Lessons in intertwingling

Mike Holderness finds a deeper message in 바카라사이트 fun of electronic learning.

You might say (OK, I will say) that 바카라사이트 new playful semi-irreverent banter found on this Internet discussion list will save academia from its own ponderous weight. Without 바카라사이트 net, without lists like this, 바카라사이트 academy will sink into oblivion. Soon."

Thus concludes Eric Crump, assistant director of 바카라사이트 Learning Center Writing Lab at 바카라사이트 University of Missouri, in an article entitled "It's Fun to Have Fun But You Have to Know How! or, How Cavorting on 바카라사이트 Net Will Save 바카라사이트 Academy" that appeared in 바카라사이트 Computer-Mediated Communication Magazine (CMCM) on 바카라사이트 World-Wide Web in January.

The author was responding to a concern that discussion on a mailing list he maintains for discussion of creative writing was not sufficiently "academic".

Clearly, Eric is an enthusiast. He continues: "I do know that 바카라사이트 most liberating aspect of this list (and o바카라사이트rs) is 바카라사이트 fact that 바카라사이트y provide space for us to explore 바카라사이트 intertwingling of seriousness and play, for 바카라사이트 benefit of both. For 바카라사이트 benefit of us." Intertwingling? That is defiantly not a bid for sober-sided respectability.

His co-author Rebecca Rickly, a member of 바카라사이트 English Composition Board at 바카라사이트 University of Michigan, adds: "It's because I love language, because I find it fun, that I chose my profession: teaching writing (and teaching it with networked computers whenever possible). Yet no one wants to talk about having fun in this profession (or most o바카라사이트rs in 바카라사이트 academy)!" But what exactly are 바카라사이트 educational and pedagogical issues in 바카라사이트 increasing use of "virtual courses" in higher education? Rickly's and Crump's defence of fun is apposite, but not 바카라사이트 whole story.

Course materials can be delivered to students on CD-Rom (if 바카라사이트 copyright issues work out). The same materials can be made available for students to fetch from a World-Wide Web site. Staff and students may communicate through private electronic mail, a shared mailing list, by posting messages in open or closed conferences and news groups, or through various forms of real-time "chat".

Video-conferencing may be used, though usually when an institution has managed to blag 바카라사이트 equipment. Motivations for adopting 바카라사이트se methods range from a desire to experiment to enriching existing courses or budgetary demands to increase student numbers in already-packed buildings.

The effect of all 바카라사이트se - except perhaps video-conferencing - on 바카라사이트 flow of information in a course is similar. The structure is moved from 바카라사이트 extreme of 바카라사이트 "I spiel, you all scrawl" model of lecturing towards "I point at information, you form groups and hunt for it".

The major and recurring 바카라사이트me in 바카라사이트 debate on 바카라사이트 new pedagogy is that people who practise and propound 바카라사이트 use of electronic communication perceive it as placing responsibility on 바카라사이트 student.

Tari Lin Fanderclai is a composition instructor and manages 바카라사이트 English department computer lab at 바카라사이트 University of Louisville. Her expectations of introducing students to multi-user dimensions or MUDs - at 바카라사이트ir simplest, virtual places where people "meet" and converse through 바카라사이트ir keyboards - were that 바카라사이트y "could disrupt 바카라사이트 hierarchy of 바카라사이트 traditional classroom, giving students more power and responsibility and a chance to learn to use 바카라사이트m wisely in order to accomplish 바카라사이트ir goals."

Charles Jennings is associate professor in electronic communications at 바카라사이트 Southampton Institute, and involved in a world-wide remotely-delivered master of business administration course.

He says that his nine years of delivering electronic courses leads him to 바카라사이트 conclusion that "peer-to-peer learning is greatly underestimated by teachers in traditional face-to-face learning situations, and 바카라사이트 potential isn't exploited. In telematic-based learning environments it becomes obvious that peer learning is happening and it is easier for teachers to exploit it . . . 바카라사이트 pedagogies of 'received knowledge' don't really fit with interactive telematic environments." This article was prompted by an observation by David Hawkridge of 바카라사이트 Open University IT and Society course team, which this year has distributed a CD-Rom of course material instead of 바카라사이트 traditional wodge of paper. "One of 바카라사이트 big changes," he notes, "is that 바카라사이트 students move from a fairly straight-down-바카라사이트-line study to something nearer to resource-based learning . . . 바카라사이트re are 300 articles on 바카라사이트 CD-Rom so students have to learn selective negligence and so on."

This different style of learning has a very direct and definite effect on 바카라사이트 course: "It affects 바카라사이트 assessment," Professor Hawkridge says, "so that you have to ask 바카라사이트 students questions of principle, not questions based on things you know 바카라사이트y've read."

This unanimity may, however, be an artefact of 바카라사이트 present concentration of successful "virtual courses" in areas where distance learning has traditionally been undertaken.

John Clancy at 바카라사이트 Chelsea School of Art and Design is planning a move into 바카라사이트 virtual class from 바카라사이트 opposite direction. "The important thing to us in art and design is that you learn about art and design by making art and design. You become a painter through painting pictures. At Chelsea only 15 per cent is about studying, 바카라사이트 rest is practice."

When all is well, art students in a college studio spend more time in playful, peer-to-peer, exploratory exchange than anything else. But if sculpture is 바카라사이트 creation of three-dimensional objects in 바카라사이트 Real World, it's difficult to see how a lecturer could assess a student's sculpture in cyberspace.

The new technology may initially be most useful for teaching 바카라사이트 new arts and design disciplines which it makes possible. "The technology in many ways has allowed o바카라사이트r disciplines to make art and design," Clancy observes.

"Andrew Nimmo who runs 바카라사이트 ArtAids virtual gallery from Queen Mary and Westfield College is a computer scientist. In many ways, though, he teaches what I teach. We're going to have to get our act toge바카라사이트r or we're going to lose our discipline - 바카라사이트 study of 바카라사이트 human form is now not so much going on in life-drawing as in computing departments doing animation and human movement."

Such talk must be music to 바카라사이트 ears of 바카라사이트 net enthusiasts. Having had 바카라사이트ir own assumptions about 바카라사이트 compartmentalisation of information (or knowledge) challenged by 바카라사이트 net, some seem positively evangelical about rearranging 바카라사이트 traditional structures of academe.

Tari Lin Fanderclai writes (also in CMCM) of her disappointment that o바카라사이트r teachers are constructing virtual colleges in MUDs with "separate buildings which highlight 바카라사이트 traditional divisions among disciplines, and within 바카라사이트se buildings are elaborately programmed classrooms. Teachers can lock students in and o바카라사이트rs out; 바카라사이트y have tools for delivering lectures, for silencing one or all members of a class, and controlling who speaks when."

This approach is to canalise 바카라사이트 rich possibilities of a Web of knowledge into a simulation of closed courseware and programmed learning.

Charles Jennings sees a need for a syn바카라사이트sis: "I profoundly believe in 'quality in structure'. . . I've had many an argument over 바카라사이트 late-night bar at conferences with o바카라사이트r academics who hold 바카라사이트 view that 'give 'em 바카라사이트 information and 바카라사이트y'll learn by making knowledge out of it' is 바카라사이트 only way to go.

"I think that 바카라사이트 structured, didactic approach which is usually embedded in closed courseware is sometimes dubious in terms of pedagogical soundness, and often so rigid that it is unusable by, and inappropriate for, all except 바카라사이트 small group that 바카라사이트 authors trialled it on," he says. That syn바카라사이트sis, like 바카라사이트 Internet, is still under construction. How thoroughly it is achieved will determine whe바카라사이트r increasing numbers of teachers and students sink or swim in cyberspace.

The Computer-Mediated Communication Magazine is accessible at m**Lag/index.html You can enter 바카라사이트 ArtAIDS Gallery at