There is indeed a large movement re online education from many directions. A very interesting transformation, one that I try to follow closely. /C ---- Original message ----
Date: Tue, 22 May 2007 12:21:23 -0400 From: "Heidelberg, Chris" <Chris.Heidelberg@ssa.gov> Subject: Re: [Air-l] Academic traditions To: <air-l@listserv.aoir.org>
Caroline:
I concur! I am amazed at how many professors in the academic game do not understand the history and research behind this technology that was ironically created in large part and tested on the campuses of research institutions under federal and corporate grants. Your assessment is correct because the Ivy league schools (Harvard, Yale, Princeton etc), major private institutions (Duke, Johns Hopkins, Stanford), technology based schools (Cal-Poly,Georgia Tech, MIT)and many flagship universities (Cal-Berkeley, Illinois-Champaign,Maryland,Michigan,Ohio State and Texas-Austin) have already taken their offerings online (Rhodes, 2001)to match the challenge posed by the University of Phoenix and others. However, if one were to examine the federal defense based and medical grants received by these research institutions over the course of history since WWII, it is clear that the technology is not going away and new professors will have to get with the program and start looking at options like online publishing for environmental and financial reasons (Willinsky, 2006). The key will be the new methods created by and for learners by professors (Gee, 2005) such as video games.
---------------------------------------- Caroline Haythornthwaite Associate Professor Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 501 East Daniel St., Champaign IL 61820