Reflections on Education on the Information

Superhighway

Dr. Ron Barnette, Professor and Head

Department of Philosophy



     As a concerned educator, I constantly seek ways of

improving my teaching and learning effectiveness in the

courses for which I am responsible.  In this respect I

am an experimenter.  Educational experiments, however,

must be undertaken with sensitivity and care, and

implemented with a clear and thoughtful direction in

mind; otherwise, professional integrity, and one's

ethical responsibility to students, could be

compromised.  So the inevitable question becomes "Just

how much deviation from traditional educational

techniques and methods is warranted?"

     With this question in mind, I contemplated offering

a Special Topics in Philosophy course during summer

quarter, 1994, to be conducted totally through the

computer electronic medium.  Utilizing the information

highway of the international Internet, how would a

class, whose members know one another  only through

their thoughts written down and exchanged, differ from

the standard context, where bodily presence is an

integral part of communication and class discussion? 

No body language for cues, no pre-disposed attitudes

based on race, gender, age, etc.---just each other's

ideas to go on, as crafted in text and exchanged for

debate and critical discussion, including my own? 

     How would library research projects fare in this

medium, where on-line resources available through an

electronic source would constitute the only research

infrastructure, instead of physical trips to the

Library?  Where individual critiques would be prepared,

and essays shared, between authors whose personal

identities and attributes are shaped mainly for others

by what one writes and expresses?  Where 'you are what

you write'?

     After discussion with colleagues and students, I

decided to develop and conduct such a course.  Titled

'A Virtual Classroom: the Electronic Agora', the course

is accessible on-line twenty-four hours a day, seven

days a week, for the eight-week quarter.  Twenty-one

members make up the class, with eight taking the course

for credit.  Most participants are university students,

with one in Texas, another in New York, one in

Illinois, and yet another in North Carolina, in

addition to the remaining 'on campus' members ('on

campus'...hmm).   Several VSU faculty are active

members as well.

     Two main activities, addressing the central

objectives of a philosophy course are:  research, and

class discussion and critical dialogue.  Through VSU's

Philosophy Internet Gopher service, a Virtual Library

has been created, with over one hundred philosophical

texts available.  Additionally, this e-text resource is

now featured as the international Philosophy Subject

Tree by the American Philosophical Association, and is

available for scholars world-wide.

     All classroom discussion and dialogue are conducted

through e-mail, via PHICYBER (Philosophers in

Cyberspace), an electronic list subscribed to by the

class members.  The list serves as a forum and

electronic marketplace (hence Agora) for classroom

exchanges.  It has been remarkable to watch

interpersonal relationships unfold, based only, as

agreed, upon one another's ideas criticized and

expanded.  Members respond to the discussion topic,

defend their positions, raise critical objections,

respond to challenges, reflect on implied new

directions for analysis and further critical thought. 

As one student put it, "It is so different when you

have to think through your ideas, put them in writing,

and be prepared to back up your views, knowing that

once expressed they are out there for the permanent

record!" This student alludes to the fact that all

classroom work and discussions are placed in a course

archive, and available for ongoing retrieval and

review.   Indeed, all course materials and assignments,

as well as all log-on activity, are part of the record. 

Think of the course as a transcript.  There are no

voices or accents, no noises, no smells, no people---

only ideas, and ideas on ideas, formulated, written and

re-written, expressed and re-visited. 

     During the final three days of the quarter, those

who can physically arrange it will meet together for

the first time in flesh to discuss their experiences,

and will see, listen and talk to each other to re-

identify in human form those whose personal identities

have been formulated by means of thoughts alone!

     To wrap up: I am convinced that the electronic

medium can provide unlimited opportunities for those

whose personal situation marries well with the

occasion, as long as responsible, mature participants

are those who seize the opportunities.   Example:

disabled students whose creative ideas and abilities

can be enhanced without the encumbrances of unfortunate

spatial/temporal logistical problems, or those whose

physical arrangements might otherwise preclude

engagement in university scholarship and dialogue.  I

am equally convinced that the Virtual Classroom model

should be a supplement to existing university life.  I

am old fashioned and wise enough to realize that face-

to-face interactions are indispensable educationally.

After all, these occasions are those that shape real-

world involvement, even if such involvement is becoming

more and more computer-mediated.

     Responsible choices and alternatives in the new

electronic frontier should be made only upon

thoughtful, reflective balance; given that, electronic

education experiments can bring out the best of what

diversity in quality education has to offer.  Such are some exciting

resources for learning on the Information Superhighway.



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