Elizabeth J. Burge, University of New Brunswick , Canada
1. Introduction:
Thank you for inviting me to your discussion about new ways of teaching and learning and, in particular, distance education. It is a pleasure to meet again colleagues who are doing important work for the re-development of Estonian life, and especially I want to thank Larissa Jõgi and Sirje Virkus. Their work models how the Tallinn University of Educational Sciences seeks ways to be innovative without being irresponsible. It is my privilege also to work with such fine Finnish colleagues as Jorma Rinta-Kanto.
So far today the speakers have referred to challenges and opportunities that are very similar to those we face in Canada; for example
Allow me, therefore, to add to your thinking by outlining the key things that I and other Canadians have learned since 1980 about how to be modern without throwing away the best of one's past. My talk is divided into three parts: key factors, key learnings, and key challenges.
2. Key factors
Here are the factors in the general educational environment that are of interest and/or concern to us:
2.1. The irreversible and growing movement in many institutions toward integration, i.e., using a variety of approaches to the design and delivery of programmes. Access, regardless of location, has been a strong value driving the development of distance education, and our 50 years of experience in using various communications technologies have supported that development. Variety in programme design and delivery is shown in using multiple technologies (from paper to computer-conferencing) and in interdisciplinary approaches for the course content. Learners and teachers then have a better chance of seeing the advantages and disadvantages of each delivery technology, seeing how each discipline creates knowledge from its own values and practices, and seeing how real-world problems and solutions are often "wicked" ones, i.e., they defy easy identification and application (the "wicked" word is used by architects and other designers).
Variety also means that teachers use distance and face-to-face methods in the same classroom to reach larger numbers of students and provide greater flexibility for students (without loss of academic rigour). For example, in some of my courses I have students sitting with me in a walled classroom and another number at various other sites joined to us by technology. For every course I design and teach now, I produce a paper manual (a navigation guide through the learning resources) that can be adapted at a minute's notice for use in an audio-conferenced course (just insert the pages on how to communicate). Approximately three quarters of Canadian universities now provide in excess of 3,000 credit courses using a variety of delivery methods. I have no statistics here on vocational training institutions or on business use of distance education, but it is growing at a fast pace.
Since 1978 (when I got into distance education), I have noticed two things:
2.2. The downsizing of companies and governments into minimum-sized workforces and the general unemployment levels across Canada have led to widespread unease and the recognition that the future will not be a better copy of the past. Educated but unemployed adults are flocking into various training courses to upgrade their skills, but they have no guarantees of a job at the end of the course. For many adults, the open door to success becomes the revolving door to uncertainty. Some educators I know have no long-term answers to this educational and social problem, so they now think about how to help such adults develop useful and valued roles in society that are not judged against salary or wage-based criteria. To make such a change in societal values and human infrastructures is a big challenge for policy-makers and citizens alike!
2.3. Many employers in Canada are now looking for what are called "employability skills", rather than the more limited idea of "job skills". "Employability skills" have three components: specific skills to do a specific job/task; general skills for working as productive team members; and general skills for self-management and personal growth (e.g., learning-to-learn, information literacy, and self-discipline skills). The employers' calls for workers to demonstrate a greater variety of skills has placed new demands on educators. No longer can we just fill up learners' heads and then empty them at examination time; such a "load and dump" or "drill and fill" process cannot test for real-world communication and task performance competency.
2.4.Education for many institutions has become a marketplace, not a museum, of ideas. The widespread use of distance education has enabled learners to take almost a consumer view and look for the best services and products; it also has forced institutions to recognize that they cannot rely any longer on getting students just because they exist - they have to win students.
As a Finnish distance educator recently told my graduate class, her experience of being Rector of a distance education institution had taught her that "you don't sell a product; you buy student loyalty", and that the first is not the opposite of the second.
In Atlantic Canada now, for example, US universities, as well as other Canadian ones are "poaching" fee-paying students because the students have judged that they will get better value for their hard-earned money. This market-place activity has senior administrators quite worried about the long-term impact on local institutions.
2.5. In line with the needs to produce learners who can think creatively and critically, there is increasing attention being paid to the idea of "constructivist" ways of learning. One of the hand-out sheets lists the key characteristics of this approach. Constructivism is, in effect, "good" adult education that prompts learners to deal with real-world problems and accept that there are no easy or simple answers in solving problems or creating knowledge. To successfully use this approach faculty and students also need access to modern library services - the foundation of an informed and intellectually productive citizenship. The problem is how to link up library and educators in better partnerships.
2.6. The Canadian discussions about learner-centered approaches to education (as distinct from teacher-centered ones) reinforce the notion that progressive educators ignore learners' needs and interests at our peril. learner-centredness is not about giving learners an easy time, or about us walking away from academic responsibilities. It is about recognizing individual styles in which people prefer to learn, the de-motivators often found in classroom behaviours of teachers and learners, and the resources now available in libraries to give learners greater access to information. "Learner-centredness" is also about actively encouraging learners to take those difficult steps toward acquiring a repertoire of learning-to-learn skills and becoming competent in and connected to local and national economic and cultural activity.
2.7. We all know about the tide of technological change that threatens to sweep us off our feet if we are not vigilant. Software and hardware companies see great profits to be made from educators who fear being left out, left behind, or drifting out to sea.
Clever advertising messages appeal to our fears of being incompetent or dis-connected. You folks in Estonia are too smart to listen uncritically to the first high technology salesperson who comes your way. You also will understand the benefits of having access to an advisory team of some trusted colleagues here and in other countries who can help you think through major decisions. You have an earlier history of being a sophisticated culture, so I'm sure that knowledge of your history gives you strength and pride in approaching your future.
2.8. Finally, there is much talk about partnerships in education, about how consortia can provide joint resources to do the tasks that a single institution cannot. Well - yes - there are success stories, especially when each member institution knows its own values and needs and also its responsibilities to its partners. But, as in any partnership, there are always issues of who influences who and when, individual needs and styles, and continuous assessment of the relationship.
These factors are, of course, my own selection. Your contextual factors are naturally somewhat different, but the biggest challenge is to check just how well we understand how the factors operate. As one Canadian explained recently while referring to styles of Aboriginal thinking: non Aboriginals have a habit of thinking in terms of the components of a context (e.g., how many computers/learners/etc.); but Aboriginals have the habit of thinking in terms of the dynamics in a context (what is really happening).
3. Key learnings
3.1. The first one is a personal one, and it is captured in a 1946 phrase by one of Canada's communication philosophers, Harold Innis: "Most forward-looking people have their heads turned sideways". He left this phrase as an unexplained note in his papers, but I think you know where he was headed with this thought. To me the thought makes much sense because it reminds me that my vision and my work is very limited
I now need all the creative help I can get if I am to keep a balance between the wisdom of experience and the "wow!" of salespeople. A sideways view helps me understand, for example, how established laws of technological change apply today; namely, how new technology trends to crush the old, how new technological elites are formed in the population, and how the longer term impact of a technology may produce effects that are the reverse of what was originally intended.
3.2. Innocent mice get eaten by hungry cats. Innocent educators can get "eaten" by high tech companies on the lookout for quick sales. Most of the "high" educational technology today was not designed first for educators, so we see examples of teachers trying to squeeze learners and themselves into the pre-designed "boxes" of new technologies. Video-conferencing was first designed for business people, for example. More of us are now trying to turn things around and consider: "when did we last go away somewhere quietly and draw up a list of specifications for learner-centered and cost-effective learning technologies and communications equipment, and then go to the makers and say "here's what we need"?
3.3. Educators facing big changes in educational designs and delivery systems benefit from having a structure for professional networking and for lobbying governments and funding agencies. There is strength in numbers, but only if the "numbers" are organized into working groups and professional associations. Such associations also can, for example, evaluate the flood of incoming information and help its members see what is original and useful information (not derivative and irrelevant information), promote the testing of new ideas, and encourage ethical behaviour in all areas of practice. As President of the Canadian Association for Distance Education (CADE), I encourage you to actively "grow" your idea of having an Estonian Association for Distance Education. CADE then can liaise with you on an official basis. Since 1983, when CADE was founded, a number of volunteer distance educators developed the Association structures to give our members a refereed journal, many professional development events and newsletters, and a strong feeling across Canada of collegiality and pride in our work. In addition, to work for such an organization is one way of developing professional maturity in younger members.
3.4. We have to walk our talk; we have to practice what we preach. CADE, for example, uses distance education methods to run its professional development activities and its annual conference every second year. When we have to use own technologies for our own learning, we always learn about how technology can be a curse as well as a blessing; and we learn that sometimes we are not as skilled in designing collaborative learning group dynamics as we should be. But we always learn, and it's often easier for a colleague to help me learn than for me to stumble along, alone, in the tough outside world.
3.5. The mature (meaning experienced) distance educators in Canada have learned that technology in learning is useful only when applied skilfully, i.e., when there is a reason for using the particular strength of each technology, and when applied with near-obsessive attention to logistical details. You can always tell a wise (but open-minded) practioner in a room full of software/hardware enthusiasts: the wise one will ask questions such as
3.6. Learning is work; significant learning may take much emotional as well cognitive energy when it involves un-learning old attitudes and habits. Consequently, learning designs and technologies have to be as transparent as possible - the learners should not use their time to worry about how to use the technology. As with any well-designed living environment, people in an educational environment are usually unaware of what skills and components it took to create that environment. In a three month course that uses computer-conferencing, for example, we found that it can take some students up to one month to feel comfortable with using the technology with ease: that is a long time!
3.7. Faculty and librarians need an institutional reward structure if they are to acquire competence in new methods of educational design and delivery. if the highest level of administration, for example, just give lip service to innovation and avoid giving faculty adequate support in time and access to expert guidance, for example, even the best individual attempts may fail. But learning how to be an effective, learner-centered distance educator is, in much Canadian experience, one of the best methods of helping faculty acquire new teaching skills and attitudes.
A progressive administrator therefore will allocate resources to a cadre of good and/or enthusiastic faculty so that they and their students experience success and understand all the dynamics involved. Informal talking-in-the-corridors and the use of some rewards are often the best ways to encourage further experimentation. It also sets up a peer mentoring process by which faculty can help each other (regardless of age differences). "You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink" is a relevant proverb here: faculty cannot be forced to sustain any changes that they do not understand or approve of, so administrators who want to see sustained innovation have a real challenge.
In today's climate of fast change and educational competitiveness, no senior administrator in Canada can afford to ignore the management of deliberate institutional innovation. Sometimes, in this time of decreasing funding, innovations management means making reductions in support to traditional programmes: the traditionalists will protest, but they will quieten when they see who gets the rewards for further innovation.
4. Key challenges
I have alluded to several already, but let me list several more.
4.1. The challenge to buy client loyalty (from the Finnish Rector) is a major one, especially for institutions that don't have pots of money to throw at solving the problems of learner services. We in Canada are re-examining the concept of client loyalty in the light of today's climate of competitiveness. Today's clients don't necessarily need more of the same old approaches; they need fewer barriers and more opportunities to get just-in-time and up-to-date training; i.e., responsiveness from educators to help them get better jobs (or keep their old one). Adult learners don't want to waste time; but neither do they want short-cuts to quality. And, I believe, they don't want to treated as if they know nothing already. A relevant but perhaps unpopular question here for educators is "what makes customers brand-loyal in the commercial world?"
4.2.Faculty members in Canada have been enculturated to behave as individuals working alone and in sometimes covert competition with peers. What happens in their classrooms is often only known and assessed by students who are looking for the "best" teachers. Many of those students correctly do not assume that walled classrooms necessarily contain optimal learning conditions. The use of multi-skilled teams for distance education course design therefore poses a challenge to many faculty used to working alone. We have to find ways of encouraging faculty to work collaboratively on new course design without feeling oppressed or disadvantaged. One way is to give non-salary rewards, e.g., time off from teaching, or increased funds for professional development.
4.3. The roles of information specialists, especially skilled librarians, are still under-valued in many Canadian settings. In my experience, librarians can save me much time in searching data-bases, and can work with me to ensure that students get top-level information services. By myself, I will never be able to keep up with all the new data bases and catalogues that make up the "intelligence infrastructure" of learning and social progress.
4.4. We have to confront the many "thinking confusions" around concerning the new communications technologies. Here are five confusions.
Our challenge therefore is to figure out the best mix of teaching and learning models and old and new technologies for particular contexts. Our challenge is to look past the seductive power of technology advertising that promises high speeds and volumes of information, and instead be alert for technologies that, given the wrong use, allow high levels of teacher dominance and learner passivity.
Let's take my situation as a concrete example. If I as a faculty member am to help learners construct adequate mental frameworks of theory and practical application, I first need to know what is in their heads. So I have to listen to them talking-in-order-to-think. My skills as a teacher are better assessed in terms of how I respond to learners, not always deliver information to them. I can best respond by confirming what they know, correcting their mistakes, and challenging them to more sophisticated thinking. I suppose I'm trying to help learners be their own architects of learning, rather than being a photocopy machine for repeating others' ideas. Class time therefore is not spent in me lecturing to unprepared heads, i.e., transmitting knowledge - paper notes can do that more effectively. A better use of such time is made when I expect the learners to arrive already having done some reading of the notes and other resources, and having developed questions they want to get discussed in class. Then I can "push" them to think aloud in small and large groups amongst themselves before reporting to the whole class. In such new ways of teaching (and it is hard work) do I help learners develop the skills of thinking and expression. My teaching challenge is how to do all the above tasks when I cannot see the learners at other sites. Believe me: it can be done!
In summary, we in Canada share similar concerns. In fact, the general context of non-traditional learning and teaching has become such a growth industry that recently the Federal government gave funding assistance to two educational companies to produce a series of four kits written for practioners who want a fast but authoritative introduction to distance learning and teaching. Speaking as one of the authors, I can verify that it is not easy to translate academic theory and summarize my own experience! But in the doing of it, I learned a lot. So let's talk now about your own experience. Thank you.
A later note:
On return to Canada, I looked up a 1996 article that reported 1994 data on distance education analyzed by Statistics Canada.
1. Approximately 420,000 adults take distance mode courses in Canada, 57% of whom are women, and 58% of whom are aged between 17-34 years. 35% of all distance mode students take courses in commerce/management/business; 23% in engineering/applied science, 16% in health; 16% in education/sciences/other; and 10% in social sciences/humanities.
2. Barriers to successful study for distance learners were reported to be workload and family responsibilities (61%), financial cost (33%); lack of employer support (33%); non-offering of needed courses (32%); time and place inconvenience (27%).
3. Between 1991 and 1993, enrolment in distance mode course increased by 9%, while enrolment in traditional courses rose by 6%.
A paper for the seminar at the Tallinn University of Educational Sciences, Tallinn, Estonia, 22 August 1996.
Last updated August 17, 1997
sirvir@tpu.ee