The Web as a Learning Environment for Kids

The Internet and the World Wide Web are demonstrating the growing influence of information and communication technologies in various aspects of the economy. Regardless of the barriers of time and distance, newly introduced information highways are linking the world countries together, their societies and cultures contributing effectively to globalization. One of the growing trends in societal development and growth is investment in people. Therefore, the learning process is a priority issue that information and communication technologies are serving trying to upgrade and leverage human resources to become more competitive as we approach the 21st century with all its challenges and opportunities. This chapter covers an initiative that was launched in Egypt in 1997 that targets the investment of Egypt’s young generation, the kids of the present and the leaders of the future. This initiative is part of a national plan that aims at leveraging the capacities of Egypt’s human resources. The focus of the chapter will be the learning process, the Internet and the presence of the first Egyptian Web site for children on the Internet “Little Horus.” With the introduction of the Internet since 1993 in Egypt, today there are around 250,000 Internet subscribers, among which are a growing community of schools, teachers and children. As the Internet grows in magnitude and capacity, perceived to reach over one million subscribers in the coming five years with an estimated 20 percent under the age of 16, the Internet and the World Wide Web could play an active role in the education process in Egypt. The chapter, therefore, will demonstrate the “Little Horus” initiative, the steps that were achieved so far, the plan for the future and the building blocks that represented the critical success factors for the realization of this initiative with relatively modest resources.

The Emergence of Distance Learning in Higher Education

Although distance learning is not a new phenomenon, recently there has been a huge jump in the number of organizations offering on-line instruction. The National Center for Education Statistics released a two-year survey on distance programs for higher education on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education. The survey reported that one-third of U.S. post secondary schools offered distance education in 1995, and an additional 25% planned to offer courses within the next three years.

Elements of a Successful Distributed Learning Program

Global connectivity has opened up a new dimension in education, namely, the concept of delivering education via technology to students who may never see their classmates or their instructor face to face. The typical school with its traditional classrooms does not exist in this new scenario, and many of the professionals responsible for developing distributed learning courses are new to the task. This chapter will guide the reader through the process of planning and implementing a distributed learning program. The model for this chapter is the distributed learning program provided by the Department of Defense Education Activity to schools serving the family members of U.S. military personnel at home and abroad. The DoDEA Electronic School (DES) offers sixteen courses to over six hundred students at 56 high schools in fourteen countries, spanning twelve time zones. The program has been in existence for over twelve years, evolving from a two-teacher program to a worldwide school headed by an administrative staff and employing 23 instructors and four technical support staff members. Courses currently available through the DES include seven advanced placement courses (Calculus AB and BC, Physics B, German, United States History, and Computer Science A and AB); five computer programming courses (Pascal I and II, Q-BASIC, Visual BASIC, and C++); economics; health; humanities; and science research seminar. In addition to offering student courses, the DES is in the process of adding an extensive staff development component. With teachers and staff based worldwide, the system can save a significant amount of travel money by providing staff development opportunities that are accessible at the local site. The DoDEA Electronic School grew up with technology. During those first years, students used an acoustic coupler and a telephone to call a central computer in the United States, where they accessed a text based conferencing program to communicate with their classmates and instructors. Today’s DES instructors develop their courses in Lotus Notes, and students can use either the Lotus Notes client or a Web browser. Domino servers at each school send and receive information via the Internet, resulting in efficient transfer of data. In today’s environment, rich with technology but short on hours in the day, there is no time afforded for the luxury of “evolving.” Professionals tasked with developing distributed learning programs for their organizations are given a staff, a budget and a mandate— and certainly a challenge. The goal of this chapter is to help those professionals meet the challenge by examining the key elements of a successful distributed learning program.

Implementing Corporate Distance Training Using Change Management, Strategic Planning and Project Management

As businesses expand to become more globally competitive, their needs grow to train geographically dispersed employees in a cost- effective manner. What must businesses do to implement distance education? An important role of the training and performance specialists in business is to help management solve complex problems within an organization. Still, distance education is usually not accomplished by a single group within an organization, nor through a single process. To change the way training is done, performance managers must use what is known about change management, strategic planning and project management in order to successfully implement technology-enhanced learning globally. One of the methods being used increasingly in the workplace is distance training.

Three Strategies for the Use of Distance Learning Technology

“University A” is a small, private liberal arts school with a religious affiliation. Located in a large city, it draws locally and from its particular religious group. With an enrollment under 3,000, it carries a Carnegie Classification of Baccalaureate II and has its own board of trustees. The school has pushed the use of new technology in instruction. For instance, it was one of the first schools in its area to install a fiber optic network across campus. Programs such as business feature the active use of technology to enhance learning. For example, in an international business course, students develop links with fellow students in other countries. However, University A differs from other schools that have embraced new information and communication technology; it has rejected some uses as not appropriate to the mission of the school. For instance, University A will not use videoconferencing to send instruction to remote sites. Why? School leaders feel that a significant part of a student’s experience at University A comes from faculty providing role models, and that role modeling cannot be done through a television monitor. “University B” is a regional public university located in a small town in a heavily rural portion of its state. The nearest small city is an hour’s drive away, and it draws students regionally, mostly from nearby counties. With an enrollment under 10,000, the school carries a Carnegie Classification of Master’s I. For years, University B has used its Continuing Education program in aggressively serving the region, beginning with such means as “circuit rider” faculty who traveled to remote sites to teach classes and broadcast television instruction through local public television. The school has continued its aggressive outreach with new technology. In the 1990s, University B quickly moved into videoconferencing (compressed video) to phase out at least some of the circuit rider faculty. At the same time, the school has expanded the off-campus sites to which it sends instruction. Lastly, University B has augmented its MBA program by bringing in a health care administration concentration from another university via videoconferencing, and it has been considering the future servicing of majors in declining programs such as geography by outsourcing instruction. Officers at the two universities described above were among those at several schools who participated in a series of case studies (Rayburn, 1997). The two schools use distance learning technology (DLT) in very different ways, but they do share at least one common trait: they have clear pictures of how to use available technology. Put another way, they have identifiable strategies for using technology that conform to the missions of the schools. The point of this chapter is to identify and describe strategies for using distance learning technology (DLT) at higher education institutions. Research suggests three major strategies, the “Guest Lecturer” strategy, the “Automated Correspondence Course” strategy, and the “Large Lecture Hall” strategy. All three strategies have antecedents in the recent history of higher education, and each has its own implications for the future. The next section looks at literature and field research on the strategic use of DLT.

Web-Based Learning and Instruction

The precipitous rise in Web-based education and employee training speaks volumes of technology’s far-reaching potential. While most agree that Web-based instruction can be cost-effective and convenient, few academicians and practitioners have examined the efficacy of Web-based learning in terms of constructivism, the most widely accepted model of learning in education today. The constructivist approach to learning acknowledges that both teacher and student bring prior knowledge to the learning experience. Over time and through interaction with others in the learning environment, the student co-constructs new meaning as a knowledge-building process—piece by piece, new knowledge is built onto former knowledge. This differs from the former notion of learning that considered children as empty vessels waiting to be filled (tabula rasa). While constructivism is widely accepted by educators in theory, it is not always evident in teaching practices, including Web-based instruction. To help academicians and practitioners provide effective constructivist learning experiences for students and employees, the following issues will be addressed:

A Case for Case Studies via Video-Conferencing

Demands are being placed on educational institutions to provide course content in new and complex forms to address the needs of an ever more mobile student body. This chapter explores the issues of delivering a normally highly interactive graduate level course using these new technologies within the demands of organizational missions and constraints. We will argue that a course covering topics of organizational technology assimilation is the ideal place to begin this process. It will describe the problems and issues that were faced in one typical course. We will also suggest that this is an ideal area to focus future research in organizational adoption of new technologies that address missions and strategies. The “passing of remoteness” is how one commentator described the phenomenon of the rise of the Internet and other distance-shrinking technologies. Ever since the advent of television, educators have wrestled with the viability of using this technology to reach wider audiences. Educational television facilitated the distribution of high-quality program content in a one-directional fashion. Yet for many educators, this approach lacked the interactive give-and-take so important to the educational process. Video-conferencing has been used heavily in industry to reduce the costs of travel within far-flung organizations. This technology made it possible to meet “face-to-face,” even if the faces were a little blurry and movements were jumpy at best. The visual cues so often considered important in determining if messages were being properly communicated were now available. Immediate visual feedback leads to more productive dialog. Educational institutions have always lagged behind industry in adopting these technologies for two critical reasons. First, there is the psychological barrier that faculty must cross adapting new technologies. One could argue that despite the popular view of “radical academia”, the reality is much more conservative. Changes in curriculum or program delivery can be glacial. Second, and perhaps more critically, the investment in the infrastructure to support these technologies was beyond the means of the organization. Yet these same constraints are tipping the balance toward the requirements to adopt these technologies. Resource constraints, particularly in the area of a scarce, high-quality faculty, competition among educational institutions for market share, and the declining technology costs and improvements in transmission quality are combining to drive experiments in this area. In graduate business education, there has always been an emphasis on the interactive approach to education. Universities pride themselves on, and like to print, glossy brochures about the interactive classrooms where the faculty and students conduct highly charged dialogues on topics of immediacy. One popular form of this dialogue is the case study approach. Similar to the kinds of activities one might find in a law school moot-court experience, potential managers must, with often limited and yet at the same time overwhelming data, process situations, explore options and develop recommendations. The instructor may provide a gentle push based upon the direction the class takes but shouldn’t, assuming good case study pedagogy, be dominating a one-sided presentation. Unlike a lecture in nuclear physics, there is no way to predict the exact direction of the class interests - a very dynamic approach is required. How can the video-conferencing technologies address the needs of this very complex form of the educational experience? This chapter will review our experiences and organizational issues surrounding this issue and raise some future research questions that should be addressed to improve the quality and efficiency of this specific form of education.

Digital Video in Education

Use of technology to support education is by no means a new concept. Educators have for centuries looked for tools to help stimulate the senses and enhance their students’ learning. Though lectures are still the predominant means of delivering material, multimedia is pervasive in educational institutions. For clarity, multimedia is considered the combination of text, graphics, audio, animation and video through electronic means (Vaughan, 1998). This chapter is concerned primarily with video. The methods for creating videos and the means of delivery continue to change with technological advancements. The earliest educators brought sample objects or hand drawn representations to the classroom in order to provide a visual perspective and enhance understanding. In the mid-1900s, educators began to use analog video signals to show tapes or live shows that were again intended to enhance students’ understanding. Today, computing systems are capable of storing and presenting video content on a one-to-one or one-to-many bases. The key issue is whether the expense and effort associated with multimedia, and specifically, digital video is worthwhile. In this chapter, we discuss the use of digital video in the modern classroom with a focus on learning. Specifically, we base the discussion on Felder’s Learning Model, Bloom’s Taxonomy , and Kolb’s Learning Cycle. First, the Background Section briefly describes these theories and provides some basic information on digital video. Second, we describe a classroom that was constructed to support digital video and detail performance issues. Finally, we discuss the synergy of video in education. The underlying questions that will be explored are (1) How should we use digital video? and (2) What are the technological constraints?

Distance Learning Alliances in Higher Education

Consider the case of George Peabody College for Teachers and Vanderbilt University. The two private schools sat side by side in Nashville, Tennessee. Peabody trained generations of teachers across the United States. Vanderbilt was and remains a research university. For decades, the two schools maintained a partnership or alliance, and it functioned on many levels. Students at one school easily enrolled for classes at the other and transferred credits without trouble. The two schools shared library resources between themselves and a third, religious-oriented school. Athletes on Vanderbilt sports teams earned Peabody degrees. At times, Vanderbilt rented dormitory space from Peabody to house excess students. Separated only by a city street, the schools collaborated but remained distinct. Then in the late 1970s, they announced a merger. Peabody would become part of Vanderbilt. By the early 1980s, the merger was complete. The change was wrenching for Peabody. Many faculty left or were laid off. Tuition increased to match that of Vanderbilt. Today Peabody survives only as the name of the College of Education within Vanderbilt (Dorn, 1996).

Online Teaching and Learning

Today the global education community is faced with a unique problem. Learners in every location must acquire new skills, be literate, and understand constantly changing dynamics. The challenge has always been to balance the need for intense and personal interaction to learn conceptual information with the reality of limited financial resources. Distance education has been viewed as a way in which to offer lifelong learning to those who are geographically separated from traditional institutions, have obligations that limit their ability to attend regular courses or have other exceptional challenges. Distance learning in various forms has been around for a long time. Traditional distance learning environments were based on correspondence through passive media (paper, audio and video broadcast). Now, developments in network and communication technologies have provided the ability to offer online courses to large numbers of individuals. With the changes in electronic communications, and the resulting transformed model of distance learning, individuals expect interactivity and close to “traditional” classroom- based education.