Virtual Society?

5.15
Introduction
Professor Steve Woolgar (Director, Virtual Society Programme)

5.25
Presentations
Chair: Dr Geoff Robinson CBE FREng (CEO, Ordnance Survey)

Professor Paul Light (Pro Vice-Chancellor, University of Bournemouth)
Networked computer use in higher education

Professor John Goddard (Pro Vice-Chancellor, Newcastle University) and Professor Kevin Robins (Newcastle University)
The Virtual University is the university made concrete

Dr Robin Mason (Head, Centre for IT in Education, Open University)
Technology for Global Education

6.00
Discussion (with a comment from Dr Malcolm Read, Secretary, JISC)

7.00
Pre-dinner drinks

7.30
Dinner

9.00
Overview, Rapporteurs Reports and Conclusion

University students using computer mediated communication (CMC) for education rely on constant social comparison against the learning of others and this links into gender and class issues. Students show marked shifts in their attitudes to the CMC as their courses progress. Initially, concern about social exposure is prevalent. However, this soon shifts to worries about printing costs and the difficulties of reading text on screen. No student wants to exchange a single hour of face to face tuition in return for more CMC. The students also develop creative ways of using the medium, becoming critical of it and thereby developing ownership. Surveys have also shown that prior experience with computers at home is the most important factor in determining confidence in CMC use. This has implications for future use of computers in education since it raises economic issues. The student experience overall is intensely social, but learning experiences are mostly solitary; social learning experiences are rare. Students rarely run computers without multi-tasking, and still use computers more for recreation than work. University students (at least in the 18-21 age bracket) are consistent in rejecting the basis of a virtual university.

• learning being a solitary experience is an interesting result - is there research to show how much learning is social or solitary in the absence of computers, and how much social life is spent without computers? (Garth Shephard, Envisage) Learning tends to be dominated by solitary experiences. Use of CMC forces social interaction, and works well for group based activities, but also forces students to have to choose whether or not to invest in IT.
• how do students cope with the inherent difficulties posed by increasing printing costs versus difficulties of using written material on screen? (Elizabeth Mills, Research into Ageing) Students compromise, editing text. Students who own printers also find they are in possession of a social asset or liability, so creating more social geography.
• people engaged in lifelong learning or who work and study simultaneously are not so put off by the lack of the social elements in computer based learning, they would love a virtual university to exist; perhaps this is the market rather than the 18-21 year olds (David Royston-Lee, Cam Foundation)

John Goddard (University of Newcastle)

New technologies need to be able to coexist with traditional university structures, but with an awareness of the university as a corporate body which now has diverse sub markets (18-21 year old cohort, post-experience, lifelong learning). Drivers for change arise out of: the need for gains in efficiency since resource per student is declining; the existence of more diverse student bodies requiring recruitment (not selection), support and monitoring; more discerning 'clients' with experience of IT supported private services; and increase in competition and external pressures for quality assurance; and the need for a research and teaching resource and a community service brought together. Short term initiatives supporting ad-hoc projects result in pockets of innovation in university structures, but these are rarely systemised or managed, so a network of virtual universities cannot develop. Universities need to be able to be more integrated institutions with an enhanced capacity for internal knowledge management.

• the research will need to take account of the changing aspirations and experience of students as they rise through the school system. School children are becoming more au-fait with IT technology at a younger age, which has the potential to change the face of university education. (Marian Brooks, Cranford Community College) This is interesting since children entering university will have new social models including IT. This contrasts with most current university intake where the IT has been bolted on at a much later stage (Geoff Robinson, Ordnance Survey)
• London universities are massive and highly devolved, however they are flying in the face of adversity and have an extraordinarily high provision for using IT. Are the London universities in a fool's paradise since they are not reacting to students as 'customers' but are using integrated IT systems? (Tim O'Shea, Birkbeck)

Robin Mason (Open University)

The majority of courses taught virtually are in the areas of business management, computers and IT awareness, professional updating and vocational leisure courses. The virtual environment has had less impact on traditional undergraduate subjects. It is interesting to consider whether IT drives educational change or whether social changes are the primary drivers: the common view is the former, whereas most research into technology-based courses shows that it is socio-psychological issues and limitations which determine success and failure. A general trend associated with the virtual society is that teaching and learning are moving to a focus on process rather than content, and a recognition that students require skills rather than facts. This and other factors are leading to significant changes in the curriculum at all educational levels. The Open University caters primarily for the adult learner, which is a different sector of the learning community than the 18-22 year old undergraduate market. There is a difference between distance learning and a virtual learning community. The nature and support of this type of learning is quite different to 'traditional' distance learning.

• there is a difference between distance learning and a virtual learning community. Once formal education is complete, most learning is ad-hoc. The nature and support of this type of learning is quite different to official distance learning (Garth Shephard, Envisage)
• the extent to which people adapt to using IT for learning partly depends on their concept of distance learning. The challenge is to do more with the new medium rather than just to connect it to the paper book. (Peter Goodacre, College of Estate Management)
• many universities are ignorant of what is happening in schools. Universities need to increase their awareness of the IT competency of children and look at ways of changing the teaching process to inform students on best use of the technology (John Leighfield, RM plc)

Malcolm Read (JISC)

There is a spectrum of university resources, spanning from the traditional university set up through to the brokering role of the genuine virtual university. Some universities will fit within this spectrum as "commute" universities, serving students within a region. The virtual university may find it hard to break into the UK market, however it appears that the traditional university may fall behind if it does not take advantage of joined up technologies to develop complete computer support systems with administration and teaching processes combined. UK universities will always have the advantage of language, however far behind they might fall in technological terms.

• the tele-revolution will take off to the extent that humans can cope
• IT solutions do not form all solutions

Geoff Robinson (Ordnance Survey)

• we are faced with more hype than facts
• there is no longer any simple single model of what a University is. It is a complex mix of 18-22 year olds, mature, distance learning students, and a mix of campus and distributed learning
• with many social phenomena, we are fond of declaring that "the problem is in the schools". Here we have a situation where possibly the answer is in the schools!

John Leighfield (RM plc)

• it is likely that the University as we know it will survive but the dominance of certain key brands may overpower other considerations with powerful brands (eg Harvard Direct, or Sorbonne Direct) threatening orthodox 'local' universities.
• We are still very much located in the Gutenburg galaxy i.e. we are constrained by the conventions of text based learning and representation. Dropping our prejudices of the last 500 years and using the full 'psychological bandwidth' offered by the use of multimedia in all its aspects - text, pictures, sound, texture - would allow us to increase dramatically learning potential. However, to do this will require bringing together people from a number of disciplines (some of them 'Disney-like'!) who haven't naturally worked together before.

Martin Ward(Marconi Communications)

• it is important to distinguish operational gains (how we can do what we already do - but better) from strategic gains (how can we bypass the market, overrun it, bypass traditional learning processes). This meeting has perhaps concentrated too much on the former.
• "learning by doing" is now possible on the Internet
• we need to ask what is the qualitative threshold associated with bandwidth of delivery (a cross disciplinary research topic)? and what is the connection between changing patterns of work and changing patterns of education?

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