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The Virtual University:
The Challenge of the Third Millennium?
Yes, but…
Jan Visser
President
Learning Development Institute
[email protected]
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http://www.learndev.org
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…les technologies de la communication...sont
en train de bouleverser sous nos yeux les modes
d'apprentissage et d'enseignement…
It’s not just the technology, but the
human condition at this juncture in time
that compels us to change the way we
think about learning.
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Reasons to rethink learning
 Explosive change
 Increasing complexity
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The mind boggles at an exponential curve…
(Koestler, 1967)
Three million years of hominid development
and now . . . . . .
Global population patterns from 1600 B.C. to the present
Reproduced from Sakaiya, T. (1991). The knowledge-value revolution,or, a history of the future (p.111).
New York, NY: Kodansha America, Inc. (Original source: Jean-Noel Biraben.)
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Critical timeframe
 A critical point is reached when information and
technology become obsolete faster than the
approximately 20-year timeframe in which the
leadership of one generation is taken over by the
next one. “At that juncture the experience of the
older generation is no longer all that helpful”
(Abraham Pais, 1997).
 Need to rethink the concept of culture: What
should be passed on from one generation to the
other? And what is not worth passing on? And
what do we in fact pass on?
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LEARNING
More than the acquisition
of knowledge and skills
learningeducationschooling
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The Trouble with Learning
Most currently held beliefs are out of
touch with today’s reality.
Linked to school or instructional settings
Linked to particular age group
Acquisition paradigm
Seen as individual activity
Takes place in the heads of people
Empty vessel metaphor
Preparation for life
Reaction to change
Disciplinarity
Compartmentalization of knowledge
Limited slice of the intelligence spectrum (seen as fixed)
Limited to specific space-time frames
Favoring only certain learning styles
Extrinsically motivated
(This list can be continued)
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The Reinvention of Learning
Need to change beliefs, research, policy
and practice in line with today’s reality.
Conceive of school or instructional settings in wider context
Learning as lifelong disposition
Participation paradigm
Seen as individual and social activity
Takes mainly place outside the heads of people
Is dialogic
Inherent feature of life (humans prepare for lifelong learning)
Constructive participation in change
Disciplinarity, multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinarity
Consilience
Multiple intelligences that can develop
Multiple space-time frames
Accommodating different learning styles
Intrinsically motivated (motivation awakened through dialogue)
(This list can be continued)
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Learning undefined
“Human learning is the disposition of
human beings, and of the social entities
to which they pertain, to engage in
continuous dialogue with the human,
social, biological and physical
environment, so as to generate
intelligent behavior to interact
constructively with change.”
Visser (in print). Integrity, completeness and comprehensiveness
of the learning environment: Meeting the basic learning needs of
all throughout life. In D. N. Aspin, J. D. Chapman, M. J. Hatton
and Y. Sawano (Eds), International Handbook of Lifelong
Learning. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic
Publishers. (http://www.learndev.org/dl/IntHbChapter.PDF)
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Les technologies numériques recèlent des
potentialités éducatives théoriquement sans
limites…
However, this only applies to the
possibility to reach many people.
The question of how they will then get
involved in communication processes
that enhance their existence through
learning is a totally different one.
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Les nouveaux outils de communication répandent
l'enseignement au-delà du champ clos de la salle
de classe…
However, current usage tends to focus
on mere replication of the outdated
classroom model by new means.
The real challenge is to reinvent
learning in a context of enhanced
technological possibilities.
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L'intégration des technologies de l'information
dans les systèmes d'enseignement aussi bien
présentiels qu'à distance définit le défi éducatif
du début de ce troisième millénaire. Le défi
éducatif se situe dans la société contemporaine
de savoir au cœur de tous les enjeux sociétaux.
C'est en particulier par l'efficacité de son système
éducatif à former des ressources humaines
compétitives qu'un pays peut conquérir sa place
dans une économie mondialisée, et fondée sur
la production et les échanges immatériels,
assurant ainsi son développement.
However, see next slides
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L'intégration des technologies de l'information
…définit le défi éducatif du début de ce
troisième millénaire.
This focuses on the means, rather than
the ends.
We first must ask what are the problems
at the beginning of the third millennium
and then choose how we go about
solving them.
Technologies are likely to play a role in
the solutions we invent, but that role is
also likely not to be exclusive.
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Le défi éducatif se situe dans la société
contemporaine de savoir au cœur de tous les
enjeux sociétaux.
This raises the question of the learning
society. See next three slides.
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The Learning Society:
McClellan’s two-dimensional analysis model
(see: http://www.learndev.org/dl/VS3-00g-LearnSocMultDim.PDF)
change in shared lesson set
Knowledge society
learning
of the parts
Skilled society
Koinosophic society
learning
of the whole
Personal wisdom society
change in individual lesson set
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The Learning Society:
Current emphases
change in shared lesson set
learning
of the parts
learning
of the whole
change in individual lesson set
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The Learning Society:
Desired emphases
change in shared lesson set
learning
of the parts
learning
of the whole
change in individual lesson set
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C'est en particulier par l'efficacité de son système
éducatif à former des ressources humaines
compétitives qu'un pays peut conquérir sa place
dans une économie mondialisée…assurant ainsi
son développement.
 Critical questions ought to be raised about what
should be seen as development,
 whether the concept should be tied in
exclusively with economic considerations,
 whether humans should be seen as resources to
serve overriding economic interests,
 whether the educational process should
emphasize collaboration or competitiveness, and
 what the role of a country like Algeria should be
vis-à-vis the current tendencies toward
globalization and what globalization actually
means.
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Les universités ouvertes ont été les premières à
adopter les nouveaux moyens de communication
pour reproduire à distance le face-à-face
pédagogique de l'amphithéâtre grâce aux outils
de la téléconférence et de la vidéo-transmission
ainsi que pour assurer les services de
proximité (télé tutorat) aux apprenants.
 They have been much better at doing the former
and paid only marginal attention to the latter.
 At the heart of learning is dialogue.
Salomon (2000): “Technocentrism...totally ignores some
crucial social and human factors.”
“Virtual distance learning...in danger of yielding virtual
results.”
Emphasize:
 tutelage (Lya Visser; Charlotte Gunawardena)
 learning communities (LWF; LDI)
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En raison de la délocalisation opérée par
l'enseignement virtuel, les universités algériennes
sont en voie de passer d'une situation de monopole
géographique à une situation de concurrence, à
l'exemple de la télévision nationale une quinzaine
d'années plutôt.
The challenge for Algeria not only is to
conquer its place in the market, but to
contribute to reshaping the market,
offering products that make the market
qualitatively different.
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The driving forces that will determine
the development of e-learning globally
 Learner motivation to learn.
 Labor market demand for continual competency
development.
 Societal expression of value attributed to learning.
 Development of adequate internet-based pedagogies.
 Information organization that stimulates autonomous
and unintentional learning.
 Integration of Internet with non-Internet sources.
 Diversification of e-learning products beyond traditional
paradigms.
 Affordability of being digital.
 Competence development to individually make and
validate choices.
 Redistribution of wealth/economic power in the world.
 Diminishment of assumed superiority of western
knowledge.
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See also:
Report on the UNESCO Programme
– Learntec 2001, Karlsruhe, Germany,
29 January – 3 February 2001 at
http://www.unesco.org/education/portal/
e_learning/Events/Learntec_2001/
Changing learning environments:
The real and not so real of reality and
virtuality at
http://www.unesco.org/education/
educprog/lwf/dl/virtual.pdf
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thank you
jan visser
jvisser @ learndev.org
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