The cyber-revolution in its historical context.

Abstract

The current educational revolution, or cyber-revolution, is best understood in the context of previous educational revolutions and related historical transitions. The purpose of this article is to provide a historical and theoretical context for examining the impact of cyber-learning on students and higher education institutions. The historical context provided includes an examination of previous educational revolutions and a brief history of distance education, specifically. Also included is a discussion of the role of virtual learning in the current educational transition into the Knowledge Age. The article concludes with a discussion of the possible impacts of the cyber-revolution on students and implications for future research.

Introduction

Education is in the midst of a dramatic revolution, challenging many of the assumptions long held about learning and teaching. Various sources have predicted dramatic changes in the delivery of higher education services because of the impact of computer mediated forms of distance education (Agre, 1999; Marchese, 1998), a shift in educational focus from classroom-centered to learner-centered (DuBois, 1998; and Peinovich, 1997), movement into the Knowledge Age (Duderstadt, 1997; Norris, 1998), and the increased emphasis on collaborative forms of learning (Wegerif, 1998; Norris, 1998). Predictions vary from a growth in the nontraditional student population taking courses at a distance in some form (Cantelon, 1995; Norris, 1998) to predictions that higher education as we currently know it will be increasingly replaced by virtual colleges and computer mediated training provided by joint ventures with industry (Duderstadt, 1997; Marchese, 1998).

The purpose of this article is to provide a better understanding of the current educational revolution, or cyber-revolution, and its potential impacts on learning, by examining its historical context. Given the history of distance education and the transition into the Knowledge Age, this discussion concludes by describing potential impacts of virtual learning on students and higher education.

Historical Context for the Cyber-Revolution

The history of distance education encompasses various methods of instruction including correspondence, home study, televised courses, extension classes, video conferencing, and online learning (Richards, 1992). The distance education frontier currently being developed has been described as the third transformation of education, or "cyber-revolution" (Ehrmann, 1999, p. 42), best understood within the history of previous revolutions in education and the history of distance education in general.

Educational Revolutions

The use of computers as a significant mediator in education is the current, and third, transformation in education (Ehrmann, 1999). The first transformation was set in motion when learners and scholars began to rely more on reading and writing and less on oral exchange. The earliest form of education, the oral exchange, had allowed the student the opportunity to question the teacher, obtaining clarification, and vice versa, the teacher could question the student, assuring complete understanding of the information presented. By writing information down, the teacher could reach a wider range of students, and the student could access a wider array of teachers. The advent of the printed word has been described as the "most obvious and dominant medium used to transmit information whatever the context" (Stewart, 1995, p. 11) and served as the basis for the first educational revolution wherein the oral tradition was gradually replaced with larger amounts of reading and writing.

The focus on written communication as the foundation for education was followed by the second educational revolution when students and scholars gathered together to share facilities and resources. This "campus revolution" (Ehrmann, 1999, p. 42) brought significant changes to the learning process. Scholars could access more teachers and teachers could reach more students. As the campus format continued to develop, the students became more "passive learners waiting for experts to tell them what was important" (p. 43). Also, some students could not afford to move to campus and access the education provided there. This gathering of teachers, students, and library resources was, and continues to be in some form, the mainstay of the campus educational system (Cantelon, 1995). The printed word, contained in textbooks and library collections, remained central to the educational experience in this second educational revolution.

The current, and third, revolution involves a technologically altered transmission of the printed word and a potential reversal of the campus revolution. Computers, video, and telecommunications are providing alternative ways of connecting teachers and students, thereby providing access to a wider range of people and information. In this third revolution, education can be brought to the student, rather than requiring that the student go to the classroom. This cyber-revolution provides the potential for a reversal of the second, campus revolution, specifically negating the need for students to go to campus in order to have access to professors, library resources, and interaction with other students. Building upon the use of the printed word and writing as educational conduits, the cyber-revolution promises to bring education anywhere, to anyone, at anytime, via an Internet that never sleeps.

History of distance education

Earlier attempts to bring education to the student, instead of requiring the student to relocate to the college campus, have included a variety of distance education formats. Distance education can be traced back to at least the early 1700's (Richards, 1992) where advertisements offered instruction by mail. In 1833, an advertisement in a Swedish newspaper offered instruction on composition (Holmberg, 1986). In the 1800's, Germany established correspondence study and a Boston-based program also emerged (Schlosser & Anderson, 1994). Correspondence eventually spread to various places in the United States, Sweden, and France. Adults with job, community, or family obligations were, and continue to be, the targets for distance education programs (Schlosser & Anderson).

Another type of distance education arrived when the first experimental television teaching programs were produced in the American Midwest in the early 1930's. This phenomenon spread to various universities and colleges, its proliferation facilitated by the emergence of satellite technology in the 1960's and further enhanced by its improved cost-effectiveness in the 1980's (Schlosser & Anderson, 1994).

In most recent years, higher education has been experimenting with the use of computer-mediated instruction in various forms. This computer-mediated instruction can occur via large educational research networks, asynchronous email connections, or through real-time telecomputing (Stewart, 1995). The first online classes can be traced to 1981, to the School of Management and Strategic Studies at the Western Behavioral Sciences Institute in La Jolla, California, where all of the courses were offered online (Feenberg, 1999). A Socratic pedagogy was used, where instructors would post questions and the students would respond online. The quality of the discussions that occurred was reported as very high quality, higher than that which occurred in traditional classrooms. This was, in essence, a return to the oral exchange of early education, using the computer rather than a face-to-face dialogue.

This computer-mediated form of Socratic exchange is being used in some online classrooms of today with students being able to have continuous electronic connection to their instructors via email. The typical format involves the teacher organizing the course materials, readings, and assignments, with the students reading the assigned materials, completing assignments that are electronically submitted, and interacting electronically with the instructor and other students (Hanson, et al., 1997). As in the traditional academic setting, the specific structure of online classes varies widely. Some online classes have very large enrollments, monitored by graduate assistants, much like the large lecture format found at some universities and colleges. Other colleges are maintaining small online class sizes, to facilitate more interactive student-instructor and student-student relationships.

Online education offers a unique array of the advantages and disadvantages of earlier forms of distance education. The convenience and isolation of correspondence study is replaced with the potential for interaction found in interactive televised courses, without requiring students to drive to interactive television classrooms. Video clips, such as those used in video-based courses, can provide a visual enhancement of online instruction. The oral exchange of the first revolution is transferred to text-based exchanges, not centered around a classroom and library as in the campus revolution, but intertwined with the boundless resources of the World Wide Web.

Movement into the Knowledge Age

The current revolution in education, driven by the rapidly advancing technology available, is coupled with a renewed emphasis on learning and knowledge development, rather than just the absorption of information. With the proliferation of information and its availability, some are describing the current era as the "Knowledge Age" (Duderstadt, 1997; Norris, 1998). With an overwhelming amount of information within easy reach of Internet access, the Knowledge Age puts an emphasis on "learning to learn," rather than acquiring specific subject matter. The hallmarks of the Knowledge Age are perpetual, distributed, interactive, and collaborative learning (Norris, 1998).

In the Knowledge Age learning is lifelong and can occur at any phase or place in life. Teachers will have to adjust to "a world where knowledge development is continuous and where subject matter expertise is only one component of the skill set necessary to create sophisticated and effective learning content for use by learners" (Anderson & Garrison, 1998, p. 109). Learning from a Knowledge Age perspective is viewed more as an ongoing process, rather than an event based on a semester-to-semester model (DuBois, 1998). Distributed learning in the Knowledge Age can occur anywhere because of various distance education formats, not just in campus classrooms. Also, instead of course material being delivered from instructor to students, learning in the Knowledge Age occurs through interactive formats, centered on the student, rather than on the instructor. Lastly, learning in the Knowledge Age is not an individual absorption of information but the result of collaborative teams and communities (Norris, 1998).

Virtual Students in the Knowledge Age

Movement into the Knowledge Age and the potential use of computers to mediate this transition has significant implications for students and higher education. As stated by Friedheim and Jaffee (1999), "When good pedagogy drives technology, electronic media become tools that stretch the boundaries of teaching and learning; they force teachers and students to rethink how they produce and consume knowledge" (p. 58). The cyber-revolution and the Knowledge Age have been catalysts for a reevaluation of learning and the roles of students and teachers in the learning process.

Perpetual and Distributed

Perpetual, virtual learning "eliminates the cost of travel, lodging, and most of all, the cost of foregone opportunities" (Gomory, 2001, p. 5). Education via an Internet-linked computer offers the promise of educational advancement without relocating to campus and adversely impacting job or family. Virtual learning can take place anywhere there is an Internet connected computer, with anyone who has access to such a computer, 24 hours a day. Some of this virtual learning is distributed to the extent that it has become global learning, with students at remote parts of the globe linked together in an online learning environment (Duderstadt, 1997). Students around the world are taking online classes and the learning outcomes are indistinguishable from traditional classes (Gomory, 2001). Many professors remain skeptical about the reality of students thriving in a virtual classroom (Feenberg, 1999) as well as accessibility issues for those who do not have home computers (Peinovich, 1997).

Interactive and Collaborative

Interpersonal interaction challenges students to examine their preconceived ideas and socializes them into professional communities (Ehrmann, 1999). How does the online environment provide for this socialization process? The online environment consists of an absence of non-verbal cues, with interactions reduced to text-on-screen exchanges (Curtis & Lawson, 2001). Much of the conversation between class participants occurs asynchronously, often with long delays between responses (Curtis & Lawson, 2001). According to Newson (1999) the social nature of teaching and learning is influenced not only by the curriculum but also by the pedagogical context, including student-teacher interactions and peer relations. The online environment can facilitate this interaction by allowing some students, silent in a traditional class, to become outspoken via email (Ehrmann, 1999), not being overshadowed by more vocal students (Gomory, 2001).

Computer conferencing can add the dimension of collaborative work to online education by having students work on class projects via their computers (Hanson, et al., 1997). Collaborative learning is purported to function well in computer mediated environments (Wegerif, 1998) and some research (Curtis & Lawson, 2001) supports the conclusion that effective collaborative learning can and does occur in online classes, though there are differences between face-to-face collaboration and that which occurs online. For students to collaborate in online classes it is important that they are instructed on the use of the software and well prepared for the difficulties of collaborative learning (Curtis & Lawson). Given adequate student and faculty support, virtual learning has the potential to contain all of the components of learning in the Knowledge Age.

Conclusions and Implications

The use of email or Internet sources as part of the class activities is already utilized in half of college courses (Merisotis, 1999). There appear to be no limits to the applicability of virtual learning, however, are there limits within the students of which we are currently unaware? Are some students less likely to succeed in an environment where face-to-face human interaction is replaced by online teaching? The online environment is essentially a space for written interaction far from the actual experience of human proximity (Feenberg, 1999). Virtual education "displaces the live personal interaction so important for learning" (Martin, 1999), and this displacement may affect some students in a profound, currently unknown, way. The campus revolution required that students relocate from their homes to receive an education, similarly the cyber-revolution draws students into interacting with teachers, knowledge, and students via their computers. Just as some students were unable to attend college on campuses there may be some students who are unable to `attend' college via virtual universities due to constraints of learning style or access to computers.

Projected impacts of virtual learning on higher education range from enthusiastic to disastrous (Peinovich, 1997). On the negative end of the spectrum are concerns about the cost of technology-based learning and colleges that serve lower income populations being unable to bear that financial burden (Peinovich, 1997). Additional threats to higher education might be found in having to compete with higher quality online offerings from larger institutions or from industry-sponsored programs (Marchese, 1998). Education has been predicted to shift from being "space-oriented" to "time-oriented" or "competency-based" (Cantelon, 1995) with students seeking education from whatever provider offers the most convenient and economical program. The emphasis could change from focusing on a particular college in a particular place to a particular skill earned in as much time as was needed to achieve competency. Furthermore, with students not being geographically limited, faculty would also be freed of geographic limitations (Agre, 1999). Progressing onward from the three educational revolutions described previously, fewer professors could disseminate information to more and more students, with a small number of professors reaching millions of students with their courses (Feenberg, 1999). These mass offerings, would, however, not contain the interactive and collaborative components included in the ideal of the Knowledge Age.

Traditional learning settings are not projected to disappear, but they are projected to be significantly changed (Norris, 1998). Technology will be used increasingly to provide distributed learning, using a blend of classroom and virtual learning, especially for nontraditional and graduate students who find the virtual classroom an attractive alternative to attendance in an actual classroom (Norris). No matter whose prediction becomes a reality, that of radical proliferation of online education or that of more pervasive inclusion in traditional classrooms, it becomes imperative that educational researchers diligently examine virtual learning and its various impacts on students and educational structures.

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Dr. MacGregor is an assistant professor for the Department of Educational Administration. Her research focuses on the experiences of students in online classes.