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This is a reply for Tracy Russo, on Research on Effectiveness of Web Based
Training and Education.

I have some fundamental concerns about how we are using hitech Web based
instruction. There are issues of social control to be considered in the
assessment of effectiveness. I recommend David Noble's articles on the web (e.g.
http://firstmonday.dk/issues/issue3_1/noble/). He has a paper that really
critiques the knowledge/techno link of the university. There is a link with a
Social Text special issue a year or so ago on the de-evolution of higher ed
(not the title).

Essentially both are saying that we are participating in a transformation in
university life style in which the administration is bloating, techno
investment is bloating, and to finance it the admin is cutting faculty and
increasing class size. In addition the university itself is doing the
deskilling dance that Harry Braverman describes so well. That is, kill
tenure, keep a few well-known full time professors to do the design work on
the techno-archived virtual cyber web lectures, put a lot of techs on 5 year
contracts to do the techno and mgmt of tests, cybervideo access, chat room
management, and control and restrict and channel access to the elite-few
professors who will remain as cyber-teachers. There will be former profs.
and grad students hired to do the grunt work on cyber-classes (start up
stuff mainly). The big techno dream is that the university becomes
dominated by the admin, that faculty be reduced, that techno-entrepreneurs
who can bring patent and license and grant and other projects to the
university capital accumulation system be the majority of university
employees. In short, the university is being colonized as a business.

We are already witness to the transformation as we see the decrease in
Academic freedom in choosing texts and pedagogy in the business college.
Courses are becoming the property of the college, of committees who decide
texts, approach, outlines, styles, etc. This is done to appease,
supposedly, the AACSB and other accrediting bodies, but in effect, the
result is the same. The administration picks up more and more control over
the delivery syste. Profs are lulled or coerced into putting the syllabii,
test management, lecture slides, handouts, etc. up on the web. everybody is
doing it. The College gradually systematizes and standardizes the whole mess.

As Arnowitz (et al) wrote in the book Post-Work, the professor is the last
great job on earth. What he means is that as the techno transformation of the
university happens, any form of human interaction is discouraged between
faculty and study, the admin. takes over, and the life of the tenured rpof
is treated with all the respect of the dinosaur (the clumbsy, stupid,
non-adaptive one, not the ratprots who are quick, agile, hunting in packs
ones that W.J.T. Mitchell writes about in The Last Dinosaur Book). No, it
is we who are the last Dinosaurs.

Look at our students. They are raised on chatrooms, occupying more time in
cyberspace than in human space. A friend of mine observed a class yesterday
in which as the prof lectured, the studetns sat at their terminal, doing
chat room. They no longer care about class interaction.

I hope this is helpful in your assessment of cyber-professor effectivness.


david

Good thing you don't have a strong opinion about this, David. Not. I agree
with what we might term an unfortunate turn of events, but the work-world
has gone that way too. In my non-academic life I see more and more
interaction becoming virtual rather than face to face or even telephonic.
Yes the human touch is lost. Yes some of the diversity of opinion and
approach is lost. On the other hand, letter writing appears to be being
revived as an art form; and we are able to reach some by the web who might
not otherwise have access to significant educational materials or
opportunities. Like much else in life, it may be balance that we need,
using the web when appropriate, and enjoying the inclusiveness of personal
contact otherwise. george

----------
> From: David Boje <dboje@NMSU.EDU>
> To: MG-ED-DV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
> Subject: [MG-ED-DV] The Last Great Occupation on Earth
> Date: Tuesday, February 02, 1999 12:13 PM
>
> This is a reply for Tracy Russo, on Research on Effectiveness of Web
Based
> Training and Education.
>
> I have some fundamental concerns about how we are using hitech Web based
> instruction. There are issues of social control to be considered in the
> assessment of effectiveness. I recommend David Noble's articles on the
web (e.g.
> http://firstmonday.dk/issues/issue3_1/noble/). He has a paper that
really
> critiques the knowledge/techno link of the university. There is a link
with a
> Social Text special issue a year or so ago on the de-evolution of higher
ed
> (not the title).
>
> Essentially both are saying that we are participating in a
transformation in
> university life style in which the administration is bloating, techno
> investment is bloating, and to finance it the admin is cutting faculty
and
> increasing class size. In addition the university itself is doing the
> deskilling dance that Harry Braverman describes so well. That is, kill
> tenure, keep a few well-known full time professors to do the design work
on
> the techno-archived virtual cyber web lectures, put a lot of techs on 5
year
> contracts to do the techno and mgmt of tests, cybervideo access, chat
room
> management, and control and restrict and channel access to the elite-few
> professors who will remain as cyber-teachers. There will be former
profs.
> and grad students hired to do the grunt work on cyber-classes (start up
> stuff mainly). The big techno dream is that the university becomes
> dominated by the admin, that faculty be reduced, that
techno-entrepreneurs
> who can bring patent and license and grant and other projects to the
> university capital accumulation system be the majority of university
> employees. In short, the university is being colonized as a business.
>
> We are already witness to the transformation as we see the decrease in
> Academic freedom in choosing texts and pedagogy in the business college.
> Courses are becoming the property of the college, of committees who
decide
> texts, approach, outlines, styles, etc. This is done to appease,
> supposedly, the AACSB and other accrediting bodies, but in effect, the
> result is the same. The administration picks up more and more control
over
> the delivery syste. Profs are lulled or coerced into putting the
syllabii,
> test management, lecture slides, handouts, etc. up on the web. everybody
is
> doing it. The College gradually systematizes and standardizes the whole
mess.
>
> As Arnowitz (et al) wrote in the book Post-Work, the professor is the
last
> great job on earth. What he means is that as the techno transformation
of the
> university happens, any form of human interaction is discouraged between
> faculty and study, the admin. takes over, and the life of the tenured
rpof
> is treated with all the respect of the dinosaur (the clumbsy, stupid,
> non-adaptive one, not the ratprots who are quick, agile, hunting in packs
> ones that W.J.T. Mitchell writes about in The Last Dinosaur Book). No,
it
> is we who are the last Dinosaurs.
>
> Look at our students. They are raised on chatrooms, occupying more time
in
> cyberspace than in human space. A friend of mine observed a class
yesterday
> in which as the prof lectured, the studetns sat at their terminal, doing
> chat room. They no longer care about class interaction.
>
> I hope this is helpful in your assessment of cyber-professor
effectivness.
>
>
> david

David,
I don't see the problem. The students will get
more out of it for less tuition. I understand some of
the socio-politics of super stores, but I still shop at
Wal Mart...

I'm looking for a way to work myself out of my job. It has
always worked in the past....

Bruce

On Tue, 2 Feb 1999 13:13:30 -0700 David Boje
<dboje@NMSU.EDU> wrote:

> This is a reply for Tracy Russo, on Research on Effectiveness of Web Based
> Training and Education.
>
> I have some fundamental concerns about how we are using hitech Web based
> instruction. There are issues of social control to be considered in the
> assessment of effectiveness. I recommend David Noble's articles on the web (e.g.
> http://firstmonday.dk/issues/issue3_1/noble/). He has a paper that really
> critiques the knowledge/techno link of the university. There is a link with a
> Social Text special issue a year or so ago on the de-evolution of higher ed
> (not the title).
>
> Essentially both are saying that we are participating in a transformation in
> university life style in which the administration is bloating, techno
> investment is bloating, and to finance it the admin is cutting faculty and
> increasing class size. In addition the university itself is doing the
> deskilling dance that Harry Braverman describes so well. That is, kill
> tenure, keep a few well-known full time professors to do the design work on
> the techno-archived virtual cyber web lectures, put a lot of techs on 5 year
> contracts to do the techno and mgmt of tests, cybervideo access, chat room
> management, and control and restrict and channel access to the elite-few
> professors who will remain as cyber-teachers. There will be former profs.
> and grad students hired to do the grunt work on cyber-classes (start up
> stuff mainly). The big techno dream is that the university becomes
> dominated by the admin, that faculty be reduced, that techno-entrepreneurs
> who can bring patent and license and grant and other projects to the
> university capital accumulation system be the majority of university
> employees. In short, the university is being colonized as a business.
>
> We are already witness to the transformation as we see the decrease in
> Academic freedom in choosing texts and pedagogy in the business college.
> Courses are becoming the property of the college, of committees who decide
> texts, approach, outlines, styles, etc. This is done to appease,
> supposedly, the AACSB and other accrediting bodies, but in effect, the
> result is the same. The administration picks up more and more control over
> the delivery syste. Profs are lulled or coerced into putting the syllabii,
> test management, lecture slides, handouts, etc. up on the web. everybody is
> doing it. The College gradually systematizes and standardizes the whole mess.
>
> As Arnowitz (et al) wrote in the book Post-Work, the professor is the last
> great job on earth. What he means is that as the techno transformation of the
> university happens, any form of human interaction is discouraged between
> faculty and study, the admin. takes over, and the life of the tenured rpof
> is treated with all the respect of the dinosaur (the clumbsy, stupid,
> non-adaptive one, not the ratprots who are quick, agile, hunting in packs
> ones that W.J.T. Mitchell writes about in The Last Dinosaur Book). No, it
> is we who are the last Dinosaurs.
>
> Look at our students. They are raised on chatrooms, occupying more time in
> cyberspace than in human space. A friend of mine observed a class yesterday
> in which as the prof lectured, the studetns sat at their terminal, doing
> chat room. They no longer care about class interaction.
>
> I hope this is helpful in your assessment of cyber-professor effectivness.
>
>
> david

--
Bruce Clemens PhD PE
Room 360 CISAT Tower (A-1)
Mail Stop Code: 4102
College of Integrated Science and Technology
James Madison University
Harrisonburg, VA 22807
office: (540)568-8770
home: (540)289-7755
fax: (540)568-2768
internet: clemenbw@jmu.edu
http://www.isat.jmu.edu/faculty/clemens.htm

David,

even if all of us collectively agree with what you say, so what? I saw
recently, some examples of such web-based courses and, guess what, they were
fun. I also heard the founder of RealEducation argue that retention levels
after courses that involved some in-class interaction followed by web-based
reinforcement were significantly higher than those that relied solely on
in-class education.

What you are describing is the the internal politics of the supplier. I
sugegst that the future will be driven much more by the customer.

By the way, much of this seems to have happened already. Isn't it true that
most tertiary business-related education in the United States is conducted
by ccorporate universities as opposed to the more traditional kind?

Narayan Pant



> This is a reply for Tracy Russo, on Research on Effectiveness
> of Web Based
> Training and Education.
>
> I have some fundamental concerns about how we are using
> hitech Web based
> instruction. There are issues of social control to be
> considered in the
> assessment of effectiveness. I recommend David Noble's
> articles on the web (e.g.
> http://firstmonday.dk/issues/issue3_1/noble/). He has a
> paper that really
> critiques the knowledge/techno link of the university. There
> is a link with a
> Social Text special issue a year or so ago on the
> de-evolution of higher ed
> (not the title).
>
> Essentially both are saying that we are participating in a
> transformation in
> university life style in which the administration is bloating, techno
> investment is bloating, and to finance it the admin is
> cutting faculty and
> increasing class size. In addition the university itself is doing the
> deskilling dance that Harry Braverman describes so well.
> That is, kill
> tenure, keep a few well-known full time professors to do the
> design work on
> the techno-archived virtual cyber web lectures, put a lot of
> techs on 5 year
> contracts to do the techno and mgmt of tests, cybervideo
> access, chat room
> management, and control and restrict and channel access to
> the elite-few
> professors who will remain as cyber-teachers. There will be
> former profs.
> and grad students hired to do the grunt work on cyber-classes
> (start up
> stuff mainly). The big techno dream is that the university becomes
> dominated by the admin, that faculty be reduced, that
> techno-entrepreneurs
> who can bring patent and license and grant and other projects to the
> university capital accumulation system be the majority of university
> employees. In short, the university is being colonized as a business.
>
> We are already witness to the transformation as we see the decrease in
> Academic freedom in choosing texts and pedagogy in the
> business college.
> Courses are becoming the property of the college, of
> committees who decide
> texts, approach, outlines, styles, etc. This is done to appease,
> supposedly, the AACSB and other accrediting bodies, but in effect, the
> result is the same. The administration picks up more and
> more control over
> the delivery syste. Profs are lulled or coerced into putting
> the syllabii,
> test management, lecture slides, handouts, etc. up on the
> web. everybody is
> doing it. The College gradually systematizes and
> standardizes the whole mess.
>
> As Arnowitz (et al) wrote in the book Post-Work, the
> professor is the last
> great job on earth. What he means is that as the techno
> transformation of the
> university happens, any form of human interaction is
> discouraged between
> faculty and study, the admin. takes over, and the life of the
> tenured rpof
> is treated with all the respect of the dinosaur (the clumbsy, stupid,
> non-adaptive one, not the ratprots who are quick, agile,
> hunting in packs
> ones that W.J.T. Mitchell writes about in The Last Dinosaur
> Book). No, it
> is we who are the last Dinosaurs.
>
> Look at our students. They are raised on chatrooms,
> occupying more time in
> cyberspace than in human space. A friend of mine observed a
> class yesterday
> in which as the prof lectured, the studetns sat at their
> terminal, doing
> chat room. They no longer care about class interaction.
>
> I hope this is helpful in your assessment of cyber-professor
> effectivness.
>
>
> david
>

David Boje's response is typical of the superficiality of understanding the
value of the Internet in higher education--his observations do not contribute
to a rigorous assessment. I'd suggest he read the research that has been
done-


Chuck Morrissey, Pepperdine