November 1999 — Features
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Pedagogy and Policy in the Age of the Wired Professor
The challenges of instituting a coherent policy appear daunting, but our experience suggests the importance of ensuring roughly equal access to equipment. If an Internet-ready computer and associated software became part of the tuition cost at an institution, the student who purchased a new machine on installments could, at the very least, make such a purchase using a Hope scholarship or a low-interest student loan.Conclusions
Our experience with the WebCT module of the Spanish course highlights pedagogical and policy goals that merit careful consideration. Online learning give an excellent opportunity to foster high-order thinking skills, time management capabilities, interpersonal communication, and the capacity to process information. These strengths transcend disciplinary boundaries. This greater reach, however, requires greater interdisciplinary collaboration in the establishment and implementation of pedagogical goals. On a small, individual scale, instructors who seek to use online tools for teaching would do well to explicitly describe the goals of this new direction in learning. These goals will likely include traditional aims based on the topic at hand, but also goals not directly related to the subject, yet crucial for success after graduation.
On a broad scale, educational institutions must pursue these pedagogical goals while honoring the best traditions of academic environments as communities. For this reason, policy implications must gain increased attention. Rapid growth in online courses raises a crucial ethical question centered on access to adequate hardware and software. In order that technology-infused courses become means for greater communication rather than marks of soci'economic differentiation, institutions that feature courses where online assignments count towards the final grade must take steps to insure that students have up-to-date hardware and software. This issue of access requires that institutions decide what equipment students need, take steps to help them acquire it and then train them in its use. The potential and drawbacks of online learning are so great that the widespread move to digitize courses needs to be accompanied by a broad-based discussion about the social implications of this trend.
Angela Benson is a doctoral student in Instructional Technology at the University of Georgia. Her research interests are in the areas of distance learning and instructional design. She has taught online writing courses and is the author of a fiction writing text.
E-mail: abenson@bensonink.com
Elizabeth Wright is an Assistant Professor of Spanish in the Department of Romance Languages at the University of Georgia. She and a colleague have just received a grant from the state of Georgia to prepare a technology-infused "Introduction to Hispanic Literature and Film" course that will be used as a model within the university system.
E-mail: elizabethwright@compuserve.com
References
Gates, K. F. 1998. "Should colleges and universities require students to own their own computers?" Cause/Effect, http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/html/cem9839.html.
Suggested Readings
Deloughry, T. J., 1996. "The widening gap: Students, colleges with computers forge ahead of those without." The Chronicle of Higher Education, (June 14), 40, A16.
Harasim, L., Hiltz, S. R., Teles, L., & Turoff, M. 1995. Learning networks: A field guide to teaching and learning online. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
McCollum, K. 1998. "A computer requirement for students changes professors' duties as well." The Chronicle of Higher Education, (June 26), A22.
