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open Learning and

Technology:

Problems and Potentials

p

A Danaher

21 February' 1994 Simon C rean, the recently a ppointe d Australian

Com monwe alth Minister for E mplo\ ment. Education, and Traming,

stated in the House of Rep resentatives:

But our commitmen t to open learning is our further support for spreading the

ability to expand opportunity in higher education as well as bringing much

more flexibility to enable those people who cannot physically visit a

campus—for whatever reason—to nevertheless gain learning and higher

education, including the qualifications that go with that.

...So we have seen very significant success to date in open learning. The

government and the institutions are meeting the challenge in terms of both

learning opportunities and skill formation.'

Crean's statement referred to several

open learning, educational

—

open learning and

— and

ores some of their reported adva n-

e technologies is followed by a

udes by arguing that vigilance and

tional techno logists, policy

pen learning and techno logies

eement on a comm on )' accepted

In a report to the National

Board of Employment, Education, and

Training, however, Richard Johnson

presented the foUo^ving syn thesis of the

elements of open learning:

Open learning is an approach

rather than a system or technique;

it is based on the needs of indiv-

idual learners, not the interests of

the teacher or the institution; it gives

students as much control as

possible over what and when and

where and how they learn; it com-

monly uses the delivery methods

distance educa tion and the faciliti

of educational technology;

changes the role of a teacher fro

a source of knowledge to

manager of learning and a facil

ator. It justifies these measures b

arguments of efficiency, cos

effectiveness and equity. -

Three observations about this desc

tion of open learning are particula

pertinent to this paper. The first po

is that an opposition is set up bet^v

'open learning' (in which the ind

idual learner's needs are paramou

and 'conventional learning' (in wh

the learner's needs are subsumed

the interests of teachers and ins

utions). Open learning is represen

as a kind of revolutionary proph

returning education to what it w

originally intended to be, before it w

sullied and colonised by bureaucrac

and institutional s\'stems. The seco

point is that 'educational techno log

characterised as the medium

delivery of open learning, enabling

'traditional' role of the teacher as

fount of wisdom to be bypassed. T

third po int is tha t efficiency', 'c

effectiveness', and 'equit\'' are nom

ated implicitly as complement

mem bers of a triumvirate of reasons

mvesting financial and other resour

in the development of educatio

technologies so that open learnin

revolutionary prophet or at the v

least champion of learner cent

approaches to education — can pro

P. A. Danaher is foundation lecturer

open and distance learning in the Fa

ult\ of Education at Central Queensla

Universit}

in Rockhampton.


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ategory Examples of Technolog ies

Print Textbooks

Study guides

Workbooks

Course syllabi

Case studies

Audio Telephones

Radio broadcasts

Audio conferencing (a teacher communicating with classes of students

via the telephone, radio channels, or satellite)

Audiographics (combining voice communication with image or data

transmission, by using facsimile machines, electronic whiteboards, or computers)

Video Preproduced videos

Televised instruction

Interactive video (video integrated with a computer)

Video conferencing (two-way exchange of moving images)

Computer Preproduced computer programs

Electronic mail

Computer conferencing

Access to national and global networks of information

Interactive Videodisc (containing video and audio information)

CD-ROM (containing information accessible by computers)

Multimedia (combining computer programs, still and motion

video, audio, graphics, text, and animation)

Figure One Examples of Educational Technologies

necessarily brief critique of these

e. For the mom ent, a popu lar view

ng and educational

approp riate to describe the range of

forms —are com monly

efficiency: information

r exam ple, in 1993 the

ch teacher at a provincial Qu eens-

seeking French penfriends for her

students, but received no replies. In

1994, one week after send ing a single

message on the international computer

network, her students w ere exchanging

letters using the same network with a

French class in Canada.*'

Another advantage claimed for the

'new' educational technologies is their

capacity to enhance access to formal

education for individuals and groups

who would otherwise be prevented

from participating. These individuals

and groups are generally faced with the

barrier of distance, such as living in a

remote location or being required by

time commitments to remain at home.

Travellers, prisoners, disabled people,

and people raising children or caring

for dependent relatives are among the

OfMHU CHW6IN f

potential beneficiaries of technol

that bring information directly to t

The perceived success of the TV O

Learning Project in increasing acce

education for people such as

prompted the Project's recent ex

sion to become the Open Lear

Agency of Australia (OLAA).^

An associated benefit claimed fo

technologies is that, in additio

extending the versatility of sch

colleges, and universities as site

learning, they have created two o

learning locations. One of these i

home: the TV Open Learning Proje

which students view television p

rams on the ABC and submit as

ment items to different univers

around Australia, is a graphic de

stration of 'stud ying at home'. The

location is the community centr

which the term 'telecottage' is s

times applied.** The Open Lear

Centres dotted around Queensland

an example of community cen

where students can gain acces

electronic information netwo

receive counselling and other sup

from professional staff and e

mixing with their peers.

However, several commenta

have voiced their concerns that, ra

than having an integral and benef

relationship with open learn

technolo gies can actually limi

amount and the kind of learning

occurs, or even prevent it from ta

place. Steven Hodas described

phenomenon of 'technology refu

whereby many teachers fail

implement technological 'refo

because they see them as b

unconnected to the principles

practices of their professional w

Mark Legg, a university administ

in South Australia, asserted

Australian university academics ten

lag behind administrators in accep

that technology can im prove teach

a claim that many academics w

question.' Richard Johnson arg

against assuming the autom

superiority of more over less sop

icated technology in advancing

cause of open learning:

The technology is useful, but

essence of open learning is f

ibility to meet learners' needs. T

a videoconference or teleph

conference or TV broadcast

actually be taking us backwa

instead of forwards, since th

occasions require students to b


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G O ND PULL THE PLOfrf

a particular place at a particular

time;

whereas a printed package,

an audio or videotape or a com-

puter disc or e mail message can

be studied at any time and place

that suits the student.

Another area of concern is the

lack of them bet^veen

ibility' for ensu ring that

however, contend that

enching rather than e liminating the

ch use continues to be dom inated by

knowledge and skills. More

ms that technologies increase access

knowledge, there is the view

that

in

o the network', and /o r those people

The issue of access to social goods

tional services has led to

ms about technologies. For example,

consequences of being 'machine

dependent' need to be considered, and

more broadly that the social role of

educa tion mus t be kept in mind.'̂ Chris

Bigum and his colleagues have related

the TV Open Learning Project in

Au strali a to the intersection of the

market, education and the new infor-

mation media , and the restructurmg of

capital and the establishment of

'knowledge centre', both on a global

scale.^^ Under this scenario, it is not

difficult to imagine the socially

deleterious effects of global information

communications being in the hands of

a small number of media moguls.

Conclusion

There has been a tendency in the

last two or three decades to

assume that electronic aids such as

radio and television would revol-

utionise education and particularly

external teaching. That they have

made important contributions to

educational effectiveness is

beyond question, but they have not

supplanted the two basic educ-

ational media, the teacher and the

This comment was written, not in the

last couple of years as might be

supposed, but nearly twenty years ago.

Yet the attitude implicit in the

statement —a desire to keep 'in

perspective' the conflicting assertions

that education will be revolutionised

by the 'new' communications technol-

ogies, or alternatively that those

technologies will be increasingly used

as instruments of surveillance and

social control'^ is worth preserving in

the current circumstances. In partic-

ular, it would seem that the relation-

ship between 'open learning' and

'educational technologies' is by no

means as unproblematic as it appeared

at the beginning of this article. An

appropriate response to the claims

made on behalf

oî

specific technologies

might be an insistence on asking at

least two questions: Whose interests

are being promoted if the technology is

implem ented? , and How is learning

to be enhanced if the technology were

to be implemented? .

More generally, if 'open learning' is

to be a meaningful term rather than

simply a rhetorical device used to

disguise the government's failure to

meet increasing demand for higher

education, vigilance and critical

reflection on the part of educational

technologists, policy m akers, and po

consumers alike are vital. If th

activities are not practised, an opp

tunity for making education m

genuinely 'democratic' and 'empo

ering' will have been lost. Even wo

the instruments for exercising n

forms of marginalisation and alienat

will have been placed in position bef

our very eyes. In other words, 'op

learning' will have become 'clos

thinking'.

Ack now ledgem ents Since this article

accepted for publicat ion, the writer

benefi ted considerably from seve

discussions of the general issues rai

here u'ith Professor Leo Bartlett and

Leonie Rowan of the Faculty of Educat

a t Cent ra l Que enslan d Un i \e r s i t \ \

Doone Wildin ad\ised on the illustratio

Endnotes

l .Hansard, 1994, p. 911.

2. See for example D. P. Bosvvorth,

O

Learning (Cassell, London, 1991), p.

1;

Roy

W

ebberley and Ian Haffenden, Sk

Training and Responsh'e Manageme

in Mar) Th orpe and Da \id G rugeon (ed

Open L earning for Adults

( L o n g m

Harlow, 1987), p . 137.

3.

Richard Johnson, Open Learning: Po

and Practice (Commissioned Report No

(National Board of Employment, Ed

ation, and Training, C anberra, 1990), p

4. Conc i se summa r i e s o f e duc a t i o

technologies are provided by P. Bacsi

A. Ka\ e, and P. Lefrere, \ew Informat

Technologies for Education an d Trainin

A Br ie f S urv ey , Oxford Surveys

Information Technology/, Vol. 3, 1986

271-318;

and by A. VV. Bates,' Technol

f o r D i s t a nc e E duc a t i on : A 10- y

Prosp ective in Alan Tait (ed.). Key Is

m Open Learning: An Anthology from

Journal Open Learning 1986 1992 (Lon

Harlow, 1992), pp. 241-265.

5. B. D. Willis (ed.). Distance Educati

Strategies

an d

Tools

(Educa t iona l Technology Publ ica t io

Englewood Cliffs, 1994).'

6. R. Boggs and D. Jones, Cyberspace:

Neu Educational Froiitier, unpub l i s

paper, 1994.

7. Bruce Keepes, The T\ ' Open Learn

Project; The First Year an d Bey ond in T

Kunan (ed.) . Distance Education Futu

(Australian and South Pacific Exter

Studies Association, Adelaide, 1993),

180-189.

8. D. Horner and 1. Ree\ e, Telecottages

Potential for Rural Australia (Austra

Go\em mentPu bl i shingSer \ ice , Canbe

1991).

9. Steven Ho das, Technolog y Refusal

the Organizational Culture of Schoo

Education Policy Analysis Archives, Vo

No .

10, 14 Sep tem ber 1993, pp . 1-28.


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. Mark Legg, Teaching, Learning an d

Techno logy: A View of the Fu ture ,

Unicom, Vol. 19, No . 3, September 1993, p .

91 .

. Cited in Bruce Jud dery , Senate Op en

Learning Inquiry Fails to Measu re Distance

Ed ,

Campus Revicxo,

16-22 June 1994.

See for example R. Threlkeld and K.

Brzoska, Research in Distance Education

in B. D. Willis (ed.), Distance Education:

Strategies and Tools ( E d u c a t i o n a l

Technologies Publ ica t ions , Englewood

Cliffs, 1994),

p.

46;

and D. A. Tycko son and

T. E. Jacobson, Techno logy Instruction

and Learning Styles , Education, Vol. 113,

No.

3, spring 1993, pp. 356-357.

Re ine na ndT . P lomp, Some G e nde r

I ssues in Educa t iona l Computer Use :

Results of an International Comparative

Survey , Computers in Education, Vol. 20,

N o. 4 ,1993, p p. 353-365.

14.

The latter view is expressed by Ken

Stevens, The International Contextof New

Z e a l a nd D i s t a nc e E duc a t i on , pa pe r

presented at the joint regional conference

of the International Council for Distance

Education and 10th annual conference of

the Distance Education Association of New

Zealand, Well ington, New Zealand, May

1994.

15. A. W. Bates, The Educa tional Aspects of

t he T e l e c ommun ic a t ions Re vo lu t i on ,

pape r presen ted a t the jo int r egiona l

conference of the Internationa l Council for

Dis tance Educa t ion and 10th annua l

conference of the Distance Education

Association of New Zealand, Wellington,

New Zealand, 9 May 1994.

16.

Chris Bigum, Lindsay Fitzclarence

Jane Kenway, with Janine Collier,

Carol-Anne Croker , That 's Edutainm

Restructur ing Universi t ies and the

L e a r n i n g I n i t i a t i v e , The Austr

Universities Review, Vol. 36, No. 2,

pp.

21 and 25.

17.

Peter Karmel (chair) . Open Te

Education in Australia: Final Report

Comm ittee on Open Un iversity t

Universities Comm ission December

( A u s t r a l i a n G o v e r n m e n t P u b l is

Service, Ca nbe rra, 1975), p. 73.

18.

On the alternative viewpo int,

see

An

Agalianos and Peter Cope, Inform

Technology and Knowledge: The

neutrality of Context-specific Educat

Software , ournal of Education Polic

9, No. 1, 1994, pp. 35-45.

FRANKENSTEIN TRIES AGAIN...

Little Johnny Howard's horn-rlmm ed glasses.

o strengthen the idea th a t here's a face

That merits High Distinctions, not just Faseee.

won't be Johnny's though {those clipped

Parentheses look weirdo...). I'll choose Ming's

ling pair th a t hopped and skipped and tripped

Whenever they encountered q^ueens and kings.

a toss-up: that of Gorton

(The broken version, honourably won)?

Hewson's, specially shaped for sn ort in'

At those who think his Fightback fight back's done.

mouths are still a necessary part

Of any m onster s

make-up,

I must choose

that pays lip-service to the heart.

Even if its inner demon s booze...

l it be the dow n-turned moosh of hawke?

Or the predatory cuttle-fish type of Geoff or Joh?

words it chunders fo rth in talk

Bu t where, image-wise, i ts shape will 'go'...

en there's the thatch —you may think this quite curious.

But hair is ju st as critical as teeth ;

should be genuine, not spurious.

No matter what deceptions lurk beneath.

co nte st there The Silver Budgie's locks

In all the ir blow-waved g lory stake first claim

thus, my Mark II monster'll knock the socks

Off any Stefan model you can name.

Whose ears? Ah, Noddy, you, I think, perhaps

migh t even, on cons idera tion, hand

The palm to Billy Big-ears whose vast flaps,

Like satellite dishes,

covered

half th e land.

The body? Well, the face is where it's at .

The rest is second ary, hardly seen ...

(Enough to generalise of this and that

—E specially since we want t o keep th is clea

Some, of cou rse, will have th eir favourite things

(Genitally speaking)—no sense dickering]

Such folk, for whom the a nnual calendar sings

Of danqllnq participles, should see Pickering..

However, we must see our monster clothed.

Given the wretched company he will keep.

Especially In Canberra where the loathed

Spare-parts bankers

scheme—even

when a

Yes, in tha t central image-store I'll find

Fine Italian threads that'll take some beatin

(Stylish, expensive— those woqs rob you blind

— B u t thank you ju st the same, Fadrone Ke

One \uestlon still remains... Now that he's got

The best of everything, will my new creature l

Will he serve the world thi s time— or

lose

the p

Having got so much, will he know how to 0\ve

Da


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ContentServer.asp Open Learning and Technology: Problems and Potentials