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Modern Technology in the American University The Aspen Institute, Berlin - April 3, 1997
IntroductionLadies and Gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to be with you at the Aspen Institute in Berlin today. I thank Steffen Sachs, deputy director of the Institute, and his assistant Elke von Kloppman for their courtesy and assistance in making arrangements for our visit here. Let me begin by saying just a few words about my own university. Although young by European standards, Ohio University is an historic university in the U.S., having been established in concept by the U.S. Congress in the year 1787 and chartered in 1804. Ours is a university that has long been interested and involved in collaborations with universities worldwide, and we feel fortunate that so many students from other nations choose to attend Ohio University. In the current enrollment of 19,000 students on our main campus in Athens, 1,200 are international students from more than 100 countries. Social Change and Higher EducationAs we approach the 21st century, universities all over the globe are experiencing tremendous pressure to change. That challenge derives in part from the demands of society, brought about by the global transformation from an industrial society to a "knowledge" society. In an article in Atlantic Monthly magazine in November 1994, entitled "The Age of Social Transformation," author Peter Drucker reminds us that, "No century in recorded history has experienced so many social transformations and such radical ones as the twentieth century." ( Peter F. Drucker, "The Age of Social Transformation," The Atlantic Monthly, November 1994, 53ff.) Drucker refers to changes in our perceptions of time and distance -- the impact of technological advances in modes of transportation and communication -- and he mentions the changes in the nature and distribution of work. He points out that in the first decade of this century farmers composed the largest single group of workers in every country. Today, in free-market, developed countries, farmers are at most 5 percent of the population and work force. Between 1900 and 1990 we have seen the rise and fall of the industrial worker -- the so-called "blue-collar" laborer -- in developed countries like Germany and the U.S. In my country alone, manufacturing workers accounted for 40 percent of the American work force in the 1950s, whereas such workers represent less than 20 percent of the work force today. In Germany, Chancellor Kohl predicts that more people will be working in the information sector than in the automobile industry in the year 2000. (Helmut Kohl, speech given at Heinz Nixdorf Musuem Forum, Paderborn, 24 October 1996.) The Rise of the "Knowledge Worker"Now we have the rise of the "knowledge worker," a species unimagined 40 years ago. The shift from an industrial base to a knowledge base is a challenging one -- for some, even a wrenching one. Some social critics have compared our era with that of the literary one, when society changed because of the invention of the printing press, not far from here, in 1450. Earlier in this century, when workers moved from the farm to the factory, they did so because they wanted to. The opportunities and the wages in the manufacturing plants were better, and furthermore, farm workers already possessed most of the skills needed for the new factory jobs. Today, of course, the move from manufacturing jobs to knowledge-based jobs does require entirely new skills, and often workers change from factory to computer not because want to but because they have to. The industrial and manufacturing jobs, especially in North America, simply do not exist in the numbers that they once did, and the jobs that remain often require new skills. Robots and other clever machines have replaced some workers, and of course many jobs have moved to places where the labor is cheaper than in the industrial sectors of the U.S. Wherever the manufacturing jobs have gone, the fact remains that knowledge workers now make up about one-third of the entire work force in my country, as large a proportion as ever represented by manufacturing workers. And in Germany, where small- and medium-sized businesses account for two-thirds of all jobs, information technology is going to play an increasing role in shaping your global economy. What are the messages from this "social transformation" to institutions of higher education? What is our stake in this process of social change, or more appropriately, what is our responsibility? How should we react and how should we plan for the future? One thing that seems evident is that higher levels of education will be ever more important for a greater percentage of the world's populace. Higher education is big business in the U.S., and it will become bigger and more global. As the needs of the society and the opportunities for gainful employment require higher skills, it behooves those of us in universities to expand our access to greater percentages of the population. And, not only will more people strive to earn university degrees, but even more people will see the need for advanced degrees. Furthermore, the need for continuing education throughout one's life has already become a more evident desire, and in some cases a demand. Many people in the professions -- teaching, medicine, law, engineering, for example -- are required to engage in advanced learning in order to maintain a license for practice. Business people such as investment brokers, accountants, and real estate agents are also required to study and be examined on a regular basis in order to maintain the validity of their credentials. The Age of InformationIt stands to reason that the "Age of Information" presages a demand for more thorough and more intensive educational services, and that in itself puts pressure on us in universities to change. The pressure to change also derives, however, from new opportunities in teaching and learning, and for the management of knowledge in general, presented by electronic technology. The changes in our world due to computers and electronic communication are so momentous and so rapid that they are almost mind-boggling. In 1943 the chairman of the IBM corporation, Thomas Watson, in reflecting on the future of computers, stated his belief that "there is a world market for maybe five computers." And in 1949, the U.S. magazine Popular Mechanics projected that "computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." A few years later, the editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall Publishing Company said, "I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year." That was in 1957. About ten years later, in the late 1960s, an engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM was asked about the microchip. He said he thought it was interesting. "But what ... is it good for?" he asked. And in 1977 Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of the Digital Equipment Corporation, said, "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." (Business section, Kansas City Star, January 17, 1995.) So much for our ability to project the future! In my own career, in the year 1969, I have the poignant memory of acquiring an electronic calculator that would automatically compute square root. I was teaching research methods, so having a calculator that would compute square root was important. That machine -- which was not a computer but only a calculator, mind you -- covered a desktop and cost as much as a desktop computer today. In those days, before the microchip, that was what was required just to do basic mathematics! For young people today, of course, the availability and accessibility of high-powered computing is almost taken for granted, and the possibilities and potential continue to expand almost monthly. This is the information age, and by some calculations the amount of knowledge in the world doubles every 20 months or so. ( Rick Fisher, "Tomorrow's Workforce: Predictions, Projections and Implications," Public Relations Quarterly, Spring 1995, 15.) But how does the technology of the information age affect the teaching-learning process itself? How are we aided or convenienced by the marvelous electronic devices now at our disposal? How prevalent is the use of electronic technology in universities today? The use of information technologies in American higher education has increased dramatically during the past two years, and creative people are finding myriad ways to implement these technologies for more effective teaching and learning. In Fall 1995 a survey of campus computing was taken of some 650 U.S. collegiate institutions. They reported that just during the previous year, "the percentage of college courses using e-mail and multimedia resources more than doubled," and that "... seven million college students and faculty routinely use the Internet and WWW as part of their daily and weekly activities." ("Use of Instructional Technology Jumps on College Campuses," News Release from 1995 Campus Computing Survey, The Claremont Graduate School.) That was 18 months ago, and it seems likely that those numbers may have doubled again during the intervening period. Kenneth C. Green, visiting scholar at the Claremont Graduate School in California and director of the survey, reports (Kenneth C. Green, "Building a Campus Infostructure," Trusteeship [Special Issue 1996]: 4-9.): Of course, student use of specific information-technology applications is uneven from campus to campus, but the presence of technology in learning is gaining irreversible momentum. Information technology cuts across disciplines ranging from anthropology to zoology in virtually all types of campus environs, from elite research universities to community colleges and in distance-education programs. For example:
Green further reports that in the U.S. "some 16 million [faculty and students]...regularly use information-technology resources and technology-based learning activities," and that "these are technology experiences that extend the content of the curriculum, enrich the classroom discourse, promote communication among class participants, and enhance the learning opportunity." (Green, "Building a Campus Infostructure," Trusteeship [Special Issue 1996]: 6.) It is legitimate to ask whether technology is truly a learning tool for educators to enlighten others or just a fascination to glorify the wonders of technology itself. As a test, one might examine the "Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education," first enunciated by the American Association of Higher Education (AAHE) exactly ten years ago, in March 1987, to determine whether or not technology "fits." Is the use of technology consistent with those seven principles of good teaching? The seven principles distilled findings from decades of research on the undergraduate experience. (Arthur W. Chickering and Stephen C. Ehrmann, "Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Lever," American Association for Higher Education Bulletin. 49/2, 3 - 6.) They are as follows:
He who has any experience with the use of technology in teaching or learning will readily recognize that in each of the good practices above, technology, if applied creatively, can be a great asset. The use of electronic mail alone encourages contacts between student and faculty and it helps to give prompt feedback. The use of shareware facilitates reciprocity and cooperation among students in collaborative projects, and of course any such collaboration demands an active learning technique. Time on task increases as the learning becomes more engaging. Furthermore, technology can help us to customize information to suit individual learners, respecting and accommodating their diverse talents and viewpoints. The Processes of Higher EducationAs another way of emphasizing the positive aspects of using technology for instruction, let me first give a simplified overview of our task in higher education. This analysis may seem overly simple, but I find it useful in thinking about how we might improve our procedures. I believe there are four basic processes in any formal educational venture:
Let me speak about each of those as it is affected by the technology of the information age. Dispensing informationThe process of dispensing information has become easier and easier ever since the invention of the printing press in the 15th century. While there have obviously been advances in the printing and distribution of materials since that time, the greatest advance since the printing press has occurred within the past several decades with the advent of the computer and now the Internet. In fact, the explosion of information available on the world-wide web has occurred just within the past five years, and especially the last two years. Last fall a colleague, the chairman of our Geography Department, sent me an advance copy of a book called Earth Online: An Internet Guide for Earth Science (Michael E. Ritter, Earth Online: An Internet Guide for Earth Science [Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1997]). The purpose of the book is to provide guidance for studying the earth sciences through the resources of the Internet. The book's preface begins, "The information age is evolving before our eyes aided by the ever expanding connectivity and resources of the Internet. Success in our information-based age requires effective reading, writing and computing skills." (Ritter: Earth Online, xi.) The book addresses such matters as communication over the Internet, file transfer protocol and Internet search procedures, and it provides a wealth of information about Internet sources on more than 30 earth science-related topics, from astronomy to wetlands. The book even gives clues about how to search for a job via the Internet. No longer are we totally dependent upon a limited range of textbooks to teach subjects such as earth science. The information available to us, literally at our computer-keyboard fingertips, is astounding. No longer are we reliant upon lectures as a means of dispensing information to groups of students; today, information that would be presented in lectures can be digitized and entered into a database so that it is readily available to any student sitting at a computer. In our College of Osteopathic Medicine at Ohio University, every lecture is available in that manner, indexed so that the student can simply type in the name of a term and almost instantly find on the screen every reference to it in an entire year's lectures. Information can be disseminated by video tape and audio tape, by compact disk and over the Internet. Dispensing information has become simpler through technology, to the point that we have much more information on most subjects than we can organize and digest. Prioritizing subject matterEssentially, this is what we call curriculum. Those of us with responsibility for directing the learning process--professors and deans and other academics--guide students by organizing masses of information into courses of study. Then we counsel individual students as to which course of study he or she should pursue in order to reach his or her goals. The easier it becomes to dispense information, the more important it becomes to prioritize it. Many students would be at a loss in today's complex array of informational categories if we did not provide recommended curricula to guide their study. Prioritizing, or curriculum building, becomes more pertinent as the amount of information increases, and unfortunately, we are often too slow to revise and revitalize curricula, at least in American institutions. I am convinced that, aided by technology, we in higher education can do much more to "customize" curricula for individual students. In America we take great pride in the wide range of opportunities we provide to individuals, but I believe we still rely too much on one-size-fits-all curricular designs. We should take more time to assess more precisely what students know before they begin their studies with us; then, based on that, we should counsel them on how they can best achieve their goals. In short, we must make certain that we optimize the "value added" for each individual student, to the extent of our practical capability. Technology should make that possible and practicable. Stimulating the learnerIt is in motivating the student that our task becomes more challenging. I make a point of telling students when they begin their studies at Ohio University that it is not the faculty's job to teach them -- it is the faculty's job to help them learn! While it is easier than ever before to dispense information, it is ever more challenging to motivate the student to retrieve that information. As access to information increases, so do distractions from substantive learning. A world overflowing with information begs for that information to be transformed into knowledge, but that metamorphosis requires discipline and commitment on the part of a learner. The professor's job, now more than ever, is to inspire the student to exercise such discipline and acquire not only data but the best data available. Whether this mode of teaching is comfortable for us as traditional professors is not the issue; the issue is whether we are effective in motivating students to learn and achieve at new levels. Some will say that technology does not provide an advantage in motivating students, that students can be motivated only through personal contact with the teacher. I submit that students today, who have grown up in a visually exciting world, often find the pace of a typical lecture too slow. Guided by an innovative instructor, they are more motivated to learn if they are presented information and learning challenges over the Internet or via the computer, in a format with which they can interact immediately. Furthermore, students learn from one another, and that process can be stimulated and enhanced through collaborative projects in which students work as small groups or teams to conduct research and produce a report. Such projects are particularly facilitated by the use of technology because the members of the group can communicate electronically and obstacles to "getting together" such as time and place are easily overcome. Evaluating and certifying the resultsIf one is not concerned with the granting of academic credit, this final step of evaluating results is not so critical. But there are two important reasons that we find it necessary to evaluate the results of the teaching-learning process. One, of course, is to determine whether the student has achieved according to our expectations. The other is to determine whether the teacher has succeeded according to expectations. Can technology help with this task? It can, depending upon the type of evaluation or examination we wish to make. If the teaching-learning exercise is a problem-solving one, we can evaluate whether the solution has been achieved. If the learning exercise is an independent study project, then the product itself is subject to evaluation. In any case, technology can make the process and the evaluation more convenient and less cumbersome. And the immediacy of response afforded by electronic technology is a great boon in the assessment of learning. Technology in Higher EducationThe application and utilization of technology in higher education is an integral part of an enormous cultural change through which we are now passing. Peter Drucker titled his article, to which I referred a few minutes ago, "The Age of Social Transformation." I would tell you today that we are also in an age of educational transformation. We are changing from a centuries-long era in which professors thought of themselves as experts in their disciplines and as the masters of knowledge in their respective fields. Now we are forced to accept the fact that the knowledge explosion prevents most of us from being true experts and masters of all. There is simply too much to know! In truth, there are some subjects and some processes, particularly those involving newer technologies, in which the students are ahead of their professors. The professor's principal task in this new era is to be a coach, a guide to learning. One of my friends proclaims that it is no longer appropriate to be "a sage on the stage," but now one has to be "a guide on the side." In essence, professors are no longer needed to provide information in the way they once were, but they are needed more than ever to help focus learning, to set examples of scholarly attitudes and attributes, and to provide the basic foundation on which students can build and achieve at an accelerated pace. Electronic CommunicationThe transformation from teacher-centered to student-centered curriculum and learning is greatly enhanced by the use of electronic mail and the Internet in instruction. An article in a recent issue of Change magazine described transitions that will take place as we focus on learning as compared to teaching. (Lee R. Alley, "Technology Precipitates Reflective Teaching: An Instructional Epiphany," Change 28/2 [March/April 1996]: 48-57.) E-mail and the Internet can enhance both the instructional process and learning outcomes in the following ways:
I am a devotee and a dedicated user of electronic mail and I encourage the use of e-mail in the teaching-learning process at Ohio University as a way of establishing educational and even personal rapport between faculty and students. When I came to my position in 1994, the university was just beginning to become electronically interconnected. Few faculty offices and very few students had access to electronic mail as recently as two years ago. Now, more than 16,000 of 19,000 students on our campus, and nearly all faculty and staff, have active e-mail accounts. In this technological, information age, the immediacy of communication by electronic means is an expectation, not a luxury! The first and most desirable result of e-mail is immediate accessibility--accessibility of every individual to every other individual on the campus. It has been important to me to provide that accessibility to students as well as to faculty and staff, and I appreciate the same benefit when I want to contact others in the university. I should explain that I always answer my own e-mail and I try to do so every single day, even when traveling, so that people may expect to receive a prompt response. I spend at least 30 minutes early in the morning, usually an hour or more late at night, and sometimes I can spend a few minutes during the day responding to e-mail messages. Admittedly, most of this correspondence is administrative in nature. Fortunately, not every student in the university has a desire to communicate directly with the president, but certainly many do. I have responded to ideas about fund-raising strategies, about career opportunities, about campus concerns such as parking, about bureaucratic snafus that frustrate students, and of course I respond often to questions on any number of topics from and about the student newspaper. What about e-mail as a tool for instruction itself? Is it effective? In simple terms, communication is key to instruction and e-mail affords excellent and effective communication. I believe it works to improve instruction, and I see few disadvantages of any kind in its use. With the help of their professors, students are able to e-mail experts who are quoted in their textbooks, acquiring more information or clarification. Students enjoy interaction with their own professors, and e-mail communication may be preferable to face-to-face interaction for some students in some situations. Professors who have used e-mail a great deal have told me that many students who are too shy to raise questions or make statements in class, particularly a large class, will do so without hesitation via e-mail. I have also been told by more than one senior professor who has taken up the use of e-mail for instructional communication that they have never developed better rapport with students than through this means. Furthermore, it has been pointed out that interaction by electronic mail affords the immediacy of direct face-to-face communication but it has none of the distractions ("Your tie is crooked," "You spilled coffee on your blouse," etc.) in face-to-face meetings. E-mail allows our minds to remain in the realm of ideas, and when the personal lure of it wanders from that goal, professors keep the communication focused -- just as they do in classrooms. In what ways is e-mail most effective in the teaching-learning process? First, it seems logical that the general use of electronic mail in instruction of all kinds provides both an opportunity and an expectation for students to write more than they might otherwise. Practice does help! I am a believer in writing as a method of learning. I may think that I know something, but until I can express it in writing, I cannot confirm that even to myself, let alone to someone else. For me, then, the ease and convenience of communication by e-mail is attractive in enticing students to write more. And, the ease of sharing one's work with others, or of a teacher sharing a student's work with the entire class, is greatly enhanced by computers and e-mail. What better way to hone our skills both of thinking and writing than to become accustomed to such sharing? We do not know how long e-mail will be "in vogue." Some predict that technological advancements will carry us beyond e-mail to video messages, perhaps before the turn of the century. (Charles Moran, "Notes Toward a Rhetoric of E-Mail," Computers and Composition 12 (1995): 15-21.) I believe, however, that even if more "convenient" means of communication (meaning more verbal and less written) should become the norm, e-mail will be with us as a valuable instructional tool for many years to come, chiefly because it augments the writing process. And in the electronic age, every user is a writer and many a publisher through personal home pages and informational sites. Information Technology and CostsWe are often asked about the effects of technology on the efficiency of our operation. Can we save money by offering courses through distance learning, for example, and can the machines save people time? The answer, unfortunately, is no! Although many people expect that we can save money by using computers to teach, we cannot do so without also reducing quality. Whether the interaction between student and teacher is face-to-face or electronic, a teacher's time is still very much involved, and teacher time is the major operational cost of an educational enterprise. Papers and other work still have to be graded! It is true that in the future, certain costs in facilities can be saved. Technology, in time, will reduce somewhat the amount of classroom space required, so some savings will be realized in the cost of constructing or renovating buildings, and in the utilities to operate them. Before we reach the point when time in class can be significantly reduced, however, there is much work to be done in preparing materials for teaching via the Internet and in retraining faculty to use the technology. The advantage of technology is in greater effectiveness and to the extent that we can be more effective without adding significant costs, we will be more efficient. But it will actually cost money in the immediate future to be more effective and more efficient in the long-term future. ConclusionWe are in a "knowledge age," a technological age, and a time when the benefits of higher learning are increasingly important to our global society. The rapidity and ease of communication and transportation are bringing together people and ideas from all points of the globe. Issues of intercultural understanding become increasingly important, and the internationalization of curricula in colleges and universities all around the world becomes more immediately important. Furthermore, universities around the globe are feeling the same pressures to educate greater numbers of people while also controlling costs. The challenges and opportunities that are presented to us in America are the same that you face in Europe and that confront universities in Asia and other parts of the world as well. The search for truth -- always the highest educational ideal -- is now a worldwide pursuit in which all viewpoints and cultures must be analyzed and respected. In the words of Chancellor Kohl, "[N]o nation will be able to afford to withhold information from its citizens -- at least not when it wants to keep up with the world on an industrial or technological level." (Helmut Kohl, speech given at Heinz Nixdorf Musuem Forum, Paderborn, 24 October 1996.) Our countries must keep up with the times so that our common bonds will grow stronger. To do so, we will often rely on technology -- and we are fortunate that we can rely on technology -- to share our ideas. But in this instance I am honored to have this opportunity personally to discuss these issues with you in Berlin, and I hope that some of you will be our guests in the United States of America and at Ohio University in the very near future.
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