The Virtual University

The Internet and Resource-based Learning

Steve Ryan, Bernard Scott, Howard Freeman, Daxa Patel

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781135368418
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Bildung Allgemein

A discussion of the increased accessibility to the Internet and how this has lead to a variety of resources being used for learning. Case studies and examples show the benefits of using the Internet as part of resource-based learning.

Chapter 1

A changing context – education and the Internet

Introduction

The educational world is changing rapidly. We are seeing the use of the Internet and Communications and Information Technology (CIT) becoming an important part of the learning and teaching strategies of many universities. Some are seeking to become global, virtual institutions, others are using the Internet as part of a mixed economy, combining traditional modes of delivery with online teaching. This chapter reviews some of the developments that are influencing the growth of resource-based learning (RBL) and the Internet in order to set the scene for the rest of the book We will be examining the following:

• the growth and development of the Internet;

• some key changes in the world of education;

• an overview of RBL, universities and the Internet.

These themes are explored in more detail in later chapters.

The growth of the Internet

Claims about the Internet revolutionizing our lives are now commonplace. In part they are based on its rapid growth: it is estimated that in the year 2000, 327 million people around the world will have Internet access. There will be 25 countries where over 10 per cent of the population will be Internet users (Cyberatlas, online).

This growth is illustrated graphically by Huber (1997, p. 12):

The Internet’s pace of adoption eclipses all other technologies before it. Radio was in existence 38 years before 50 million people tuned in; TV took 13 years to reach that point. Once the Net was opened up to the general public, the Internet crossed that line in four years.

There are limits, but for the Internet these limits are not even close. Projections by Lottor (online) suggest a ten-fold increase over the next five years. The number of individual Web pages has already reached this figure. A recent report (Center for Next Generation Internet, online) describes the current annual growth rate as 63 per cent.

This growth of the Internet from a mainly closed academic network to a common feature in many people’s lives is being driven by a number of factors. In particular, the real opportunities for electronic commerce and trade, the integration of television, radio and entertainment systems and the communication opportunities offered by e-mail, audio and video-conferencing are having a major impact. These developments affect education. Tony Blair, the UK Prime Minister, has said:

Technology has revolutionized the way we work and is now set to transform education. Children cannot be effective in tomorrow’s world if they are trained in yesterday’s skills. Nor should teachers be denied the tools that other professionals take for granted. (Blair, 1998, p.1)

But the changes occurring are far more significant than those resulting only from the need to train students in new skills. We are now moving into what has been characterized as an information age where the key commodities being traded are not physical goods but data and information.

An information age?

It can be argued that we have always lived in an information age. In humans, our informing is shared through the coordinating and representing functions of language. Sharing information one with another is called ‘communication’. Communication affords prediction and control. It took the genius of Norbert Wiener to recognize the ubiquity, the universality, of processes of control and communication throughout the man-made and natural worlds. Wiener coined the name ‘cybernetics’ for the general transdisciplinary study of control and communication in complex systems (Wiener, 1948).

The development of the first general purpose digital computers brought questions of control and communication to the fore. It was recognized that it should now be possible to automate most if not all of the functions of control and communication being carried out by humans in industrial processes. It is but a short intellectual step to move from the idea of the automation of the industrial processes to consider the implications of automating much of what happens within educational systems.

Digital computers have been around for some 50 years. Their influence has been felt in fits and starts. Early significant applications were in science, engineering and mathematics. In the last 20 years we have seen computing become relatively universal with stand-alone PCs and workstations commonplace in homes, offices and factories. Both computational power and data storage capacity have become relatively cheap. Powerful application packages for word-processing, numerical processing and graphical work are readily available. Data of all kinds can now be represented and manipulated digitally, including photographs, video and audio tracks. Increasingly all of this is possible not just on stand-alone computers but over networks and in particular the Internet.

The growth of networks

The Internet is a global communications network. Its origins lie in the 1970s with the development of the US military’s Arpanet for scientific communication and the parallel development of time-shared computing systems where several work stations are linked by a network to one or more central processors. For many years, developments appeared to be very slow. Networks were built up to link scientific and academic communities and used by the few in those communities who took the trouble to find out how to use the systems with their arcane and awkward-to-use protocols.

The use of electronic mail with the development of user-friendly front-end mailing systems was a major step forward. The most recent breakthrough in terms of ease of use and applicability came with the development of the World Wide Web, which supports hypertext linking and full multimedia digital delivery of data. However, the infrastructure of the information age is only partly in place. It is not yet the case that every household with a telephone is connected to the Internet, nor does every household with a television also have a personal computer, but there does seem to be an air of inevitability about these developments. The only question appears to be, when will it happen? Within five years, within ten years?

Visionaries of the information age have predicted and anticipated these developments for some 30 to 40 years. Bush (1945), Pask and Curran (1982), Nelson (1990) and others have considered how global networks will impact on our lives.

Learning for life – the changing context

The relevance of CIT for universities needs to be viewed within the context of an increasing emphasis on lifelong learning and the impact CIT is having on all aspects of education. From this perspective education is not something that only ‘happens’ during childhood and early adulthood but rather is a continuing process throughout an individual’s life. Over time a person’s educational needs will change as will the amount and pattern of time that can be committed to it. The level of resource available to support the educational activities may also vary.

The requirement for a workforce with up-to-date skills and the need for continuing professional updating and training mean that the educational and training process needs to be viewed as ongoing. There is also considerable interest now being addressed in older learners, those who have perhaps finished in full-time employment and have the time to pursue educational activities for personal fulfilment.

Universities and other providers are responding to these changing demands by increasing the flexibility of their provision, offering a greater range and variety of courses that can be studied in various modes and by a number of means, including part-time attendance and distance learning.

The role of CIT is critical here. It can provide the flexibility of delivery that many lifelong learners require as well as addressing access issues. Courses can be studied at home, in work, at school or in local centres such as libraries.

Developments in schools – The National Grid for Learning

We can illustrate some of these developments with the example of the National Grid for Learning. In the UK a coherent strategy for networked learning is being developed. This involves the introduction of networks and hardware into schools and a programme of staff development for teachers. This strategy, known as the National Grid for Learning, is quite explicitly part of a move to improve the competitiveness of British business. The grid:

will provide a national focus and agenda for harnessing new technologies to raise educational standards, and improve quality of life and Britain’s international competitiveness, especially the new literacy and numeracy targets. (Blair, 1998, p.3)

Under this initiative all schools, libraries and universities are being connected to the Grid. A major programme of staff development is being undertaken with teachers and other professionals, and appropriate software and resources are being developed. The Grid is being developed as a partnership between business and education, ‘bringing together the best of private sector creativity and the highest standards of public service’ (Blair, 1998).

Underpinning the conception of the Grid is a belief in the importance of developing and sharing resources so that teachers and students can quickly find and access appropriate materials from within a networked environment far richer and more extensive than the kind of resources traditionally available to schools. We are already seeing the emergence of a number of Web sites providing resources, links, professional development information and the opportunity to conference for teachers. The National Grid For Learning has a Virtual Teachers Centre (http://www.vtc.org.uk/) and other sites have been developed through:

• universities, for example Teachernet (http://www.teachernetuk.org.uk);

• European funding grants, for example European school net (http://www.en. eun.org/front/actual/);

• computer and telecommunications companies with a particular interest in the schools market, for example Research Machines (http://www.eduweb. co.uk/), Campus World, (http://www.campus.bt.com/CampusWorld/pub/);

• the broadcasting companies who are becoming particularly active in the schools market, such as the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/home/today/).

These developments are leading to new relationships between commercial organizations and teachers and schools, including financial support and sponsorship. Web sites are being created by organizations that go far beyond the provision of resources, which could be seen as a logical extension of traditional educational publishing, to include online activities and assessment, and conferencing facilities. ...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• About the authors
• Series editor’s foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1. A changing context – education and the Internet
• 2. Learning, teaching and course design with resource-based learning
• 3. Technologies of delivery and interaction on the Internet
• 4. Using the Internet: course development and delivery
• 5. Resources on the World Wide Web
• 6. Computer mediated communications for collaborative learning
• 7. Using the Internet: Computer Aided Assessment
• 8. Integrated systems
• 9. Changing cultures in HE
• 10. Around the corner
• Glossary
• References
• Subject Index
• Author Index