Mauri Collins and Zane Berge

Collins, M.P. & Zane L. Berge. (April, 2000). Convergence to Divergence. Keynote presentation at "A Virtual Odessey: What's ahead for new technologies in Learning? Fifth Annual Teaching in the Community Colleges Online Conference, April 12-14. [online: http://leahi.kcc.hawaii.edu/org/tcon2000/key18c.html]

Hardware, software, and communication technologies are rapidly converging--a phenomenon that touches and links people in their homes, businesses and schools. Educational institutions looking for future success will leverage this convergence to offer high-tech/high touch, divergent learning opportunities.

It is difficult to pick up a journal or magazine today that has to do with teaching and learning, without finding at least one article discussing the need for individualized learning, and individualized educational planning. This is partly in response to the diverse needs of adults in training and retraining for the demands of their workplace, and partly the accelerating pace of change throughout the education and training enterprise.

The topics of access and quality in technologically-mediated learning have been the source of concern and controversy over a number of years. In a recent survey of perceived barriers to distance education (Berge and Muilenburg, 2000), the respondents’ perceptions were surprisingly consistent. Half of the top ten barriers to distance education identified relate directly to the change in institutional culture that is needed to be successful at distance education. The other half involved lack of resources and support for distance education. Access issues were down in priority for these respondents — educational and training administrators, practitioners and students, suggesting that "quality" and "people problems" have risen to the top of the barriers to be overcome.

Some major access issues still remain but are now being addressed by corporate players in the marketplace who have a financial stake in marketing easy Internet access to the maximum number of users. Just as some years ago it became evident that the time was ripe for emphasis on health and fitness — and that there was money to be made in this area, so the time is now ripe for the marketing of communications access and web usage. The market oriented to the "health food" opportunity then pushed it along as manufacturers and suppliers accomplished with their advertising campaigns an increase in awareness among the general public and increased "need" for products — from athletic shoes to soybean proteins. This gradually engineered a substantial cultural change — it became "smart" to eat a "heart healthy" diet — the "in thing" to wear the accoutrements of exercise.

It is corporate players who have been slowly engineering a major cultural shift over the past 20 years as computers have become natural extensions of the lives of normal people. Now, you can see the normalizing of the web as a sales and entertainment medium - witness the appearance of the ubiquitous "dot com" in TV, magazine, and newspaper advertising. The implication is that business, used to using the computer as an everyday work tool, will, without a web presence, erode their customer base.

In many tertiary schools computer equipment is still budgeted in a "one off" fashion — as if it were only a temporary fad and would eventually go away - with the need for the financial provision for the costly maintenance and upgrades of both equipment and users seemingly ignored.

Imagine a campus with most of the student "computer labs" — and classrooms - filled with these low-cost, robust, almost maintenance-free appliances — that can be replaced more cheaply than they can be fixed. Imagine several wireless transmitter hubs taking Internet access into every corner of every building — sans wires — Steve Jobs demonstrated this feasibility with his iBooks and iMacs. Imagine every student carrying one in their backpack. Even if every student is required to own an "information appliance", this will no longer "break the bank" nor submit the student to costly upgrades and a steep learning curve. It is even feasible to expect that these information appliances can be tailored to the software needs of individual campuses — and the clients embedded in up-gradeable "flash ROM."

The merging of technologies seems likely to increase in the future, with the merger of satellite, cable, and telephone companies. As that occurs, educators' attention can be shifted toward the more interesting challenges of meeting the diverse needs of individuals for training and education. As barriers to access are overcome, and organizational cultures changed, the use of computers as part of every day life, it will be the provision of quality instruction and learning opportunities that will need to be addressed.

Somehow the impact of this computer-cultural revolution has not yet reached painful proportions within the halls of academe. Students don’t see their faculty mastering the integration of useful technologies that would enrich their offerings in a classroom. Faculty are still askance that their email boxes should be so littered with students demanding their individual attention in ways they never felt in their lecture halls. Students are still asking, at one end of the spectrum, "This is not a computer class — why am I expected to use a computer?" But then — at the other end of the spectrum - students are asking "Why do I have to come to campus to listen to professors drone on when I could just sit home and watch the video-stream and access the web site for everything else?"

We are back to the "people" issues again and the role of faculty as expert purveyors of information and the enculturation of new members into their disciplines. Can — will — they take advantage of the resources available on the other side of their information appliance screens? Will equipment support resources be reallocated from the replacement of machines to the training and support of people in their use — faculty and students alike? Is academe equipped for the onslaught of the upcoming generations of students who have always had access to and used intelligent devices — from their video-game consoles to ATM machines. Can faculty model the analytical skills necessary to evaluate and discriminate among the multitude of internet information resources that inundate their students on a daily basis?

Despite all today’s concerns, computers and other information appliances will not supplant all the other learning/communication technologies. They will be integrated into the learning experience. We see the future — it is not in high profile — high tech — high cost distance education programs. It will be in the use of simple internet information devices and all formats - text, images and sound - that can be encompassed by web-browsers. It will be in the transparent connection of students to each other and to their faculty mentors in ways more close and more intimate than ever before. It will be in better quality instruction, both at a distance and in the classroom, with technology as the catalyst for discussions about teaching and learning. Attention focused on pedagogy should lead to improved learning.

Cisco Systems’ television advertisements convey the subtle warning that within a few years 50 percent of all information flow will be over the Internet and ask the crucial question, "Are you ready?" The future — as the past has shown - is ultimately in the strength of the interpersonal interactions and bonds that will be built, not only in face-to-face classrooms but in the virtual classrooms that span the clock and the globe.