror_of_innovation.html
Evaluation of the
product
Web conferencing can save you a lot of money, but the up-front investment
can be daunting to first time users and small companies. Full-featured
Web conferencing suites cost thousands of dollars to provision and thousands
per month – and that's not including the audio conferencing costs.
Paying for events by-the-minute can eliminate up-front fees but will become
even more expensive over time if you run many meetings or events.
Voice Chat – the whole product line is built on top of a voice-over-IP
facility. Not duplex, each attendee has a "Talk" button to hold
down while speaking. A "Hold Mic" button allows an attendee
to keep the microphone and continue speaking without interruption. To
keep troublemakers from hijacking a meeting, the meeting moderator has
a "Boot" function to temporarily disable their voice chat, and
a "Banish" function to permanently prevent them from taking
the microphone.
Video Conferencing – several of the products also include a video
window for streaming video from a Webcam. Attendees can select the refresh
rate for each video window to suite their Internet connections. The crown
jewel of the line – the OfficeMaster – also allows an attendee
to enlarge any one of the video windows, placing it in the center of the
screen.
Text Chat – all the products also include text chat. This provides
an alternate channel for questions, requests, help and other activities
while someone is using the voice chat.
Page Push – The higher end products include the ability for the presenter
to "push" a Web page to a browser window for the attendees to
view. With the OfficeMaster, the presenter can have up to 20 URLs preloaded
for a meeting, and can introduce additional ones as the meeting progresses.
White Board – the OfficeMaster and ClassMaster also include a "white
board" capability for displaying and marking up images. Presenters
can preload any number of image files to place on the white board, and
then draw or mark them up using drawing, highlighting, and text tools.
The most obvious missing feature of VoiceCafe products is delivery of
PowerPoint presentations. There are a couple of straightforward workarounds:
one could save the presentation as Web pages and use the page push, or
convert them to images and deliver them through the white board.
VoiceCafe products are all hosted services, and most are available with
a choice of templates to customize your meeting room. Comprising ActiveX
controls that are downloaded at the commencement of a meeting, the products
work only on PCs using Internet Explorer 5.0 and later. The OfficeMaster
expands this unique line of products to a full-fledged contender for Web
conferencing. The company claims it can meetings of up to 500 people at
once.
The VoiceCafe products line begins with the entry-level MyCom, which offers
voice and text chat for up to 5 people at one for just $12.50 (US) per
month. Move up to TourMaster 10/25 to add Web-page push and administrative
controls for meetings of up to 25 people for only $65 per month. If you
want to run a more formal class, the ClassMaster adds an interactive white
board and a video feed to the capabilities of the TourMaster 10/25 for
only $125 per month. Even the most sophisticated product, OfficeMaster,
starts at just $245 per month for capacity for 10 people. All products
require modest start-up fees. And, of course, you might need to fork out
$50 for a decent headset and microphone.
Learn more about the product line at voicecafe.optecs.net.
In the view of its co-founders Isabelle Michelet (who provided us with interpretations of the data), Lukas Ritzel (who was mainly responsible for the survey's provocative questions), and its business director, Philippe Kopcsan, every organization must reassess itself in the light of the impact that this revolution is having on the way we live and work. Prasena believes that the Cybernetic Revolution is characterized by nine main phenomena that affect everyone. Prasena's research director Ms Michelet explained that the first five questions in the survey sought to find out ``how the cybernetic phenomena affected the way people strategies, the way we manage our financial, technical and human resources, the way we proceed with our activities, and also to see how they affect us as a whole.'' The questions that followed reflected each of the nine cyber-phenomena, with a key characteristic being chosen for each of them. These nine aspects are the need to become global citizens, the need to become autonomous, the need to transcend established structures, the need to digitalize, the need to work virtually, the need to be part of the internetworked global community, the need to perform on a real-time basis, the need to innovate, and the need to learn continuously. <http://www.prasena.com/public/partners/media/media8_survey3.html
Reasoning and Discussion
A definition for e-learning emerges from the parallel concept of e-mail. E-mail is typically described as the activity of transmitting "mail" with computers and networks. In the same way, e-learning refers to learning activities that involve computers and networks. (The internet and intranets are considered networks.) E-learning does not require learning materials to be delivered by computer, but computer and networks must be involved in this type of learning.
Web-based learning entails content in a Web browser (not just activities), and actual learning materials delivered in Web format. In this, Web-based learning is analogous to textbooks, where the content determines whether a book is a novel, a report, or a textbook. Simply offering computer-based training for download from a Web site is not Web-based learning since there is no learning content in Web format). Web browsing the learning content (even linearly) is the key feature of Web-based learning. Web-based learning content is typically retrieved from a Web site, but alternative solutions are acceptable (a hypertext Web does not require Internet or networks). For instance, some Web-based learning offerings operate from CD-ROM, and many are offered on dual format: Web site and CD-ROM. The CD-ROM solution is typically associated with situations where network access may not be available or practical, like in schools lacking Internet access or very heavy multimedia data, such as video, animations and sound.
Online learning is related to the more common concepts of online help, online documentation, and online services. It is associated with readily available learning materials in a computer environment. Often, online learning refers to learning materials directly accessible from within a core application (like in online help); however, learning materials available online on a network also qualify when readily accessible. Network use is not necessarily required, and in fact the concept of online learning surfaced before the development of the Web and before learning materials were delivered over the Internet or networks.
Distance learning is a concept older than most of those discussed here. It does not require the use of computers or networks. It involves interaction between class members primarily at a distance, and enables the instructor to interact with learners. Distance learning is typically associated with televised broadcasts and correspondence courses, but it also applies to certain e-learning applications. On the Internet, educational interaction primarily at a distance is required between instructor and students, or between students. Typical distance learning in this context includes Internet-based live instructor broadcasts, video-conferencing, chat and scheduled online conference discussions, and even e-mail courses or discussions.
We define e-learning as any form of learning that utilizes a network for delivery, interaction, or facilitation (in a few years you might not even use the computer). The network could be the Internet, a school or college LAN or even a corporate WAN . The learning could take place individually (guided or instructed by a computer) or as part of a class. Online classes meet either synchronously (at the same time) or asynchronously (at different times), or some combination of the two. eLearners.com deals with all types of learning that fall within this broad definition of e-learning.
eLearning focuses on the individual learner. For years, training has organized itself for the convenience and needs of instructors, institutions, and bureaucracies. Bad attitude. Think of learners as customers. Compete for their time and interests. Provide them legendary service. Convert them into raving fans. Give them choices. Don't make them reinvent the wheel.
Thousands of Pakistanis are being offered the chance to learn the skills they need to thrive in the computer age thanks to a new virtual university. The US$40m project is providing distance learning over the television and internet so that anyone can take part in the classes, regardless of where they live in Pakistan.
The aim is to create a generation of software programmers and computer engineers who can rival the best in countries like the US.
Pakistan is eager to develop an information technology industry, much like India has done. Experts estimate the country needs at least 60,000 computer science graduates to achieve this aim.
"India is a very inspiring case. They got their act together very early," said Salman Ansari, adviser to Pakistan's Ministry of Science and Technology.
"We are leveraging technology to get to the level that we need to get to," he told the BBC programme Go Digital.
Exciting education
The Virtual University combines television, video-conferencing and the internet to provide lessons, tutorials and guidance to students all over Pakistan.
Shared whiteboard
Synchronized web browsing
Text chat
Application viewing/sharing
Content windows
Video, one-way or two, live or canned
Discussion boards. not real-time but useful for class info or Faq's
Record and playback. by instructor or student.
Polling
Hand-raising and yes/no buttons
Pre-session content distribution
Assessment/testing/scheduling
Asynchronous learning allows students to go to class when their schedule permits. Asynchronous learning includes everything from web-based presentations and discussions to streaming audio and video on demand, for example. Students are usually required to spend a certain amount of time per week in their virtual classroom, but it's up to them to decide when school begins and ends each day. Some examples of asynchronous training include self-paced computer-based training (CBT), Web-based training (WBT), bulletin boards, and email. Less technical forms include audio/video cassettes, and mail order programs
Usenet, or internet news, is a completely threaded discussion. One can select the desired topic (newsgroup) to browse, and is then confronted with a list of all messages that have been posted to that discussion. Usenet requires special software, a news reader, to access. With a threaded system, each message is stored on its own page. Thus, to read about something more in detail, one needs to click on the link from the top page, bringing up the concerned screen.
Video, animations, and simulations offer exceptional potential for enhancing the interface of education. Experimental demonstrations and real-life experiences and situations can be captured on video and provided as digital video.
Video can be a window to the real world for a given theoretical description. In the past, there were considerable bandwidth, cost, and quality issues associated with video enhancements. However, with the development of video compression and real-time video streaming technology, many of these barriers have been overcome, and the potential for significantly increased bandwidth is real.
Animations are an inexpensive alternative to the video demonstration. The animations of physical phenomena or a difficult concept can bring the point home much more effectively than video clips can. However, animations are not substitutes for video demonstrations.
Simulations can provide a risk-free environment for understanding the consequences of parametric variations and can be considered “hands-on experience” in place of real situations. For example, flight simulators are used to train fighter pilots, and dangerous or expensive laboratory experiments can be conducted without risk, and at a lower cost. The environments created by numerical and animated simulation provide a unique opportunity to learn while increasing the retention of the concepts.
Content delivery is another area in which big differences surface. Indeed, it is one of the biggest bones of contention in the war of the worlds. Traditional content delivery via written, oral, or visual lectures doesn’t map well online. The term “shovelware” has been coined to describe the tendency to load up the Web with notes. Sir John Daniel, during his tenure at the United Kingdom’s Open University, observed: “...our own Open University experience of the use of the Net and the Web at scale indicates that its most powerful and popular use is for communication between people about the course rather than for dumping the content of the course on each student’s computer.”
Asynchronous communications, on the other hand, score big in the online world. The ability to post messages, read and respond to messages, reflect on responses, revise interpretations, and modify original assumptions and perceptions is the silver bullet and a distinguishing characteristic of online teaching. Considered a hallmark of the online world, active learning actually serves as a great example of a best teaching practice that spans both worlds. Increasingly, instructors employ active and even collaborative learning in the classroom. Active learning translates well to the online world through the development of Web quests, treasure hunts, Web-based presentations, and other means for engaging students actively in the construction of knowledge. Increasingly, perhaps as a result of feedback from online courses, on-campus instructors are incorporating more active learning in their classes in conjunction with traditional lecture formats.
Finally, one of the best qualities of online teaching is that it offers greater flexibility in terms of what is taught and how it is taught throughout the course. Formative assessments [MEANS BUILDING UP THE EXPERIENCE WORKING WITH A STUDENT AND ASSESS HIM/HER OVER TIME] provide opportunities for immediate feedback on student learning and learning styles, and they allow an instructor to modify the approach to achieving learning outcomes. Summative assessments [I HAVE NEVER SEEN THE STUDENT BEFORE IN MY LIFE AND JUST TEST HIM/HER ON HIS/HER KNOWLEDGE] —including midterms, final exams, and end-of-course surveys—in on-campus courses are not typically intended to help make in-session modifications to a course. But by taking advantage of the capability for collecting and crunching numbers quickly for statistical or qualitative analysis, online exams and surveys enable an instructor to evaluate what’s working and what’s not working nearly in real time.
Kinko's is the world's leading provider of visual communications services, document creation and copying. Its global network of over 1,000 digitally connected locations offers 24-hour access to technology for color printing, finishing and presentation services, Internet access, videoconferencing and Web-based on-demand printing and document management solutions. Named for the second consecutive year as one of Fortune's 100 best companies to work for in America, it is a privately held corporation, with more than 25,000 co-workers, and locations in nine countries. Kinko's is headquartered in Ventura, CA. For more information, go to www.kinkos.com.
Public and private text chat between all participants
Voice over IP (IP audio)
Application viewing, snapshot and sharing
Testing, with automated grading
Pass floor control and/or multiple cursors
"On the fly" collaborative browsing
Remote control (desktop level)
Capture for reuse
It’s about serving
learners and not about using technology. First of all, designing educational
experiences around technology is a foolish chase. You cannot possibly
keep up with the technology. The paradox of technology enhanced education
is that technology changes very rapidly and human beings change very slowly.
It would seem to make sense for proponents of e-learning to begin with
the students. At least that is a relatively slow moving target. Deployment
of technology then becomes an exercise in applying a rapidly improving
technology to a very consistent set of goals. Although this can be a challenge,
it is a much more doable task. Over the last 15 years, the state of the
art in distance learning has gone from satellite delivery of video, through
interactive compressed video or video conferencing to web based on-line
learning. The Sloan Foundation* did much to popularize the standard model
of on-line learning as Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALN). This model
was further enshrined when the U.S. Department of Education created the
Learning Anytime Anyplace Partnerships program (LAAP) around the Sloan
Model. The anytime-anyplace mantra became accepted dogma in the on-line
world. Proponents of the ALN models often looked down their noses at their
colleagues still operating in the older video based worlds.
Unfortunately the doctrine of the “anytime-anyplace” ALN model
also had it’s own flaws. The “asynchronous” nature of the
model certainly had some advantages of flexibility for the student and
manageability for the institution, but it also has some challenges in
the area of retention and completion. Further, it often enshrined technology
limitations as necessary elements of the new model. Technology did not
easily support audio or video over the network in the early days. Thus
the ALN model envisioned both threaded discussions and live chat. This
was supposed to provide some of the interactivity that is vital to any
effective learning experience. Video and audio were neglected as important
tools. Making a virtue of necessity, we began to see articles talking
about why a model that had students typing at one another was superior
to students talking to one another.
Both experience and research tends to indicate that audio and video interactions
have some advantages over typing interactions. Even more interesting:
audio tends to be more important than video. Audio, video, threaded discussion,
and live chat all have their advantages and disadvantages. Which modalities
to use in a given educational environment should be a pedagogical question
first and a technical question second. Enshrining technical limitations
as pedagogical advantages is not a productive trade.
*http://www.sloan.org/
Since the first implementations
of eLearning, defined broadly as learning using networked computers, we
have learned a great deal about the approaches that are most effective.
Effective eLearning goes beyond providing a publishing and distribution
environment to the offering of online learning activities as integral
course components. Knowledgeable developers and instructors familiar with
instructional design principles for online learning take advantage of
the power of networked computers to engage students by providing them
with opportunities to interact with peers, instructors, experts, and rich
online resources.
Collaborative learning and knowledge building approaches are used and,
throughout the learning experience, the instructor and students are supported
with pedagogical and technical assistance.
A classic study at Standard found that Hewlett Packard engineers who watched
videotaped lectures followed by informal discussion performed better than
Stanford engineering students who attended the same lectures on campus.
Instead of an on-campus lecturer pouring content into students' heads,
the HP engineers were challenged to construct their own interpretation
of the subject matter.
How do we determine what is a result of an essential learning skill as opposed to the contribution of the learning experience?
Feuerstein (1980) asserts that a highly stimulating learning experience is not sufficient to guarantee that the person actually learns from it. Particular learning skills are also required (Howe, 1987): utilizing information in memory, remembering the past and imagining the future, understanding and looking for relationships between perceived objects, organizing and seeing patterns, regularities and other relationships.
Hence, a person with very high learning skills might "learn" more readily than one without, even if the experience is highly ineffective.
Despite their important contribution, many libraries are often not represented on the planning committees that are making recommendations to university administrators on eLearning needs and strategies. This is a missed opportunity, both for the libraries and for the institutions.
‘DIGITAL LIGHT ON T-SHIRT ON – PASSI AVATAR ANIMATION SWITCH’
For some students, this is what college is all about. The football games,
the camaraderie, hanging out and, hopefully, getting an education.
Excerpt from a online discussion on eLearning:
At Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, sociology professor Donald
Smith is discussing the different methods of conducting and evaluating
research in Sociology 337: Introduction to Social Research.
Two hundred miles away, in Fairfax City, Virginia, another student is
taking that same course -- except Virgina Fedor is at home, logged on
and plugged into Professor Smith's virtual classroom. Fedor needs the
course for a degree in criminal justice.
For financial and personal reasons, Fedor is unable to take four years
off from work to attend college. She works full-time -- 4 p.m. to midnight
-- at a security office nearby.
VIRGINIA FEDOR, DISTANCE LEARNING STUDENT: I'm taking care of a mother
who has recurring cancer. I want to be available to help my family
If I miss a class, I'm not missing any material. I can log in whenever
I want, I can replay the course whenever I want and the instructor is
always available online by e-mail or over the phone.
PELTZ (voice-over): Today, more than 14 million people log onto their
computers and double-click into a virtual classroom. Available are classes
for undergraduates and graduate degrees in fields as diverse as nursing,
business, engineering and technology. Experts predict e-learning will
become a $2 billion industry within four years. strategy+business magazine
has been watching the growth of e-learning. Randall Rothenberg is its
editor in chief.
the mistake is often made of recreating a classroom-teaching model within an online learning environment. Online technology designed to mimic the classroom becomes a restriction and a barrier to the teacher’s ability to impart knowledge.
In hypermedia-based systems, multimedia objects in the form of audio clips for graphical objects, annotated video segments, and online simulations are presented with an associated database of concepts. The modes of learning change from textual to audio, and audio to video, and so forth, as the learner invokes the multimedia objects merely by clicking on links. This provides the flexibility to acquire knowledge from different modes, e.g., auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. Web browsers are networked hypermedia interfaces that allow such flexible, multimodal explorations for a given subject matter
These cognitive pathways refer to the sensory perceptions of the human mind and include vision, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. The sensory organs provide the necessary stimulus for infants to assimilate information and the human brain to assimilate knowledge. With the development of language skills, higher order learning becomes possible. The cognitive pathways then become text, graphics, audio, video, animation, and simulations.
As K Chakrawan writes in his research paper ‘School administrators must be able to perceive their school district as a whole consisting of interlocking parts, which themselves are composed of more interlocking parts’ [K Chakrawan Nakarat, ‘The comparison of the impact of computers in education between Australia and Thailand’, 2002]
A category of people who wanted to “hop off the merry-go-round of status, money, and social climbing that so often frames modern existence”. Such people are described as “underemployed, overeducated, intensely private and unpredictable”.
People born among analog technologies (telephone, TV). Witnessed and participated in development of digital technologies.
Although it is the "Silent" (1930-1945) and "Baby-Boom" (1945-1960) generations who invented the technologies that enabled the Cybernetic Revolution, it is difficult to include them in the "Cybernetic Revolution generations". Indeed, it is as if they had unleashed a monster that they fear is uncontrollable, and they often have the greatest difficulties to enjoy the effects of their creation. The first transition generation is therefore the famous "Gen X". It is famous especially among HR Managers, because it is the first generation of employees that started to really question authority. "Xers" appear unmanageable because the traditional carrots and sticks do not work with these "hard-heads", whose personal goals and professional aspirations are so different from their elders'. While teenagers, Xers witnessed the emergence of the digital technologies that demonstrated the uselessness of most of what they were learning at school, as well as the irrelevance of their elders' advice and guidance. They started to collect with relish the famous "last words" or blunders such as the quote from IBM founder Thomas Watson predicting that there was a market for about five computers in the world. At this early stage of the digital technologies, new solutions were sprouting and dying so fast that no reference seemed reliable. Hence the X-ers' tendency to do everything their own way, and take nothing at face value. X-ers constitute today the core of the so-called "workforce". They still often have difficulties with elder management, but they begin to have power enough to change rules and policies towards their own beliefs and values. In doing so, they need to be careful, because the new generations are as different from them as they were from Silent and Baby Boom generations.
Characterized by individualism, resourcefulness, cynicism, selfishness, result-orientation, taste for experimentation, tendency to question authority, relatively high education, deep-seated economic insecurity, lack of social trust and confidence in government, weak allegiance to country and political parties, tendency to marry and have children late. “Go-getters who are just doing it… but their way” (Time Magazine)
Would you rather learn in your own speed, at what ever time and for how long as you wish. Would you like to interact with the world and actively participate at your own education. Would you be ready to ‘find’ your own way through the education system and even perhaps get lost from time to time. Would you prefer to research and filter information for yourself and decided yourself which one is relevant and which one less. Would you be ready to ‘see’ the teacher more as a guide or quiz master than the all-dominating and all-knowing authority who takes over for you. Would you be ready to take responsibility for your own success within your very own education.
Would you like to becocme a virtual student and have a virtual ‘pint’ [beer], easy, just visit http://www.drinktalking.com/student_union_bars
The Perils of the
Virtual Student in Cyberspace by Julie Hook
Until last year, when I thought of "distance education" I thought
of a child in an Outback homestead
Seeking Quality Online - The Perils of the Virtual Student
listening as his "School of the Air" teacher spoke to him from
thousands of miles away through the crackling noise of the radio. That
educational model kept a lot of Outback Australian children with their
families, rather than having to be sent to boarding school "in the
city" in the 1950s and 1960s.
Now that I have joined the desperate band of professionals who want to
upgrade their qualifications because of organisational downsizing, rightsizing,
or sheer institutional ‘bloodymindedness’, distance education
looks quite different. Distance education via the Internet means that
universities are no longer limited by state or national boundaries. Through
the magic of the Internet, there is a completely new forum for teaching
and learning. All students, regardless of their distance from the university
can now, like the Outback children in mid-century, undertake their studies
without leaving home. Only in the digital age the computer replaces the
radio.
To get more on this: http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/05-01/hooke.html
People born among first generation of digital technologies. Witnessed and participated in development of networked technologies
Successors of Generation X, children of Baby-Boomers. Grew up in economic expansion, end of cold war, blooming freedoms
Characterized by high self-esteem and confidence, multi-tasking ability, capacity to process information very fast, urge to develop a career fast, tendency to expect to be given high responsibilities immediately, arrogance, upbeat character, individualism, impatience, boldness, tendency to overestimate themselves, tendency to expect employer to adapt to them, optimism
The Generation Y constitutes today the junior part of the workforce, which it has been entering for about five years. In fact, it might have started to impact the corporate world much earlier, whether it was invited to do so, or not! Y-ers are the first people in History that have spent all their lives among digital technologies. They take them for granted and show an uncanny ability to use them in ways and in a scope never imagined by their elders. And they are much less patient than the X-ers. Because the Gen X grew up in an environment where processes were first manual, then became digital but with severe limitations in memory and reliability, X-ers developed a careful process-based analytical approach to issues. For them, things need to be conceptualized first, then implemented, then tested. Y-ers have no taste or time for this. In the view of Gen Y, digital technologies are reliable and conduct most of the analytical process - Humans don't test them, they use them, play with them. Gen Y hackers are not Gen X hackers: they don't try to demonstrate that a system does not work and make fun of the failure, they just use the system as it is to go wherever they want and do whatever they want. A Gen X hacker would crack into the CIA just for the fun of showing that the CIA's security systems are not secure. A Gen Y hacker would crack into the CIA to access information he/she wants to change a file, watch the ripple effect and feel the power to change the world. Y-ers are in a hurry to seize the power and change the world. The more so, maybe, because they know that once the next generation comes in, they won't have much to say anymore...
People born among new technologies
Successors of Generation Y, children of Generation X. Grow up in crisis environment, uncertainty in the face of change
Characterized by awareness of the world, environment-consciousness, high technology-literacy, urge to grow up fast, disrespect for elders and authority, lack of proper role models and references, self-confidence
It will be some time, before we see the Generation "e" join employees' ranks. Yet, we already watch them in awe, as if they were some kind of aliens. Gurus use them as references, quoting them in their serious economic books. Our six-year olds teach us how to use this or that web application, looking with perplexed eyes at those Mums and Dads who don't even know such simple things. Although many more technologies will probably be invented in the future, today's children are born at a stage when both the technologies that enabled the Cybernetic Revolution (digital technologies) and those that allow it to gain full speed (networked technologies) are fully operational. Two generations away from the pre-Cybernetic Revolution era, they will remember it no more than their parents remember the pre-typewriter age. Because of the pace of change, these children will have no role model to refer to, and they certainly won't look up to their elders, whose shortcomings they already see too well. Yet, we must remember that these children will soon inherit our organizations. For the sake of economic survival and to avoid traumatic upheavals, we must ensure that they consider these organizations and their structures usable. And this requires a lot of preparations, starting with the rethinking of our entire business model and ways of working, in the perspective of the Cybernetic Revolution and its characteristics.
Is e the solution we have been waiting for
Is it simple
Is it only the students that have to change
Will it be the solution for all educational institutes and their tutors
Will it be the definitive end of all Universities as we knew them for centuries
Can it be done over night: The biggest problem is we live in a nano second world where all things are supposed to be done in an instant.
That kind of attitude is deadly for projects like this.
What we need are people who think in terms of decades, not years. People who would treasure Stewart Brand's "The Clock of The Long Now" --ones who would agree this project is "generationaly worthy" ---something my grandson Michael Ross, will want to pass on to his grandson. It's for sponsors who know that if we can grow awareness in the miracles of distance education we can grow the size of the pie...so vendors like WebCt can get more of their share.
Is such awareness about distance education needed? You bet.
How many know there are over 1.2 million courses available from hundreds of fine universities worldwide?
How many know that education online is better than education face-to-face?
How many employers know that workers trained by distance means are more likely to become all stars than those trained conventionally?
Here's our deal with the corporate world.
We bring them knowledge customers and knowledge workers. They bring us the resources to build our stage, promote the event and fund the prizes.
Low utilization rates
- hundreds of corporations have spent millions of dollars on e-Learning
only to discover that only very few of their employees are actually using
courses online. Why? Dismal usage rates happen for several reasons, which
range from no motivation, or incentive, for learning to a lack of effective
internal marketing and communication.
Best practice companies that we do business with apply learning to competencies
needed to effectively do jobs and are tying leadership development to
compensation as a way to encourage training.
IDC Sees European E-Learning Market Growing to $4 Billion by 2004
A study of e-learning growth trends in Europe by Internet market research
firm IDC predicts the market will grow at a compound annual rate of 96
percent, reaching $4 billion by 2004. IT-related e-learning will comprise
more than half of that growth, the firm's London division said in a release.
E-learning content will represent the largest component of sales during
that period, says senior analyst Sheila McGovern. "Although the delivery
solutions or infrastructure tools segment of the market is an important
one, I believe it will become increasingly commoditized over the next
few years with a few dominant players emerging," McGovern said in
announcing the report.
This ‘Europe-only’ report identifies the United Kingdom, the
Netherlands, and Sweden as the most robust markets for e-learning, attributing
their faster adoption to lower language and localization barriers for
the predominately English language-based e-learning development community.
The report, Corporate eLearning Market Forecast and Analysis 2000, is
available for purchase from IDC; more information can be found on their
Website, www.idc.com
As we have seen, finding success has been considerably more difficult. Even defining success becomes elusive. For those institutions that took the for-profit route, either on their own or in a joint venture, success often meant large financial returns.
Now that visions of e-learning billions have evaporated for most institutions, we will get down to the serious business of creating the leading virtual universities. These institutions will be both public and private. We have seen that both models can work if the institutions are clear about their goals and organize themselves appropriately. Mixing unlike goals or a lack of clarity in goals will continue to be a sign of expected failure.
Nearly every university will have some involvement in on-line learning, but not every university will be a net exporter of educational programs. Reputation, or brand, will be very important, but it will not be the whole story. Strong brands with weak programs will not be successful. There will be room for different kinds of brands to serve different characteristics of learners. Some will be price sensitive and some will not. Some will want nothing but the designer brand programs and some will seek commodity style education at wholesale prices. Just as some people buy Mercedes while others buy Lexus, learners will seek out brands that appeal to their sense of themselves and their needs. Even within a market segment, there will be room for market differentiation. Some will prefer Toyota to Honda. Others will want Lexus instead of Mercedes.
The e-learning revolution is not over. It is just entering a more intelligent and less self-indulgent phase. History demonstrates that the first movers in technology are rarely the eventual leaders. Dumont may have invented the television, but the company disappeared in the early days of television. Edison invented electrical generation, but his DC systems lost out to the AC systems of later competitors.
There is lots of opportunity for excitement in the next few years. Moore’s law* is continuing the relentless increase in computing power and continuing to push down prices. The bandwidth law shows that we will continue to see faster and faster networks bringing higher and higher quality materials into our homes. There is much that is predictable over the coming decade. Technology is relentless and dependable in its advance. Human beings will continue to exhibit the characteristics that they have exhibited for centuries. Maslov’s** hierarchy of human needs will change little. The paradox of a rapidly changing technology serving a slowly changing humankind will provide opportunities for those who start from culture, values, and human need and have the insight and courage to know how technology can serve these.
*http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/M/Moores_Law.html
**http://www.connect.net/georgen/maslow.htm
Reasons to Fail
Poor quality content regardless of format
Poor instructional design
Inappropriate software decisions
Inappropriate content for the business and learning objectives
Technology and infrastructure problems
eLearning is not a prediction. (Half of all major corporate software projects fail, as do two-thirds of all knowledge initiatives -- and eLearning is an even greater challenge.) Rather, eLearning is a target to shoot for and catalyst to spark fresh ideas [Jay Cross, 2002]
2001, almost every college and university announced that they were going on-line. Venture capitalists dumped billions into eLearning start-ups of all kinds. There were billions to be made and the first movers would be the ones to profit! Or so we thought. The new “for-profit” start-ups dangled visions of millions of dollars in front of Presidents and Deans, and some jumped at the chance. Pensare teamed up with Duke. Click2Learn teamed with NYU Online. Fathom teamed with XanEdu. The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School teamed with Caliber, a spin-off from Sylvan Learning. Cornell spun of eCornell to the consternation of faculty. Kaplan Ventures, Knowledge Universe, Pearson, and Sylvan Ventures made investments and acquisitions totaling $3.6 billion in 2000 and were expected to invest at least $2 billion additional in 2001 and 2002. UNext created Cardean University and partnered with Columbia, the London School of Economics, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, and the University of Chicago. Reportedly Cardean had pledged to pay Columbia, and perhaps the others, $20 million dollars if they failed within five years. The exact structure of the contracts is not public. North Carolina, Harvard, and the University of Southern California went to University Access for help in getting online. Harcourt Higher Education was launched as a college in 2000 and confidently predicted “50,000 to 100,000 enrollments within five years.”
That was then and this is now. Pensare is gone. Unable to attract the external financing that it had hoped for, Fathom had to obtain $20 million in financing internally. Cardean has laid off over half its work force this year and has asked the universities to restructure the business arrangement. Rumors suggest that “restructure” means that the universities are not getting their $ 20 million after all! Temple University, who had followed the crowd in creating a for-profit spin-off, quietly closed that spin-off without really ever activating it. They got more press for closing a virtually non-existent operation than most others get for running viable programs! Harcourt is gone after enrolling a total of 32 students in 2001. eCornell is open now, but with very small programs and drastically reduced expectations. Caliber has filed for bankruptcy. University Access has changed its name and withdrawn from higher education.
The Chronicle asks wryly “Is anyone making money on on-line learning?” The conclusion seems to be that there are indeed a few organizations that have demonstrated viability. The University of Maryland University College’s effort UMUC-Online, Penn State’s World Campus and the University of Massachusetts UMass Online represent campus based programs that have had some success. The University of Phoenix is everyone’s poster child for the for-profit online university, either as a cautionary tale of a market mentality applied to higher education or as an investment success that demonstrates the viability of such an approach.
The very mixed picture is probably a manifestation of the confusion that reigns about the purpose and the place for on-line higher education.
If we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of only 100 people, it would look something like this:
1 would have a computer
But many more would have access to TV and radio
There is much to be gained from sharing innovative uses of technology as well as in helping entrepreneurs in the field who build sustainable businesses. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said earlier this year that "... we are still very far from ensuring that the benefits of ICT are available to all. The digital divide still yawns as widely as ever, with billions of people still unconnected to a global society, which, on its side, is more and more wired."
Capable of obtaining relevant information directly from its source
Power-user of ICT
Capable of getting fast the information they need through individual/organizational/global infostructure
Capable of spreading their ideas fast for real-time recognition and application
Demonstrates key competencies:
Adaptable, flexible, creative, problem-solver, decision-maker, eager to learn continuously
http://www.prasena.com/public/gld6/eColonizationAsia.htm
http://www.alado.net
http://www.bfranklin.edu/gld7/celebration.htm
ELearning has shown to result in effective learning experience for students although there is a need to find methods to reduce the learning curve and workload of faculty. We also need to better understand the value-added that higher bandwidth networks and new software and hardware technologies will provide to learning.
While access to new student markets has not been widely demonstrated, it is still early in eLearning’s development and program offerings are limited. Today’s growth and profitability expectations, as in many industries, are more inline with reality.
The hope is that the pioneering efforts of university faculty and staff will garner the attention of their colleagues and university administrators who will recognize, support, and spread these innovations across faculties.
‘The ‘battle’ for students - the ugly word is customers - is just beginning. Institutions of learning which do not have merchandising skills are as handicapped as a golfer without a sand wedge. Staying on the leader board of education, and keeping the corporate snouts out of our tent, means learning to use some of their tools.’ [john hibbs, 2002]
Office learning Safari - http://www.icus.net/pages/home/LCA/index.htm
Blended learning models - http://www.learningcircuits.com/2002/aug2002/valiathan.html
Six of the best… ways to make e-learning work - http://www.personneltoday.com/pt_news/news_feat_det.asp?liArticleid=13982
The virtual student - http://www.virtualstudent.com/
European observatory on elearning - http://www.education-observatories.net/index.pt
Marvin Minsky a AI guru - http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/
Global Internet learn day - http://www.bfranklin.edu/gld6catalog/
Tech eLearning - http://www.techlearning.com/index.html
Creating the future with Toffler - http://www.toffler.com/default.shtml
Internet time group with Jay Cross
eLearning internet zine - http://www.elearningmag.com/elearning/
eLearning internet forum - http://www.elearningforum.com/
eLearningPost - http://www.elearningpost.com/features/archives/001200.asp
Challenge of learning in a brave new world - http://www.hcc.ac.th/colt1/
Listing of eUniversities - http://www.le.ac.uk/cc/rjm1/isp/ele.html
The eLearningGuild - http://www.elearningguild.com/
eLearning center - http://www.e-learningcentre.co.uk/eclipse/default.htm
eLearning glossary - http://www.learningcircuits.org/glossary.html
Free eLearning samples, register at
http://www.e-learningcentre.co.uk/eclipse/help/e-Workshops.htm