This is from the Nov. 23 issue of the
Informastion Technology in Postsecondary
Education newsletter.
Regina
Bento
University of Baltimore
Yale Gordon Distinguished Teaching Professor
Merrick School of Business
How did you become interested
in Web-teaching pedagogy?
I first became interested in the
power of technology to create
communitit·s in facilitating interaction. In the early 80s, when I
was working on my dissertation,
my advisor spent a year in England, so I got introduced to email and started using it intensively. I was surprised at the potential of the medium to stimulate communication.
Before e-mail, it was impossible
for us to interact so intensely.
And because I was interested in
technology, I started subscribing
to discussion lists and started a
discussion list. 1 saw with even
just text, you could create a very
active community of learning.
When I first saw the integration
of text and images, I saw the potential for easy information sharing--posting items and having
them easily at everyone's fingertips. 1 was fascinated by the possibilities hypertext offered because you could start with basic
text, but open multiple pathways
for people with different cognitive styles. Each person exposed
to the same material could create
their own avenue for learning.
At first I used technology as a way
of enhancing face-to-face courses.
It had the best of both worlds. I
started viewing what kinds of
things were best done face-to-face,
and the best things that were done
in the Web environment.
Describe whatyou have been able
to accomplish through the Group
for Effective Teaching special interest group on Web-teaching,
The Group for Effective Teaching
was created several years ago at the
University of Baltimore when we
attended a seminar on good teaching. As the technology evolved
and more people became interested, we started having special
sessions discussing pedagogical
i,,,,, involved by the Web. It was
very much a grassroots movement.
We started exploring different
ways the Web could be used. It
was not the Web for only "techies"
to use, it was the Web for people
with a wide range technical skills.
It progressed from the first level,
where you can point and click, to
where you can type things and interact, to where you can create and
Dost material to now where vou are
Education Washington
fully involved with online teaching. That got more people interested in terms of both the nai'vr
user and people who were advanced. This created a sense of
learning together and working together.
The Web Teaching Lab gave
workshops to develop skills in
each of those categories. We
started really learning together.
This is what we called an artisan
model, where the faculty developed skills together as opposed to
buying some package somewhere,
learning only to use that package.
Reflecting on an example c?fan
effectively taught online class,
what do you think were the essential aspects Co the class'succesu?
When it is not something that is
just transplanted, such as when
you have your course material in
file folders and you tell someone,
"please put it on the Web." It's
wrong to take a course that was
designed for a traditional classroom and you put it on the Web
because it is your only option.
It works best when you design the
example, thlnfe of when word processing started. People started
using word prclcessing much the
same way they would use their
typewriter. They would do the
text by hand and afterwards they
would type on the computer,
which would sometimes fail.
Then as people learned more and
more about word processing, it
changed the way they wrote.
When I write long hand now, I
think in terms of cut and paste
and moving things around. I
think differently. I think that's
the initial step that has to happen.
You start thinking differently,
you take on a different frame of
mind.
Web teaching changes the way
you teach face-to-face, the same
way word processing changes the
way you write and communicate.
Regardless of the medium you are
using--whether it be face-to-face
or electronic--you have to have
those two components as opposed
to just regurgitating material.
What are some challenges and
disadvorrlages you lurveformd ir~
using the Web for teaching
[ absolutely love the mixed model.
I don't see any drawbacks. In
between classes, we interact on a
discussion board. This is wonderful because we discuss the topic
of the week before we ever get to
class. When we arrive to class,
we are in the middle of a conversation rather than starting a topic.
We arrive to class dying to get together. People arrive early to
class mey continue me mscusslon.
I find some of the heaviest contributors to the online discussion
are the students who are shy in the
face-to-face environment. It provides opportunities for students
with different cognitive styles to be
involved.
Web teaching
changes the way you
teach face-to-face,
the same way word
processing changes
the way you write
and communicate.
I feel classes taught exclusively
online need to meet sometime-not in terms of transfer of knowledge, but in emotional terms. One
day at least. We considered using
NetMeeting so we could at least see
each other. The other challenge is
online courses become a 24-houra-day, seven-day-a-weekinvolvement. I was continuously thinking
about it and feeling as if there was
an umbilical cord between the
computer and me.
What are some major di~gerences
between teaching online nnd traditional classroom teaching?
It's funny because the differences
are becoming blurred. Even when
I am in an environment where I do
not have a computer, the Web has
changed my view on what materials I can have for the class. I teach
a class at another school in the
even then, the wep nas cnangea
my outlook on teaching. At the
University of Baltimore 1 have a
high-tech, high-touch approach to
my traditional students, where we
still meet face-to-face, but you
have to interact so actively before
and after class.
What needs to happen for
online learning to evolve and
eventually become widely acccptedas a viable source ofeducnrion?
We need to reach a certain level
of people who will not look at
online learning as a second
choice, an also ran. We can see
an example of this with what is
happening to electronic media, if
you look at newspapers and TV
broadcasts. Just a few years ago,
people were wondering what
would be the role of newspapers
and TV and how their content
would differ with the advent of the
Internet. Now the different medias complement each other.
Newspapers rely on the Web a lot
due to time and space constraints.
For education to get to this point,
we need to learn more about
course design and make pedagogical considerations. We cannotjust
go to an old file cabinet, grab
some folders, dump it onto a
programmer's desk and say,
"please put this on the Web." You
cannotjustlamentoverwhatyou
don't have with this new medium.
We need to celebrate over the new
things we can do that we couldn't
do before.
Inteniew b~' J~mnrhan Baglqv
n~uinhp~ Erll Ir~tinn W~~hinnt~n