An examination and assessment of the technological revolution in higher education, and the institutional and government policies that surround it in Canada.
We are facing a paradigm shift in education, pushed by technology and the new delivery systems it makes possible, and pulled by the demands of lifelong learning required by a knowledge economy. The student is no longer the captive client of monopoly education providers called "universities." Issues involving the nature of education, its definition, its power structure, and its culture are being debated: the question is not only how something is taught but what is taught, when, why, by whom, and for what purpose. Who should control education? How much privilege should professors have? What rights do students have as "consumers?"
In The Tower under Siege Brian Lewis, Christine Massey, and Richard Smith explore these important themes and issues from the varying perspectives of students, teachers, policy makers, and administrators. They describe the opportunities, changes, and policies developing in Canadian universities and governments in response to the education revolution. While most studies of the education revolution tend to be highly polemical, The Tower under Siege occupies a middle space, identifying issues and policy processes used to manage change and create more opportunities for education.
The Tower under Siege will be of great interest to anyone concerned with, excited about, or worried by the expanding role of technology in higher education: teachers, researchers, students, parents, policy makers, and administrators.
Details
176 Pages
figures
ISBN 9780773521711
September 2001
Formats: Paperback, eBook
"There are very few books on this topic and none written from a Canadian perspective. The Tower under Siege provides a unique collection of research and commentary." Bruce Pennycook, emeritus, Vice-Principal (Information Systems and Technology), McGill University
"The Tower under Siege offers important insights into the different paths jurisdictions have followed in developing telelearning policy." Donovan Plumb, Department of Education, Mount St Vincent University
Brian Lewis is professor of communication and director of the School of Communication, Simon Fraser University.
Christine Massey is a PhD candidate in the School of Communication, Simon Fraser University.
Richard Smith is assistant professor of communication and director of the Centre for Policy Research on Science and Technology at Simon Fraser University.
The Tower under Siege
Brian Lewis, Christine Massey, and Richard Smith
Table of Contents and Preface
Preface
Acknowledgments
1 A Call to Arms: Promises and Politics of Telelearning Technologies
2 Throwing Down the Gauntlet: The Rise of the For-Profit Educational Industry Nicholas V.Galan
3 From the Ramparts: Government Telelearning Policies
4 Strategies: Federal and Provincial Government Policy Initiatives
5 Dispatches from the Front:Policies and Policy Practices in Post-Secondary Institutions
6 In the Trenches: Student Perspectives Brent de Waal
7 Negotiating the Terrain: Strategies for the Future
Appendix: Issues Map
Bibliography
Index
Preface
This book consolidates two years of work on the use of computers for teaching and learning in Canadian universities and colleges. We brought to this project our collective expertise in information and technology policy and our knowledge of the Canadian post- secondary sector, and applied it to this emerging field. We were studying a highly changeable subject: each month, it seemed, a new initiative was announced, a new controversy erupted, and a new Web site appeared. Despite this volatility, certain themes continually re-appeared. These themes guided our analysis. This book attempts to communicate these themes and make a constructive contribution to the debate. Ultimately, however, policy researchers can only offer advice and guidance: it will be up to everyone involved in Canadian post-secondary education -the administrators, the entrepreneurs, the teachers, the students, and the bureaucrats - to pave the way for technology and post-secondary education in Canada.
METHODOLOGY
In September 1997,we began a systematic review of policies and processes that affect the implementation and use of telelearning technologies in Canadian post-secondary institutions. These technologies include all aspects of computers and computer networks used in teaching and learning.
Universities are among our oldest social institutions, and today face enormous pressure to change. We have always had debates about the purpose of the university, its pedagogical program, and its relationship to other social and political structures. Now, however, these debates have been given renewed vigour and urgency by the availability of advanced information and communication technologies for teaching and learning. These include computers, computer networks, and the software and telecommunications networks that link them together. When these technologies are used to connect distant learners, they are called "telelearning technologies." When referring to their use more generally to include local as well as remote teaching innovations, we sometimes call this "technology-mediated learning " (TML). These technologies are proving to be catalysts for profound organisational change within higher education.
We reviewed both on-line and printed government documents. Interviews - in person and by telephone - were conducted with officials in selected government departments and agencies. Policy-makers and bureaucrats in ministries of education, finance, and development were queried about existing and developing policies for telelearning technologies as well as relevant policy processes (e.g., committees, strategic planning, negotiations, and decision-making). Interview results were crosschecked with additional interviews and documentary research. (See the bibliography for a list of interviewees.)
A similar process was put in place to review the policy issues in universities and colleges. Administrators and faculty members from universities and colleges across Canada were interviewed in person and by telephone. Institutional policy and planning documents were collected and analysed. Attention was paid to both policies in place and policies needed as a result of arising issues. Policy processes were also tracked as institutions sought ways to negotiate changes in practice initiated by the use of telelearning technologies.
These primary data were complemented by secondary research including a survey of higher-education publications, mass media, Internet newsgroups, and newsletters.
As an enormous set of issues began to emerge, there was a need to track and organise the data. An "issues map " was created as a general methodological and conceptual tool. Policy issues were tracked on a spreadsheet in which some 150-policy issues, grouped into larger subject area, were listed. These issues were then mapped against a range of actors and agents in the telelearning arena: faculty and instructors, students/participants, administrators, policy-makers, governments, and businesses. Issues were further classed through a variety of overlays - major/minor, obstacle/opportunity, and positive/negative, for example.
In addition, a computer database was established, organized by the same categories as the issues map, to track project data such as documents and interviews. Keyword and issue searches became possible.
OVERVIEW
Our objectives as researchers were threefold:
1 to survey current policies and usage for telelearning technologies in Canadian universities and colleges, as well as emerging private education providers;
2 to identify and review relevant federal and provincial government policies and programs; and
3 to identify potential new policy initiatives for telelearning technologies and develop a list of priorities for further research in policy and socio-economic impact studies.
Chapter 1 sets the context. The "education revolution " is a small but vitally important part of the information revolution. Telelearning technologies offer our post-secondary institutions great promise, but there are also real and important tensions in our move to on-line learning.
Policy decisions are crucial, but never have policy-makers seemed so overcome with events, so dazed, and in such disarray. The information revolution seems to have challenged the functions and capabilities of policy itself, and has transformed the policy context.
Implementing telelearning technologies in our post-secondary institutions involves complex pedagogical and institutional issues. Our policy research has shown that a set of issues involving the nature of education, its definition, its power structure, and its culture are now beginning to be debated. Debates about telelearning can quickly become polarized as issues well beyond pedagogy come to the forefront - control over education, the privilege of professors, and the rights of students as "consumers," something that questions not only how a subject is taught, but what, when, why, by whom, and for what purpose it is taught. Those of us involved in higher education are witnessing changes in demand, costs, funding, delivery mechanisms, and the nature of competitors. Technology may be the focus of debates within our institutions, but often it is just one expression of the larger forces at play.
Part of our research involved articulating the economic, social, and cultural issues driving these changes.
Chapter 1 identifies a middle space, a mid-range of opportunities, issues, and policy processes that can be addressed and implemented.
Chapter 2 (by Nicholas V.Galan) continues our analysis of the policy issues environment by examining the rise of the for-profit education industry, a new model of educational delivery in a competitive and increasingly fragmented education "marketplace."
Since the early 1990s,the post-secondary educational sector has faced increasing pressure from a for-profit service industry seeking to capitalize on emerging market opportunities in education. Entrepreneurial individuals and organizations are vigorously challenging the long-held view of education as an enterprise best left to the public sector. Private providers such as the Apollo Group, with its University of Phoenix, have successfully crafted innovative business models to prove the viability of profit-making educational enterprise. Innovations in technology and media, especially the advent of the Internet, have created levers that allow education providers to expand their scope, scale, and revenue- generating capability in ways that are impossible in place-and time-constrained environments.
Traditional institutions have not turned a blind eye, however: many are carefully tracking the for-profit sector 's progress, while some are actively entering this new market with competitive, profit-making strategies. Chapter 2 describes new developments and pays close attention to the economic and social trends that are driving change in post-secondary education.
Chapters 3 and 4 examine Canadian federal and provincial policies and initiatives. Chapter 3 focuses on general trends while chapter 4 looks in more detail at specific policies. The terrain of higher education in Canada is changing in ways that are facilitated and encouraged by government policies directed at telelearning technologies. These two chapters reveal several significant trends. First, telelearning policies for the post-secondary sector straddle the boundary between education and economic development policy, a shift that alters conventional educational-funding criteria. Second, telelearning technologies are being implemented in ways that support other government policy goals, such as greater integration and efficiency in provincial post-secondary systems and increased support for labour market needs. While the implications of these changes are not yet entirely clear, we can anticipate the need for policy processes that include greater recognition of the role of negotiation among Governments, administrators, and faculty. Chapters 3 and 4 argue, therefore, that there should be a new emphasis on policy processes that explicitly address dissolving boundaries and connections, and emerging organizational forms. The higher-education sector seems inadequately prepared for these challenges.
Chapter 5 reviews the broad range of policy issues now being faced by Canadian universities and colleges. These issues are divided into three categories: "Doing Things Right," "Doing the Right Thing," and "Policy Processes."
Universities and colleges that implement telelearning technologies often find themselves facing a variety of issues not encountered when delivering courses face to face. For example, telelearning technologies can provide a broad range of non-traditional users with access to courses. What kind of new or different support services will these students require? As well, students are often concerned about who will have access to files in which electronic discussions are stored, how identities are safeguarded, and how long these files will be stored. These kind of concerns with the appropriate and effective implementation of telelearning technologies can be broadly classified as concerns on how to implement these technologies, or "Doing Things Right."
The micro-issues of implementation, however, quickly raise questions about "Doing the Right Thing " - the larger, often politically charged questions that form the policy environment for telelearning technologies. These issues address why we use telelearning technologies and can include questions about the purpose of education, the role of professors/trainers, and the goals of business/education partnerships. These broad policy debates, while easily polarized, can help to define an institution 's goals so that choices about how telelearning technologies are implemented become apparent.
Clearly, these two aspects of telelearning policy - "Doing Things Right " and "Doing the Right Thing " - are linked, and both must be dealt with in organizational policies and practices. The importance of sound policy processes that can deal effectively with both aspects of policy cannot be overstated and is the focus of the final section of chapter 5.
Chapter 6 (by Brent de Wall), captures policy issues not revealed in Chapter 5:this chapter deals specifically with the experiences and perspectives of students, asking, What is it like to be a student taking on-line courses? This chapter demonstrates that this seemingly simple question belies a complex reality. The change in environment from a traditional to a virtual classroom entails a fundamental shift for both students and instructors in their assumptions, skills, and ability to communicate. Chapter 6 probes the reality of the collaborative nature of an on-line classroom, drawing on the experience of students who have taken university credit classes on-line. At issue is the some- times ambiguous nature of taking a course in which all or much of one 's interactions are mediated through a computer. Additional issues, including the myth of on-line collaboration, the discipline factor, and technological hurdles, are also discussed.
Our review of policy issues for the use of telelearning technologies in universities and colleges has revealed to us that there are no easy answers. Each institution is unique and has its own institutional culture, program strengths, and technology requirements. Not all institutions will be well served by a large-scale transition to telelearning methods. Some institutions and their students could benefit from a more effective use of telelearning technologies in certain areas.
While we found no single answer that could be applied to every situation, in chapter 7 we have isolated strategies and certain specific areas of action that will be useful for any institution engaging in on-line education. Our recommendations for institutions are followed by a set of recommendations aimed at provincial and federal governments and policy-makers. We also offer suggestions for further research on the significant social and institutional changes underway in our post-secondary system.
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