TxDLA Keynote: 3-4-2003 Dr Thomas E. Cyrs, guru of Distance Learning

Closing the Gap plan by the Coordinating Board (I need to read this)

Conclusions
1- DE is here for the long stay, greatest invention since sin
-- Texas is probably doing more in DE than anyone, providing leadership in policies
2- Train our teachers or get out of the business
-- this is a recurring theme
-- if I was to return in 5-6 years, half of the people here won't be back
3- You cannot produce quality without training and support services
Will review where we have been, where we are, and where we've been
- will play a game called FuturePerfect
How many of you
- we have minimal amount of time usually to prepare
- teacher = instructor, training, and professor (our job is to teach)
- asked people who have
Some say "Carpe Diem" - seize the day at the expense of the future
Eugene Field said it well: there is no present and future, there is only the past happening over and over
Must look at the past and get the best that we can from it
Teachers must envision and create the future of the education TODAY, or someone else will
Distance Learning is an ECONOMIC movement, it is about practical things, money
Decisions we make today will create the future tomorrow
You are the product of yesterday
We need a renaissance of education, that takes the best from the past, and goes beyond the best of distance education that is being practiced today
- take advantage of tech, true synthesis of the media available: print, video, web, etc
When we look back at 2050, we will recognize the invention of digtial technology is one of the greatest inventions ever, like Gutenberg printing press and electricity
- it is changing the world fundamentally
- way information is created an disseminated
- not another cosmetic change
- it is a fundamental change, education will never be the same again
DE is a way to connect teachers and students thru the technology
- there is no magic in the technology however
- will strengthen the teacher/student relationship, as they communicate differently
DE Technology is an ENABLING technology
- Marshall McLuhan: first we shape our tools, then they shape us
- printing press, gunpowder, electricity, internal combustion engine
Inventors of the interna combustion engine never imagined the socioeconomic impact of their creation
Now it is the turn of digital technology
- one of the most pervasive consequences of digital technology for
Phases
1- Correspondence
2- Educational TV, talking heads (was really like creating radio programs, because you can turn off the video and get the same thing
3- The Web
-- has analyzed hundreds of web courses, after looking at 300 he can't recommend any, 'we are lecturing the web'
-- web is a visual medium, meant to be scanned rather than read
-- yet we are defaulting to
New technology is used to do old tasks first, until something comes that presses us to do something differently
Motion Pictures: first 20 years, they filmed stage plays (because that is what they knew and were familiar with)
1939 World's Fair: NYT article said "television will never be a serious competition for radio, because people must keep their eyes glued on the screen and American families do not have time for that"
- other quotes about worldwide computer markets, etc
Often when a new electronic delivery medium, the value of that medium is judged by the way it alters our access to EXISTING stuff
- now we are just transferring our existing courses to the electronic medium, and NOTHING changes
Teachers are being told there is no difference
- if you do the thing you've always done
Alfred Frazier (Penn State Meteorology)( - the extent to which a student gains the same pedagogoical benefit from a printout of your website as from the resource itself (your textbook or printed handouts) is the extent to which that teacher/course author has accomplished NOTHING of pedagogical value by using the WWW
- we need to make a difference between web pedagogy and web distribution
- WebCT, Blackboard, etc, were NEVER designed to improve teaching
- they were designed for administration, not for TEACHING
Difference is support services
His Biases:
- NOTHING can replace a live teacher in the classroom when you deal with AFFECTIVE
- hard technology is always the SERVANT, teachers are the
Students never learn from technology, they learn from competent teachers TRAINED to communicate with the technology
- you cannot transport a class from the traditional to the electronic medium without substational change
Requires advanced planning, significant training
Schools are going to be radically redefined in this century in response to info technology
- focus change to what info and skills need to be learned to work in the global village
Achilles Heel in DE: Lack of training of our teachers
- 30% of a technology budget should be geared to training our teachers, release time and support services (research shows this)
- faculty say it takes 5 times as much time to design a quality distance ed course than a traditional one
We have turned our teachers into learning novices
BUTTONOLOGY prevails, pedagogy fails
- fail to consider logistical factors and safety factors
- have not allowed for new ways of communication in an asychronous environment
- teachers have been forced into something that requires a lot of preparation, into a schedule that is already packed
DL today is generally sychronous, group based, presentation centered, text based, a replication of teaching by telling
- teacher centered
WWW is being used to present materials created under the constraints of the blackboard and the overhead projectors
- we are improving: now we are using PPT and have pretty lectures=
- but we are learning
When teachers are trained to think and communicate visually and interactively, things will really begin to change (post-Gutenberg)
- too many schools are rushing ahead to get on the tech bandwagaon
- buy equipment, plug it in, put your course online and save the school
Many schools can't afford the release time to create virtual courses
- we need new administrative policies developed collaboratively with teachers
-- like WHO OWNS your material
In Texas the faculty own everything
- joint copyright and joint royalties:
Web-brarians
- technical services for both students and teachers
3 types of schools
1- Bricks and mortar, traditional elitist schools, classical education, done in seminars, very expensive, residential
2- the click and click schools, virtual universities, will have very few of these, Jones International, Univ of Phoenix
3- Bricks and click- blended education, blended schools, use the cognative skills thru our mind, affective / values exploration must be explored in a face to face environment
-- these schools will transfer credits easily, have a strong sense of identity
Emerging Things:
- some teachers are already becoming niche entrepedors
-- develop part time businesses in addition to their regular teaching
-- National Academy of Sciences: Nov 8 2002 Chronical of Higher Ed: Preparing for the Info Revolution and the Future of the Research Institution
--- Academe dominated by the freelance consultant, some will become increasingly independent
--- could break exclusive links between professors and their institutions
- some predict the names of instructors will become more important than
Beginning to shift away from teacher centered model to student centered model
- problem solving
- values exploration
These things cannot be lectured out, must used simulations, role playing, video games, visual case studies
-- DONT EVER SELL YOUR MATERIALS
Teachers will begin to work with administrators in the purchase of equipment
Will see use of learning objects
- used across many disciplines
In future we need to think about
1- real world probolems
2- developeing asynchronoous
3- multigenerational learning environment
4- faculty from different institutions designing courses
5- what is best for face to face, what is best for the distance
We are the people who will define the future
What about tomorrow: the technology that will make the WWW obsolete, it may already be happening
- April 9, 1999 USA TODAY: new technology called "pulse" technology
- uses very little power, will let us put everything in a wireless mode
A vision is a compelling image of the future offered by educational leaders, administrators, and teachers that will move us to action
Get in groups of 5
Summarize a 5 minute brainstorm, for next 5 minutes what your campus will look like when your youngest family member is your age (2040)
- has a train whistle to get attention
- chose group leader, then put Some high schools work on the premise that everyone is an artist, and must explore a variety of media to discover how to express themselvesread Lewis Perlman: School is Out: the demise of the.....

Page last updated: Tuesday, March 11, 2003 8:09 AM