Educause V1 Prepar Campus Network Future: Educause Leadership Strategies: 1 (Jossey-Bass Educause Leadership Series) - Softcover

A. Luker, Mark

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0787947342 ISBN 13: 9780787947347

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 1999

Synopsis

"Anyone with a serious interest in the future of education will find this book provocative, prescient, prescriptive, and pivotal. It is a must-read for those responsible for preparing educational institutions at all levels for their new role in our networked society."--Vinton G. Cerf, senior vice president, MCI WORLDCOM, and chairman, Internet Society

"Transformative. That's what networks are; that's the role our institutions must fill for society; and that's what our leadership must be. This book provides valuable insight into networks and the challenges we must address to ensure that higher education thrives in the Knowledge Age."--Molly Corbett Broad, president, University of North Carolina

"This book will prove essential to presidents and other campus leaders who must plan for, and invest in, the networking infrastructures that will powerfully impact the futures of our institutions."--John Hitt, president, University of Central Florida

"All of educational practice will eventually contribute to the creative and fast-paced links that we know through the Internet. The thoughtful essays in this volume can, indeed, help us prepare for that future."--Jane Margaret "Maggie" O'Brien, president, St. Mary's College of Maryland

This first volume from the EDUCAUSE Leadership Strategies series examines the changes and challenges that the advanced Internet2 will bring to higher education campuses everywhere. Edited by Mark Luker and featuring the insights of experienced campus leaders and information professionals, this forward-thinking guide provides a roadmap to the extraordinary capabilities of the advanced Internet to come. The contributors reveal how this new networking environment will affect business operations, academic instruction, libraries, information management, regional partnerships, federal funding, policy decisions, and more. Each chapter offers specific recommendations and strategic advice to help institutional leaders make complex decisions about the future of networking on their campuses-such as when, how, and how much to invest in upgrading current technology to support the new networking environment. Far from a technical study, Preparing Your Campus for a Networked Future is a pragmatic exploration of what leaders can do to prepare for continually evolving technology.

About this title

About the Author

MARK A. LUKER is a vice president at EDUCAUSE, responsible for monitoring policy that affects information technology and telecommunications. He is also head of Net@EDU, an EDUCAUSE program that develops leading strategies for networking in higher education.

From the Back Cover

Sponsored by EDUCAUSE and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

"Anyone with a serious interest in the future of education will find this book provocative, prescient, prescriptive, and pivotal. It is a must-read for those responsible for preparing educational institutions at all levels for their new role in our networked society."
―Vinton G. Cerf, senior vice president, MCI WORLDCOM, and chairman, Internet Society

"Transformative. That's what networks are; that's the role our institutions must fill for society; and that's what our leadership must be. This book provides valuable insight into networks and the challenges we must address to ensure that higher education thrives in the Knowledge Age."
―Molly Corbett Broad, president, University of North Carolina

"The networks of today and tomorrow are...engines of transformation that will affect virtually every aspect of life in the academy. This book will prove essential to presidents and other campus leaders who must plan for, and invest in, the networking infrastructures that will powerfully impact the futures of our institutions."
―John Hitt, president, University of Central Florida

"All of educational practice will eventually contribute to the creative and fast-paced links that we know through the Internet. The thoughtful essays in this volume can, indeed, help us prepare for that future."
―Jane Margaret "Maggie" O'Brien, president, St. Mary's College of Maryland

This first volume from the EDUCAUSE Leadership Strategies series examines the changes and challenges that the advanced Internet2 will bring to higher education campuses everywhere. This forward-thinking guide provides a road map to the extraordinary capabilities of the advanced Internet to come. Far from a technical study, Preparing Your Campus for a Networked Future is a pragmatic exploration of what leaders can do to prepare for continually evolving technology.

The Sponsor
EDUCAUSE is committed to shaping and enabling transformational change in higher education through the introduction, use, and management of information resources and technologies in teaching, learning, scholarship, research, and institutional management.

The Editor
Mark Luker is a vice president at EDUCAUSE, responsible for monitoring policy that affects information technology and telecommunications. He is also head of Net@EDU, an EDUCAUSE program that develops leading strategies for networking in higher education.

From the Inside Flap

Sponsored by EDUCAUSE and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP"Anyone with a serious interest in the future of education will find this book provocative, prescient, prescriptive, and pivotal. It is a must-read for those responsible for preparing educational institutions at all levels for their new role in our networked society."―Vinton G. Cerf, senior vice president, MCI WORLDCOM, and chairman, Internet Society" Transformative. That's what networks are; that's the role our institutions must fill for society; and that's what our leadership must be. This book provides valuable insight into networks and the challenges we must address to ensure that higher education thrives in the Knowledge Age."―Molly Corbett Broad, president, University of North Carolina" The networks of today and tomorrow are...engines of transformation that will affect virtually every aspect of life in the academy. This book will prove essential to presidents and other campus leaders who must plan for, and invest in, the networking infrastructures that will powerfully impact the futures of our institutions."―John Hitt, president, University of Central Florida" All of educational practice will eventually contribute to the creative and fast-paced links that we know through the Internet. The thoughtful essays in this volume can, indeed, help us prepare for that future."―Jane Margaret "Maggie" O'Brien, president, St. Mary's College of Maryland This first volume from the EDUCAUSE Leadership Strategies series examines the changes and challenges that the advanced Internet2 will bring to higher education campuses everywhere. This forward-thinking guide provides a road map to the extraordinary capabilities of the advanced Internet to come. Far from a technical study, Preparing Your Campus for a Networked Future is a pragmatic exploration of what leaders can do to prepare for continually evolving technology. The SponsorEDUCAUSE is committed to shaping and enabling transformational chan

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Educause Leadership Strategies, Volume 1, Preparing Your Campus for a Networked Future

Jossey-Bass

Copyright © 1999 Mark A. Luker
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-7879-4734-7

Chapter One

The Role of Advanced Networks in the Education of the Future Carole A. Barone, Mark A. Luker

Many have predicted that a global network of affordable multimedia computers, on-line libraries, student-centered "learningware," and enhanced human communications in general will improve access to high-quality education on a scale that simply cannot be accomplished today. Although this may be a compelling vision of the future, many details, methods, capabilities, and even principles necessary to achieve it are not yet clear. Recent rapid progress on several fronts, however, suggests that much of this vision can be realized-and sooner rather than later. There is an exciting ferment in the entire field, both within and outside traditional institutions of higher education.

This chapter first looks at how the emergence of an advanced Internet will break the access, performance, and cost barriers that in the past have presented an insurmountable obstacle to the new vision of education. It then discusses the more fundamental opportunities and challenges concerning missions, goals, roles, methods, organization, and evaluation that will face our institutions of higher education once the technical barriers have been removed.

Role of an Advanced Internet in High-Quality Education

Most discussions about new models for distributed learning assume that there will be an underlying network-which we will call the advanced Internet-that can support the rich variety of communications and interaction required at any location, at an affordable cost. Why should we believe this now, when no past efforts have satisfied all of these requirements? And just what are the requirements, anyway? The following discussion explores the underlying technologies required to support distributed learning and looks at basic performance requirements, past and future methods of delivery, and important cost factors. It shows how the advanced Internet will be the first affordable system that can meet all of the basic access requirements of the new learning model, both on campus and off, and how some of these developments will be driven and partially funded by a massive convergence of three global communications technologies into one.

Network Requirements for Distributed Learning

A glance at the Web today shows that we do not really have to wait for the advanced Internet to begin to participate in networked distance learning. This is because traditional lectures, presentations, demonstrations, and examples, which are mostly one-way communications to the student, represent a large fraction of a typical course. A standard classroom lecture can be delivered effectively as a video clip, in just the way we can watch a news report over the Internet or on television today. (Indeed, one-way television has been the primary mode of distance education.) Simply dividing a lecture into small segments that can be repeated, skipped, called up as needed, and used anytime (as on videotape) adds valuable flexibility. Links to high-quality multimedia examples further improve the presentation, as can the preparation and delivery of really outstanding content. In short, many of todays classroom experiences can be replicated using a network that supports sending video segments to any location one way, including todays Internet. Although the Internet will become the most cost-effective way to deliver this type of content for learning, the real power of the new technology lies well beyond mimicking television.

What about the human interaction that takes place in courses, when students ask questions, get help, work together, and discuss common problems? All of these activities take place on todays Internet as well, but with a distinct bow to the limitations of the network. All have been implemented successfully using e-mail, with special software called groupware that keeps track of who is in what group, organizes their threads of discussion, and shares relevant information with group members. This type of communication is called asynchronous communication, because it does not require that members of a group be on the network at the same time. Although the idea of saving messages to be read later may at first sound awkward, it is a real advantage for distributed learning, since learners schedules often conflict. (Of course, asynchronous access is also one of the main benefits of voice mail and e-mail.) Alternate versions of groupware support synchronous communication, which allows the members of a group to "chat" over the network, instantly receiving and responding to messages from one another. Often called chat rooms, these arrangements are a low-speed and inexpensive electronic version of a small-group discussion. Both synchronous and asynchronous communications over networks have been used very successfully for instructors office hours, group projects, study sessions, and other types of interactions essential to many courses.

What can the advanced Internet add to this picture? Well, it can add an actual picture, as well as voices. With an advanced network both synchronous and asynchronous communications can include natural voice and video so that all participants can see and hear one another. This format makes for communication that is not only easier than typing and reading but also richer, conveying the subtleties of expression and tone that are lost in textual communication. Two-way video conferencing has proved to be very effective for business meetings and remote classrooms, but it has been too expensive for widespread use. Advanced networks will make this tool affordable for both classroom and "anytime, anywhere" education. Network-based curricula will support a full range of interaction, with students working alone with lectures, in study groups, and with tutors.

Related Critical Technologies

Campus-based courses depend heavily on readings, presentations, exhibits, examples, and other supporting information. These types of information are every bit as important in a distributed model, but using them in that setting depends to a much greater extent on affordable access to a high-quality collection that can be searched and retrieved through a network. Since almost all of the information in traditional libraries can be presented in digital form, these needs can be met, in principle, by digital libraries that augment the Web and improve on its structure and capability. Although successful on-line collections exist today for certain fields, there are substantial economic, intellectual property, licensing, authorization, preservation, and management barriers that must be overcome to achieve this goal in general. Organizations such as the Coalition for Networked Information and the Digital Library Federation are working actively on practical solutions to these problems. Meanwhile, there is a rapidly growing but less well organized collection of digital information for education on the Web, CD-ROMs, and other media, which can often satisfy specific objectives.

Perhaps the most important components of a distributed learning system will be modules of learningware-that is, special computer programs designed to help a student access and work with presentations, questions, experiments, and related information on specific topics. Learningware might support flexible access to text, photographs and charts, sound and video clips, and on-line data, all focused on some particular learning activity. Such digital content can be organized in many ways, however, to adapt to the particular background, learning styles, and scheduling needs of the learner. More important, the content can be active, requiring the learner to search, organize, reason, and experiment with the subject matter, perhaps using special tools, much as in a laboratory or seminar. This type of active learning is usually more effective than a passive lecture, whether or not one uses technology.

The Future Internet

The commercial promise of the Internet has led to intense pressures to improve performance and reduce costs. Thousands of signals can now be squeezed into the space that used to carry one. New and existing communications companies are crisscrossing the globe with comprehensive networks of fiber-optic cables costing billions of dollars. Satellite and radio companies are finding ways to provide Internet access to locations where there are no cables. Engineers are devising ways to send greater amounts of information using fewer bits of data. Electronic and optical devices continue to decrease in cost. The geographical distribution of information around the world is being shifted in response to demand for access. Network-aware applications especially tailored for educational requirements are under development in projects such as Internet2. All of these developments point to vast improvements in capacity and performance.

And what about cost? The cost to the consumer translates to price, which is as much a factor of supply, demand, and competition as of technology. It is most important to note that much of this new capacity introduces new competition between new providers who control alternate routes to the consumers. Prices for connections are beginning to drop in those markets that now support real competition. And the cost of network components will plummet at the same time that newer technologies come into mass production.

Why all this intense investment in the Internet? Precisely because the basic communications requirements for distributed learning overlap those for collaborative research, electronic commerce, access to government, personal and business communications, and even entertainment. Each of these activities could be served by an advanced Internet. This means that a solution to the high-quality, low-cost, "anytime, anyplace" Internet is worth billions of dollars. Such technology is now the subject of intense research and development in universities, government, and the private sector. It is widely agreed that the resulting systems will support a convergence of separate voice, video, and data communications technologies into a single advanced Internet that can replace much of the redundant investment we presently make in all three of these areas. Future homes, offices, and classrooms equipped with telephone or cable television connections will automatically enjoy the advanced network capabilities required for distributed learning.

Taken together, these technical and economic developments point to the possibility of a dramatic increase in access to affordable, high-quality education. Can our institutions of higher education, or their emerging competitors, successfully adapt to the new opportunities in time to realize the vision?

New Opportunities and Challenges for Higher Education

Teaching and learning models of the future assume universal access to the network. Advanced networks appear to offer an educationally and economically viable solution to the pressing need for access to higher education for both the traditional eighteen-to-twenty-two-year-old cohort and for the exploding number of "knowledge workers" who will require access to lifelong learning. It is envisioned that improvements in access to instruction, as well as to its quality and affordability, will occur both on traditional residential campuses and in virtual learning settings. What contextual elements will change as advanced networks enable distributed learning?

Social and Cultural Issues

With the realization that the twenty-first century will bring with it a set of social issues related to education, the mission of higher education is expanding to provide access irrespective of life circumstances-for example, age, employment status, geography, culture, ethnicity, and family responsibilities. Access means a number of things, from physical access to course materials (provided via the Internet or a learning device) to intellectual access to the subject matter (provided by a neutral, nonjudgmental context, enabled by network-based learningware).

The classroom lecture and its concomitant social relationships have been dominant forms in universities for centuries. Advanced networks and information technology will enable the development of a new pedagogy that nurtures learning among those for whom the traditional classroom model is not a viable form of access or road to academic success. Tensions on campus run high as institutions of higher education face social and economic pressures that their cultural and value systems, embedded in traditional modes of instruction, do not accommodate.

Distributed Learning Environments

Virginia Polytechnic and State Universitys Math Emporium project is an elegant example of a felicitous match of advanced networking capability with an institutional need (and desire) to provide access. Faced with burgeoning enrollments and inadequate funding to accommodate students in the traditional classroom model, the universitys mathematics department embarked on a courageous effort to transform its approach to entry-level mathematics courses. The Math Emporium, a five-hundred-workstation learning center located in a former department store building, provides an active learning environment for more than ten thousand students (Moore and Rossi, 1999).

Using network-based learning modules and diagnostic quizzes, students work at their own pace to master the material. Faculty fulfill their class contact obligations by spending time in the Math Emporium, mentoring students when they encounter difficulty with the material. Ongoing assessment of the learning that is taking place alerts faculty to subject matter areas where students are experiencing general difficulty, which then prompts them to schedule short tutorial sessions on those topics.

Blacksburg, Virginia, is one of a growing number of communities that offer high-end network access to their residents. Consequently, students are also able to access and work with learningware from their homes. Emerging capabilities in authentication and streaming video theoretically will let the Math Emporium make quizzes, "mini lectures," and tutorial help available over the network. It is interesting to speculate whether, over the long term, students will continue to visit the Math Emporium for social reasons or if they will build their learning communities solely on the network. Anecdotal evidence from other campuses indicates that students are moving toward the formation of electronic communities and have less psychological need for in-person contact.

Enterprise-wide transformational change, such as that taking place at Virginia Tech, requires more than advanced networking; this type of reconceptualization of the learning environment also calls for radical changes in institutional policy and funding allocations. The Virginia Tech initiative is as much a study of a courageous group of faculty members and administrators motivated to change the culture of student-faculty relationships as it is a study of the enabling power of advanced networks. This is an example of decisive, strategic action by an institution that understands its priorities.

Advanced networking also enables true distance learning to occur, by making students' geographical location irrelevant to access. The Western Governors University (www.wgu.edu) speaks to the economic importance a number of state governors place on providing lifelong access to education for the citizens of their states. The University of Arizona's Southwest Project (dizzy.library.arizona.edu/swp/welcome.html) is an example of the use of the Internet to make a large depository of information available to the community, including community colleges and K-12 schools. Both of these examples point to the importance and power of collaboration in realizing successful distance learning.

A milestone was passed in March 1999 when Jones International University, a for-profit distance education venture, was accredited by the North Central Association Commission on Institutions of Higher Education. Jones offers bachelor's and master's degrees in addition to its certificate programs (Mendels, 1999). There are countless other examples of noncredit, credit, vocational, and degree-granting programs that are being offered to students in a distance learning format.

Few would dispute that advanced networks can serve as catalysts for distributed learning opportunities. Many would argue, however, that their capability has outpaced the policy, culture, and infrastructure of U.S. higher education, thus creating a new set of tensions and barriers. It is these tensions and barriers that the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative strives to address.

The National Learning Infrastructure Initiative and the Instructional Management System The National Learning Infrastructure Initiative (NLII), an EDUCAUSE program (www.educause.edu/nlii), emerged from the conviction that information technology has the power to bring about systemic change in higher education by transforming teaching and learning. It was formed to address lags in policy, culture, support, and infrastructure that create barriers to transformational change through technology. NLII projects focus on enhancing institutional readiness for such change.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Educause Leadership Strategies, Volume 1, Preparing Your Campus for a Networked Future Copyright © 1999 by Mark A. Luker. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0787947342
• ISBN 13: 9780787947347
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 140