Online Distance "Education" an Oxymoron?: An Interactionist's View
Jim Thomas / Northern Illinois University
jthomas@sun.soci.niu.edu
(Spring, 2000)
(Earlier version of paper published in: SSSI Notes. 27(June): 3, 17)
(As the current manager of the SSSI homepage and SSSITALK, the
electronic discussion group, and a computer system administrator,
I'm periodically asked questions related to computer technology
and interaction. Beginning in this issue, I will try to address
some of these issues, starting with one interactionist's view of
online distance education.)
For no particularly evident reason, symbolic interactionists have
been relatively slow in adapting new technology to our
scholarship and teaching. In some ways, we are missing the
opportunity to expand the ways by which we can illustrate our
theories, concepts and analyses with multimedia hypertext
articles. In other ways, our caution against rushing headlong
into the cyber realm may have prevented us from a precipitous
leap into "hot" endeavors hyped by administrators and hucksters,
but otherwise of questionable value.
For example, take online distance education (ODE). Please.
The advent of "virtual classrooms," "Cyber-universities," and
online distance education in which students and instructors may
never physically meet provides an example of how new technology
can revolutionize, even eliminate, the traditional classroom.
Driven by conventional institutions attempting to expand
territory or recruit more students, idealistic educators who see
ODE as a means of reaching an under-served population,
entrepreneurs motivated by potential profits, or upstart
organizations--some legitimate and others not--that bill
themselves as "fully online universities," ODE is becoming a
major presence in higher education.
The new classrooms have led some state universities to enter into
intra-state educational cooperatives, such as Western Governor's
University, the ten-state consortium for on-line University, and
Columbia University's collaborative for-profit web site to
deliver online courses. Other reputable universities have
established a strong online, distance educational curriculum,
such as the New School for Social Research in New York, the
University of Illinois, or Golden Gate University in San
Francisco. Some schools have sprung up solely as online, such as
Heritage University, California Virtual University, Diversity
University, and Athena university. Billionaire Michael Saylor
intends to spend $100 million to create an online university
featuring the "10,000 greatest minds of our time" in lectures and
video interviews. Michigan State University offers a two-year
graduate program in criminal justice, the only one of it's kind.
In my own state, Illinois, at the beginning of 2000 the Illinois
Online Network, a resource for community colleges delivering
online courses, served over 40 institutions. Enough already!
Now, I can hardly be accused of being a luddite or of failing to
appreciate the utility of computer-mediated education, especially
Net-enhanced exercises, to supplement and enrich the classroom.
As a system administrator and homepage manager, I have at least a
minimal understanding of the technology. As one who incorporates
the Internet into my classes, I recognize the strengths and
weaknesses of computer technology as a pedagogical tool. But, as
one who continues to teach both partially and fully online
courses, I have come to a rather unsettling conclusion that most
interactionists would intuitively understand: Fully online
distance education courses are inherently of far less quality
than the conventional classroom experience.
We've gone too far, too fast, without adequate reflection. It's
time to challenge the tendency to rush ahead with with
techno-gimmicks and increasing online courses without addressing
some fundamental interactionist-informed issues, such as:
1) What are the limitations to ODE, and how should these
limitations be built into curricular development and
institutional planning?
2) What is the relationship between ODE courses and
conventional courses?
3) Under what conditions should such courses be offered, and
what restrictions, if any, should be imposed in who may take
them?
4) Does ODE risk subverting the integrity and goals of
conventional education?
5) Are ODE classes as effective as conventional classroom
courses in accomplishing the goals of current educational
philosophy?
Is online distance education ever appropriate? Yes. Is it
appropriate for most college courses? The reasonable answer is
an emphatic "no!" But, reason has often been replaced with zeal
by ODE advocates. When public speaking is offered, without
irony, as a 100 percent ODE class, or when an introductory drama
course is offered online, we should begin reflecting a bit on
what we're helping to create. When Illinois community colleges
are moving into the online game and offering courses that may not
prepare students for classroom work when the transfer to NIU, we
should be a bit more critical about the traps we're setting for
our future.
As Internet educational technology develops, it is easy to
imagine a synchronous holographic classroom in our living room.
And, of course, creating new ways to enhance education through
the use of online technology should be supported. But, that's not
the point. My concern is the bandwagon effect: Legislators see it
as a way to economize; Some administrators see it as a way to
create new student markets; some faculty see it as a way to build
a career. Some students see it as a way to reduce labor.
Perhaps it's time to throw up the yellow caution flag on the
so-called "Information Highway" and recognize the dangers it
poses to the educational system. As an interactionist, I ask:
Imagine you are Socrates' student.
Now, imagine you are Socrates' on-line student.
If interactionists don't ask the question, who will?
====================
(These comments were extracted from "Traps and Pitfalls of
Teaching Criminal Justice Online" presented at the Midwest
Sociological Society Annual Meetings, Chicago, April, 2000.
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