Are the days of attending a traditional school numbered? Education
experts are predicting that on-line learning will revolutionize
the academic experience in the decades to come. With the advent
of electronic textbooks, cyber tutoring and distance-learning
at graduate and undergraduate level, you could say the future
is already here.
Milhel Pilv, CEO of Miksike Corporation’s Web-based “Miksike Learning
Environment,” predicts, “[On-line] education will be a smoother,
and more stable process of walking from the unknown towards wisdom
and the ability to create. This means changing priorities... Education
will be categorized not primarily in terms of the organizational
aspects of schooling (kindergarten, college, adult learning, home
schooling etc.), but priority will be given to the knowledge and
skills obtained and level of proficiency.”
As an example he sites the UK’s Open University. In existence
since 1971, the Open University, operates a supported distance-learning
system. Students in England and across Europe communicate with
their tutor by computer conferencing, e-mail, fax or post. In
addition to a wide variety of courses that can be accumulated
towards a BA or BSC degree, the university offers a certificate
and diploma in management for candidates ineligible for direct
access to its AMBA accredited MBA program.
In recent years, distance- or on-line learning has caught on with
working professionals who need the degrees required to climb the
corporate ladder, but lack the time to attend a traditional school.
These programs not only allow students to continue to go to work
while going to school at the same time, but also permit them to
study at their own pace. In addition, Web classrooms give expats,
or anyone on sabbatical, the option of living anywhere in the
world while pursuing an American education.
In the US, 44% of all higher education departments now feature
on-line programs generating $500 million in revenue. According
to the National Center for Education Statistics, between 1997
and 1998, total enrollments in post-secondary, credit-granting
distance-learning courses amounted brought in nearly 1.4 million.
Approximately 8% of these institutions offer programs at graduate
level, as well as basic professional qualifications in the fields
of business and management, health, education and engineering.
In California, a law requires completion of a post-baccalaureate
program in teacher education and a pass grade in a state license
or examination, for teachers to qualify for public school positions.
Individuals who do not have the required credentials may still
be hired on the basis of what are called “emergency” credentials.
To address the shortage of credentialed teachers, six campuses
in the California State University (CSU) system have joined together
to create an Internet-based certificate option. The program lasts
18 months, and its goal is to allow teachers who are already in
the classroom with emergency credentials, to obtain their full
qualifications, while remaining on the job. In developing the
CalStateTEACH program, CSU has adopted a model similar to the
Open University program, combining the use of the Internet, texts
and videotaped instruction to deliver content to the students.
Although computers have not begun to replace undergraduate study
in a big way, technology already plays a major role in university
life, and this applies to everything from the recruitment of students
to instruction in the classroom. Laptop computers are now on many
schools supplies lists, as 39% of college courses require students
to use Internet resources as part of the syllabus. Teachers everywhere
are encouraged to find ways of incorporating technology in the
classroom and some of these courses even have their own website
like Parsons Paris’ “Paris Latitudes,” an on-line magazine representing
a collaborative effort among communication design, illustration
and liberal studies students.
In the area of non-credit continuing education, computer skills
and software applications still take the lead among requested
on-line courses. However, there is a new trend on the horizon.
According to Asia week magazine, an increasing number of people
are turning to sites like eschool.com and learnplus.com for foreign
language skills. Log on, review vocabulary lists, listen to sound
clips featuring native speakers, and practice intonation. Questions
are posed by email, with attached voice files for pronunciation
checks.
To be sure, this method is not for everyone. Internet technology,
particularly on the language education front, remains fraught
with problems. Audio quality varies, servers crash... Ultimately
you also need some interaction with flesh-and-blood humans.
At all levels of education, “ebooks” and textbooks are increasingly
available on-line. Using downloadable books, professors can customize
material, adding or deleting information or rearranging chapters.
Publishers can update editions more quickly, while students can
take advantage of such interactive features as search tools, discussion
groups and companion study guides.
WizeUp.com plans to launch a marketing campaign on more than 100
college campuses nationwide to promote electronic versions of
about 30 – and, this figure is rising – college textbooks, from
established publishers such as W.W. Norton and Houghton Mifflin.
These e-books, are reprinted word for word from their paper editions
and include features such as note taking and highlighting. International
electronic publisher Versaware.com is offering Web-based versions
of existing textbooks, produced by heavyweight publishers like
McGraw-Hill and Addison Wesley.
So what will happen next in cyber-ed? In an article in The Washington
Post titled “Online Education to be Free,” Cyndi Loose speaks
about millionaire Michael Saylor's $100 million endowment toward
“creating an on-line university that will offer ‘Ivy League’ education
to anyone in the world for free.” He envisions on-line courses
that would include lectures from the world’s “geniuses and leaders.”
“Universities will lose control of knowledge, as they should,”
he proclaims. “We all share the right to our leaders and geniuses.”
He feels administrators “will undergo a period of skepticism and
fear, just as the educated of the world once feared the printing
press, until they realized that they could thrive in a world where
other people could read, too.”
