European Distance Education Network The bottles are new: but what of the wine?

1. European Distance Education Network • The bottles are new: but what of the wine? • Michael Grahame Moore • Professor of Education • The Pennsylvania State University • Editor: • The American Journal of Distance Education • http://www.ajde.com

2. What is significance for distance education? “the best way of deciding about the potential usefulness of any new technology is … reflecting on the generic principles that support adults' learning and then figure out how and where the technology fits." What does the technology enhance? What does it render obsolete? What does it become when pushed to an extreme? (McLuhan & McLuhan, 1988, p. 7 cited byLiz Burge (2001) in Moore, M. G. and G. KearsleyDistance Education:A Systems View

3. Some “generic principles” • education is a two-sided transaction • in DE the primary or sole means of communication is through technology • DE tradition of independent study (which is consistent with constructivism) • effective use of technology requires special institutional organization

4. So what (potentially) do Web 2.0 technologies enhance, or take away, or produce when pushed to an extreme?

5. Enhances learner autonomy and constructivist learning: “Learners personally imbue experiences with meaning Learning activities should enable learners to access their experiences, knowledge, and beliefs Learning is a social activity that is enhanced by shared inquiry Reflection and meta-cognition are essential aspects of constructing knowledge ...” (Lambert, et al., 1995, pp. 17-18.)

6. implications for course designers: designers have to: conceptualize learning experiences that students can personalize design activities for knowledge sharing among students, as a major source of content and pedagogy assignments -- reports of personal or collaborative research to be reported in text but also video and virtual reality experiences

7. Implications for instructors/tutors “ .. links ideas across assignments…… summarizes or weaves disparate student comments” “meta-comments that summarize the state of the discussion, identifying its unifying themes and points of disagreement” “ instructors … foster student reflection and self-awareness, push student explorations ” “ humanizing and personalizing the setting”

8. Implications for learners : Enhanced independent learning skills: sifting, sorting and evaluating; multi-tasking, synthesizing Enhancing communities of inquiry What was made obsolete and needs to be retrieved ? Audio and video conferencing High production value audio and video What does it produce or become when pushed to an extreme ? “monkeys with typewriters” why are there no advertisements in novels?

9. Web 2.0 does not make course design and instruction obsolete but enhances their importance What adult students tell us : Course Content is more important than interaction Interaction with an instructor is more important than with other learners

10. The perennial and intractable problem: Organizational Change “Effective use of technology and specialist human resources in delivering materials and services to a distributed learner population requires special institutional organization” The basis of our problems: need for changing policy to match changing technology

11. Old Assumption The normal mode of learning is face to face teaching on the campus of a formally recognised institution. Resources should be allocated on the basis of : the number of projected enrollments; a percentage increase or decrease on the previous year’s allocations Resources should be planned, allocated and controlled centrally. New Approach Learning takes place in many different ways in many different contexts Resources are to be used to distribute teaching to where the learners are; using technology for this purpose changes type of capital (fewer buildings, more technology) balance of capital and labor (fewer full time content specialists) Resources should be allocated according to performance agreements that specify: outcomes that are pertinent to the broad aims and priorities of government and/or other stakeholders the means by which to measure whether these outcomes have been achieved. The users of resources should: be involved in the planning and allocation of resources; have the authority to manage and re-allocate resources.

12. Old Assumption Human resources should be tied to staff establishments based predominantly on permanent positions, vertical divisions and hierarchical relationships. Funds should be allocated for line items in a budget that remains fixed for specified periods, usually twelve months. Effective use of resources should be measured according to the extent that one or more of the following projections have been met: Enrollments class or student contact hours presentations for examination subject passes graduations. New Approach Staff establishments should: accommodate flexible teams that cut across vertical divisions allow for redeployment of personnel to reflect changing needs involve delegation of authority to the level at which work is performed. Funds should be allocated to reflect: the work of identified programs and individual project teams the considerable front-end investments required in technology based learning amortisation of costs and returns over the lifetimes of programs that are usually more than 12 months. Effective use of resources should be measured according to the extent that the terms of performance agreements have been met. This will involve: emphasis on outcomes rather than input and throughput performance criteria tied to stated objectives which concentrate on the broader aims of government and corporate clients.

13. New Models of Distance Education Organization virtual systems - drawing on resources of a college or nationally or internationally on a program-by-program basis Flexible resource management by a core small management unit with responsibility for: selecting and planning programs recruiting and managing resources managing course design training and monitoring instructors monitoring student progress “virtual organizing can result in a living organization that is inter-organizational in scope and that contains customer (student) communities, resource coalitions, and professional communities of practice. Sustained innovation and growth are made possible by virtual organizing.” Venkatraman and Henderson cited by Woudstra and Adria (2003)

14. A national virtual system: PROFORMACAO Funder National advisory ctee Management team Designteam curriculum UNIVERSITY 1 UNIVERSITY 2 UNIVERSITY 3 Etc Production & distribution team Platform Tv company 1, 2, etc Publisher 1,2, etc Software 1,2 etc Study center State coordinators S T U D E N T S tutors Study center State monitoring and tutors Training college 1 Training college 2 Training college 3 Etc training teams Study center tutors Study center tutors http://www.mec.gov.br/seed/proform/acontece.shtm Municipal teacher 1 Municipal teacher 2 Etc

15. CONCLUSIONS Web 2.0 has potential to enhance distance education by: enhancing learner-centered, constructivist pedagogy Further individualizing instruction Providing new environments through virtual reality HOWEVER New bottles do not significantly change the product -- technology alone can not determine the quality of what will be taught and learned in future more significant are changes in policy that permit changes in how regions, countries and individual organizations deploy their resources to allow the pedagogy that can most effectively use the technology

16. Thank you and enjoy the conference! http:www.ajde.com mgmoore@psu.edu