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| < b>New technology offers new possibilities for education. |
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| Author : Steve Maharey.
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| Created : 17 Apr 2002
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| Last Revision : 17 Apr 2002
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< b>New technology offers new possibilities for education.
Address to the Distance Association of New Zealand 2002 conference. Te Papa, Wellington.
Introduction
Behind debates about the role of universities, collaboration between providers and the need for more strategic research, trends that will transform tertiary education in the 21st century are unfolding relentlessly.
The key trends that are driving change include the growth in knowledge-based and knowledge businesses, the need to attract and hold staff of international standing, the need to be relevant to our nation�s social and economic development and the potential of new technology.
The learning environment in New Zealand is being transformed by advances in technology, electronic media and the Internet. E-learning, the provision of learning through the electronic media, has the potential to be an enormously useful educational tool.
The importance of strategic coordination
For over a decade now the potential of e-learning has been obvious. However, educators have not found it easy to settle on just what role the new technology will play in the learning process. Lacking any clear plan they have tried all kinds of interesting experiments ranging from on-line tutorials to dual-mode campus courses, to courses that are entirely web-based.
At present, however, these initiatives are not part of a coherent nationwide e-learning strategy. What is missing is agreement about the contribution that e-learning can make to teaching, learning and assessment. There is no agreement about the pedagogy that goes with e-learning. Too often the fact that the technology exists and can be used is the dominating factor.
If we are to make progress there has to be a shared view about the way that e-learning meets the unique needs of the New Zealand education system and advances the cause of learners. In particular, we need to understand how e-learning might advance the aspiration we have as a nation to create opportunities for lifelong learning.
E-learning is not a replacement for the institutions we already have. Despite brave predictions to the contrary, the future of education will continue to see students in classrooms with teachers. Their learning, however, will be changed by the use of new technologies. In addition, e-learning will open up the possibility of courses being delivered to home, the workplace and specialized centres within the community.
None of this will happen unless the tertiary sector and its stakeholders cooperate. Without cooperation we will continue to have interesting experiments but no decisive shift in the way the sector delivers educational opportunities.
There is now little time to waste. The widespread reforms taking place in the tertiary sector are designed to ensure New Zealand has a distinctive nationwide system of education. In a globalising world it is vital that we have an education system that is distinct. When students can access educational opportunities from around the world they will choose a New Zealand provider only if it is the best and it is different.
The contribution of e-learning to export education
If we are to win our share of the burgeoning worldwide student market our programmes will need to once again be the best and be different. Given the likelihood that export education could reasonably return the country $4 billion dollars within the next five years, it is of obvious benefit to get our act together.
E-learning is vital to the future of both our domestic and overseas education. Learners will expect to be able to make use of new technologies within New Zealand. E-learning will allow us to deliver our programmes anywhere in the world.
The report of the E-learning Advisory Group
To ensure a more coordinated approach to e-learning, last year the Government established the E-learning Advisory Group. Their report Highways and Pathways: Exploring New Zealand�s e-learning opportunities, has just been released.
The report is a must read for anyone interested in new technology and e-learning because it provides a comprehensive overview of what needs to be done. The three key recommendations of the Group are to:
� establish a tertiary e-learning consortium funded by the Government to coordinate the development of e-learning;
� create a single electronic point of entry to the entire tertiary education system to enable every kind of activity, from enrolling to learning, to take place on the Internet and;
� establish a Collaborative Development Fund to provide capital for tertiary providers who are lifting their capability in e-learning.
The Government is currently considering these and other recommendations with the aim of moving ahead on e-learning in the second half of the year.
A decision to go ahead with a coordinated strategy will mean many challenges for staff, providers and for our communications infrastructure.
E-learning pedagogy
E-learning will require staff to be trained in and adopt new approaches to teaching. Effective e-learning can not be undertaken as a simple offshoot of classroom based learning. The College of Education at Massey University has completely rethought its approach to learning in order to teach via the web. The skills required of the teacher bear only a passing resemblance to those of the classroom teacher.
Our providers are going to have to begin thinking of their e-learning based students as much as those they meet face to face. With some exceptions our institutions have little knowledge of what it means to teach students away from their classrooms.
It will also be necessary to get used to seeing every space as a potential place to learn. E-learning makes it possible to make the country a classroom. Of course this can only happen if we have the right technology. Right now there is not sufficient bandwidth to deliver satisfactory e-learning experiences to all learners. And it is important to accept that only the best will do. E-learning can only work if it let�s learners get on with the process of learning. If they are constantly having to compensate for poor technology e-learning will fail.
Conclusion
For many years new technology has been heralded as the platform for a revolution in education. The futurists predicted the end of institutions, teachers and anything concrete. I can recall one New Zealand politician proudly predicting that within years all education would be undertaken via a palm top computer. These visions are nonsense.
New technology and e-learning will not replace institutionally based learning; they will enhance, augment and extend it in ways hitherto impossible to bring about. Yet this more modest vision of change in education is dramatic enough. It is the first real change in the way education has been undertaken since formal education was invented.
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