Cyber campus?
McCarthy, Abigail
OF SEVERAL MINDS Abigail McCarthy CYBER CAMPUS? CLASSROOMS OF THE FUTURE One of the arguments raging in Washington these days is over whether or how much federal money should be spent on aid for...
...We humans cannot thrive in bottomless, faceless environments...
...They are social beings who need cooperation and interaction with others to develop full personalities...
...Most of us when we think of college think of a four-year experience in general education on a self-contained campus-an experience that forms manner and character as well as cultivating the mind...
...This program currently has 1,000 students...
...At the time he founded Phoenix, adults accounted for only 27 percent of student enrollment...
...The provost of the University of Pennsylvania, Stanley Chodorow, has his doubts, as did many of the eighty university scholars who attended a conference at Penn in January on the potential effect of the new information technology on institutions of higher learning...
...Universities and colleges now have students of all ages and their college careers may range over as much as seven or eight years with intervals of work...
...The government has been providing such aid for over thirty years...
...So long as society is healthy enough to need new knowledge and educated citizens, there will be a role for the university...
...Let us hope he is right...
...Phoenix is a far cry from its ancestor-the small local business college where students learned secretarial and accounting skills...
...Such programs are already being introduced at traditional universities...
...But that kind of higher education is pretty much a thing of the past...
...It is an equally far cry from the business schools at liberal arts universities...
...As yet they are, as at Phoenix, adjuncts to the regular courses...
...Human beings are not simply vessels of information...
...The faculty work on contract and are paid by the course...
...They need the transmission of knowledge and culture from those who have integrated it to those who would absorb it-transmission from teacher to student...
...A nation which needs fully educated persons to contribute to its future must see that technology remains the tool of its institutions, not their unworthy substitute.rthy substitute...
...Nevertheless, he is hopeful...
...Classes meet in leased spaces in office buildings, on military bases-even in motels...
...The extent of the change is epitomized, I think, by the University of Phoenix, which is now the country's twelfth largest private institution with over 18,000 students, larger than Stanford or Notre Dame...
...But the question arises: if everybody is on-line do you need to attend a college or university to do scholarly research and inquiry or to take courses...
...There is no traditional campus...
...The on-line program is undoubtedly the most serious challenge to conventional academia...
...Right now it is estimated that federal programs help support 40 percent of the students in institutions of higher education...
...Academia's role in teaching and training youth and the need for "face-to-face interaction among craftsmen of the guild" also are important...
...There has been bipartisan agreement that the programs providing such aid are an investment in the civic and economic future of the country: witness the names attached to various grants-Pell, Stafford, Javits, Ford...
...The university has adapted to change over eight centuries," and there are functions of the university that cannot be duplicated by technology...
...Its founder, Dr...
...Today they make up 45 percent...
...Most interesting of all-and most controversial-is its on-line program based in San Francisco...
...He pointed out that libraries have lost control of information...
...Few of the professors are distinguished academics with big reputations in their field, but they all hold graduate degrees and are working professionals in the field in which they teach...
...The electronic environment may enhance, but it cannot replace the intellectual society of the university...
...It was founded in 1976, was accredited in 1980 by the North Central Association, and has awarded 60,000 degrees in its eighteen-year history...
...Their average age is thirty-eight...
...We imagine the distinguished faculty merging with eager students who leave the campus after four years prepared for the professions or a business career...
...Phoenix is aimed primarily at older, working students and, from the beginning, has given credit for life experiences in place of the prerequisite courses required elsewhere...
...In addition to the MBA, the university has undergraduate programs in nursing, education, computer-information systems, and counseling...
...And is the education gained by solitary scholars, solitary students, and solitary teachers sitting before their computers the education needed to qualify for the above-mentioned investment in the civic and economic future of the nation...
...Most of them never see their professors and will meet each other for the first time only at their graduation...
...The Clinton administration advocates funding perhaps twice as many via tax deductions...
...The university's role as "producer of new ideas" is more important than ever in an age of new economic, social, and political challenges...
...Phoenix is primarily a business school...
...the line between student and nonstudent is blurred...
...CLASSROOMS OF THE FUTURE One of the arguments raging in Washington these days is over whether or how much federal money should be spent on aid for college students...
...None is tenured...
...On the other hand, the new Republican majority in Congress and budget-balancers among the Democrats favor cutting the existing programs...
...There are no dormitories, no fraternities, sororities, or student organizations and publications-not even a library...
...authority rests no longer in the faculty, but in the flow of information...
...It threatens to blow away our traditional definition of courses, class, students," said Chodorow...
...Phoenix students have little opportunity to bond outside the classroom...
...On-line students meet at all times, day and night, in cyberspace...
...What happens to the academic republic...
...John Sperling, certainly foresaw the future...
...The entire structure and focus of these institutions may be undermined by electronic technology...
Vol. 122 • April 1995 • No. 7
