Extending the Classroom Walls Electronically

Tom Creed
St. John's University

[Adapted from New Paradigms for College Teaching, William Campbell and Karl Smith, eds. Edina, MN: Interaction Book Co., 1996. List price-$20.00. The book can be ordered from Interaction Books, Inc., (612) 831-9500. Please do not distribute without the author's permission. This version of the chapter is for the personal use of the individual reader, and has been modified from its original format to enhance it's hypertext characteristics.]

As with any new tool, my thinking on some parts of this chapter have changed since it was first published. Points that I've re-thought are highlighted in red. Click on the red statements to see how my thinking has changed on this point.

Some quick links to major sections:

We are bombarded daily with the hype about the coming technological revolution in higher education. Technology is touted as the most recent panacea; the cure for what ails us. Certainly, technology is transforming our lives, and will continue to do so. But will it impact our teaching? And if so, how? The question that we need to ask is, "What do we want to accomplish in our courses, and can technology advance our teaching goals?" rather than "What can we do with technology?"

This chapter isn't about increased productivity, or the fears that we will all be replaced by machines, or any of the Really Big Issues, but about how electronic communication has the potential to help us extend and enhance the conversation that goes on within the classroom. The technology is available now, does not require great sophistication to use, and is generally available to faculty and students. But electronic communication involves compromises and trade-offs, and I'll discuss the downside as well. This chapter assumes the faculty member still meets students in a normal classroom, and is hoping to extend, rather than remove, the classroom walls.

No matter what the medium, we communicate with our students in different ways at different times for different purposes. Some of the information that we exchange in a course should be private. Much of a student's graded work should be private: it should be privately communicated to the instructor, and the instructor's assessment of it should be privately communicated to the student. Also, the concerns of individual students about aspects of the course (e.g.-expressing some dissatisfaction with an assignment, asking for clarification of the grading system, elaboration of a point raised in class, etc.) are probably best handled privately. Other types of information, such as discussions about the controversial issues of the class, should be public and dynamic (interactive)--we can all gain from sharing ideas and hearing the informed opinions of others. Still other forms of information, such as course syllabi, handouts, and other resources, should be publicly available but static (noninteractive). Briefly, I see my use of electronic communication as falling into three distinct categories:

Each of these three broad categories has a specific computer program to accomplish them. On the table below, I've summarized several parameters of communication and how these three categories compare, as well as typical uses and programs for each. This table should help you think about how you want to communicate with your students, and then pick the more appropriate technology. For example, if you want to communicate with an individual, E-mail would be preferable. It's private, quick, and easily created. But if you have a large amount of relatively unchanging information that you want available to many others, a world-wide web site would be the way to go. It's public, organized, and while it's more difficult to construct (you need to use a special programming language, Hypertext Markup Language, or HTML), it is permanent. As with traditional communication, we need to be cognizant of how best to communicate with each other when we communicate electronically.

A classroom example

My class, Principles Of Learning And Behavior, a sophomore-junior-senior level course within the psychology major, shows how electronic communication can be used to enhance student learning. The structure of my course is driven by my goals for my students. I want them to:

The kind of learning that is important to me requires active rehearsal, and one of the best forms of active rehearsal is to talk to someone else about what you know. While learning is based on what we have individually acquired, the consolidation comes about best when we discuss our ideas with others--I think learning is primarily a communal event. I rely heavily on cooperative learning in my courses to meet this communal sharing of knowledge (Johnson, Johnson and Smith, 1991). I view my role in the course, then, as setting up the environment so that my students will most likely learn the material as well as possible, but I do spend some time playing expert and transmitting information.

Principles of Learning and Behavior meets a couple of times a week for 70 minutes. I structure my courses in functional units (e.g., Pavlovian conditioning). Class periods are a combination of some lecture and class discussion, and a lot of small group cooperative learning. The way I assure that students have a solid knowledge base at the beginning of the unit is by having them write out answers to unit guide questions prior to starting the unit. So, every third or fourth class meeting my students are required to do some reading in the textbook, and answer some questions that are designed to help personalize the material and to get them to think about the more complex aspects of the topic.

The first part of the writing assignment helps them to personalize the material, while the second helps them to structure an overall picture of the phenomenon, determine what's important, and put it in their own words. The third part gives them some ownership of the material, in that we are likely to address their question in class or on our electronic conference.

Their written responses essentially drive what happens during the next three class periods. When we first meet to discuss Pavlovian conditioning, I'll give a short demonstration, make sure we are all using the same terminology, and provide a little clarifying information that I think was either missed, poorly explained or glossed over in the text. Next comes the most important part of the first class meeting--my students get into cooperative learning groups of three or four students, and talk about their examples. As a group, they write up their most intriguing examples, any questions they have as a group, and submit them to me at the end of class. Their write-ups tell me what I need to address during the next couple of class periods, either through mini-lectures, more small group discussion, demonstrations, or whatever classroom procedure that seems most suitable.

The Limitations of My Course without Electronic Communication

I think it's important to stress that I've structured my courses in this manner for several years now, even before I used electronic communication with my students. While I've found this structure successful in producing good student learning, there were four distinct areas of my class with which I was concerned; 1) the quality of my students' writing on their assignments, 2) whether I was getting adequate feedback about the class, 3) my management of the volume of material for the class, and 4) several issues related to the temporal and spatial limitations imposed by the traditional class structure. More specifically,

Electronic communication has helped me address (with greater to lesser degrees of success) each of these problems.

The Advantages of Electronic Communication

Most of the communication on the typical campus between teacher and student, or even between student and student, for that matter, has taken place during the prescribed classroom meeting times. We gather in the same place at the same time, information is transmitted almost entirely aurally, and in real time. This puts severe constraints and extreme pressure on the communication--what is communicated has to "fit" within the allotted time period, and since that time period is fixed and inflexible, you can't waste valuable time ("have to cover the material").

Two characteristics of electronic communication give it promise: The first is that the communication is not restricted to a specific time and place (i.e.--it is asynchronous, not occurring at the same time, and asyntopic, not occurring in the same place). Second, it is primarily visual and textual rather than aural. This is all pretty obvious, but these differences have enormous implications for student learning. These two characteristics provide benefits in several distinct areas in that they:

Increased accessibility

Clearly the major advantage of electronic communication is that it is asynchronous and asyntopic. My students can be any where, and ask me a question when it is of concern to them; they can comment on each other's views on our electronic conference when they have the time and inclination; and, through the world-wide web, my students can get the important, static documentation for the class from a wide variety of locations and on demand. Their dog can't eat this syllabus. The web is always there and waiting for them--their electronic servant. Like the Wobblies, it never sleeps, it never forgets. If they miss a class, they know where to go to get the missing material.

In turn, these same advantages hold for me. I can address their concerns from any place and when I have the time to devote to them, which is often while I'm at home after I've gotten my son to sleep. If I've forgotten to mention something important in class, I can contact them through a distribution list E-mailing, or post it on our electronic conference or our web site if I know they will be accessing either in the near future. I use the distribution list if it is something imperative, since it is more intrusive--it signals my students that it has arrived, so students are notified that I have sent them something. The electronic conference is more efficient (in terms of disk storage), but since it does not notify conference members that there is a new posting, they may not get the message before the next class meeting.

I'm off campus quite a bit, and I can log in from anywhere, access my account, and respond to my students requests, monitor the discussion on our electronic conference; I can easily update the material on my web site when I want (or need) to, from wherever I happen to be. And my most recent update is the version the students have--I can update the syllabus after it's in their notebooks. I can create and modify courselinks whenever I want (a courselink is some information relevant to the class that I create and store locally in my account -- a definition, description of a phenomenon. Examples of courselinks are definitions of terms, chapter outlines, diagrams, etc., the things that I would normally hand out on paper). Courselinks can beany size without being concerned about cost. The 8 1/2 x 11 size restriction is gone -- a courselink can be very short -- a sentence or two, or as long as it needs to be. How many of us feel like we have to use the whole page if we hand something out, or, if it is longer, feeling like we have to trim it to fit on as few pages as possible? It's easy to embellish an on-line syllabus, and it's easy to create links to new material that you've discovered after class starts.

The asynchronous and asyntopic nature of electronic communication is the true extension of the classroom walls.

A More Pedagogically Sound Interaction with the Information

Electronic communication allows me to structure a more pedagogically sound way for them to complete outside writing assignments. For example, I ask my students to submit their written homework two hours before class begins. Since their E-mailings are time and date stamped, I know whether they've done it or not. There are a couple of pedagogical advantages to this. First, they can't do their work on the bus on their way to class. Since they need to do their work at a terminal, they are doing their work in a setting conducive to intellectual work. A computer terminal is a setting that has become associated with intellectual work for most students, and their work will be more thoughtful, and they should be more efficient since the setting evokes scholarly work fairly immediately.

Second, they must do it far enough in advance that they will be engaging the material twice--when they wrote it, and then again when they talk about it in class. The two or more hour break between writing it and discussing it is important. The break allows incubation to occur. Incubation occurs when we work on a problem, then leave it alone for a while. Even when we do not actively engage the material during the break, our thinking on the topic improves (Ellis, 1978).

One of the major concerns I've always had about my students is how they are spending their out-of-class time with respect to my class. Are they starting their reading with enough time to do a thorough job? How often are they engaging the material? This is even a bigger concern for me with my class that meets once a week. I don't want them to start thinking about it a couple of hours before class, with a week intervening since they thought about it. Most of what was learned last week will be gone. I want them to reflect periodically on what happened last time, and prepare for next time. Our electronic conference was made for this purpose. For example, in my weekly class, I can ask them to post a response a day or two after the class meeting, either addressing a specific question that I post after class, or something more open-ended, such as "What did you find most interesting in class last night, and what interested you about it?" I might give them a day or two to respond, then ask them to re-join the conference, read each others' postings, and respond to what others had to say. A couple of days later, I might post a new question that will get them thinking about the next class meeting, following the same format. The point is I've structured their interaction with the material so that they must think about the material, and in a thoughtful manner. They can do this when they have time, yet not too much time has gone by without them thinking about the class. Research conducted since the 1920's shows clearly that spaced practice--breaking the task into smaller, more frequent interaction with the material, produces stronger long-term learning than does the same amount of exposure to the material in one longer sitting (massed practice). In short, electronic communication allows me to structure their out-of-class interaction so they're not cramming.

The world-wide web allows for some degree of hierarchical organization. The web author is like an architect--you structure the page, but students select their own path--very much like the relationship between a museum designer and patron. The better the architect has done her job, the less intrusive her presence is, and the better the patron gets to profit from the experience. The same is true for the instructor's design of the web page. Your organization of the information is reinforced, and student notes will be better organized than the frequently seen chaos. I can structure how my students get their writing assignments. I used to give them the option of first reading a short description of their reading assignment, what I wanted them to look for, etc., or going straight to the questions. It became clear that they were not reading the introductory material, so I rearranged the site so that they needed to click on the description, and from there could get to the questions. It doesn't assure that they will read the description first (isn't there an old saying about leading a horse to water?), but does make it more likely since it is right there in front of them. Also, I opted against direct submission of answers through the web. They must download the questions into their personal accounts, then edit the file with the questions, then submit the file. I chose this route since my goal is reflective answers, and editing a file, with the possibility of redrafting, will lead to more reflective work than the one-pass submission that occurs when people respond directly to a web site.

Perhaps more importantly, the native structure of the web is hypertext. Hypertext has the potential to be a pedagogically superior format. The student is in control of what information comes her way, and at what pace. Such a technology has always been the goal of designers of teaching machines (Skinner, 1968), and the web provides it. For example, my assignments on the web may have links to further explanations, definitions of terms, etc. If the student is familiar with a term, she can pass by the link, but if she is uncertain about what a particular term means, she can click on that link and find out more. Want to know more? That next link may not lead to some small courselink I've created, but may open up a vast array of new information, and may take the student in unexpected directions, very much like a good open-ended conversation. By selecting her own path through the web, the student creates her own unique learning. And, she has some control over how she structures the web for her own use--once she finds a web site that is of value to her, she can mark it and always get back easily. The web is particularly suited to the independent, motivated learner, which is what most of us want our students to become.

However, hypertext's potential as a pedagogically superior format can only be realized if course pages are designed with effective pedagogy in mind. Anyone who has surfed the web quickly realizes that the typical homepage is a jumble of independent links interspersed with some personal opinion. Setting up a course page that is pedagogically sound is time consuming, and needs to be driven by the goals one has for the course. For example, one of the writing assignments for my Principles Of Learning And Behavior class (UGLI 4), asks my students to give examples from their own lives of the four basic forms of operant conditioning. The assignment includes a course link to a table I created, showing the four types. There are some terms in the table that may be unfamiliar to my students, so each of these includes another link that explains the term and gives a brief example. For the student who is quite familiar with the basic concepts, all she has to do is download the assignment and start in. For those who are less familiar with the concepts, however, the information is there to help them. The student is in control of how much or how little information she accesses, based on her own assessment of what she needs.

More thoughtful discussion

Since the construction of our correspondence is not limited by time, we can both compose what we have to say, and take as much time as we need. This breaking of real-time constraints allows for a more thoughtful conversation, since we can ponder what we have to say, and use the full editing power of a word processor. When I get a request from a student, say for an exemption from a class assignment, I have the opportunity to reflect on how to handle it. I have a tendency to feel rushed to judgment in face-to-face requests, and my response is often more moderated by my current mood than by the merits of the request. By having the opportunity to reflect (and edit!), my response is more likely to be well reasoned. I've been so pleased with the effects of this procedure that I ask students to submit requests by E-mail. My sense is that student requests are better reasoned and less frequent because they've had to think it through in order to put it in writing. The availability of E-mail doesn't preclude a student coming to see me. She may have some very personal matter to discuss, and would be uncomfortable committing it to text, or simply be uncomfortable with the fairly sterile medium of electronic communication.

Their written assignments are more thoughtful for the same reasons. They work on them when they are ready, they can take as much time as they want, and I encourage multiple drafts, which computers were made for. In a similar vein, their electronic discussions can be as thoughtful as they wish. In fact, the medium commands thoughtfulness--what can be tossed off verbally comes off badly textually--the conversation cleans up quickly. I find the general tenor of postings on our electronic conference getting more thoughtful as the semester goes along. And since there's a persistence to students' writings (they can see what they and other students wrote, and make comparisons), the flippant ones show the most marked improvement. I've had more than one flippant student come and tell me they felt embarrassed by what they had said when they saw what the other students had said.

Leveling the playing field

Since their work comes in similarly formatted (80 characters to the line, 25 lines per screen), the electronic submission of assignments levels the playing field--the vagaries of handwriting and penmanship are eliminated. When I first asked students to submit their homework through E-mail, it was mid-semester, so I already knew a fair amount about their writing. I was amazed to discover that I read the work of several of them differently--the volume of those with BIG handwriting shrunk, those with tiny handwriting grew, and the bias of good vs. bad penmanship disappeared. It was immediately obvious to me that I was reading their work in a less biased fashion--I could much more easily see how well students knew the material. I could much more easily give them feedback on the mechanics of their writing as well, since the similar format allowed me to focus on what they said, not the clarity of their handwriting.

A further, and more important, leveling of the playing field derives from the fact that asynchronous communication is not bound by the "real-time" constraints that exist in the classroom, allowing the quieter, more reflective student the opportunity to participate in the discussion at his or her own pace. I have several students every semester who are quiet during whole class discussions who are "VAX Notes bloomers"--they come alive when they have the time to reflect on what they want to say and have the opportunity to edit and make sure that it is right. Another way of looking at his is to say that the electronic component of the course allows for a different "learning style" to come forth--the reflective, contemplative student.

Breaking through the power differential. Electronic communication can be customized to level the playing field between students and the professor. For example, our system manager has set up a virtual member of my class--IPAVLOV. IPAVLOV has a single role in life--to provide me with anonymous feedback from my students, a task that is somewhat difficult electronically since everything we send is tagged with our names. IPAVLOV is set up so that, if a student types IPAVLOV at the 'USERNAME:' prompt, no password is needed, and they are automatically thrown into the text editor for MAIL. After they have finished writing what they have to say, they close the file, it is automatically sent to me, and the account is closed. This assures anonymity (anyone can log on as IPAVLOV and there is no way to trace who has done so), yet protects against abuse (e.g., sending someone, other than me, a threatening note) since IPAVLOV can do only one thing-- send me a message.

The web also levels the playing field since any site can be accessed by anyone. This essentially means, despite congress's wishes, that the web is, in some respects, uncontrollable. While there is some level of control, the control that exists tends to be mutual. This semester, for example, I'm teaching a Senior Seminar, Popular Delusions, that explores the widespread belief in unsupported phenomena such as ESP and Creationism. One of my students, who is a real web surfer, has set up a page with lots and lots of links to various paranormal belief sites. As we were discussing his site, he wanted artistic control over it. Well, it's his page, I can't control what he puts on it. On the other hand, if I don't like what he's doing, I can always remove the link from my class's page to his page. Since we can not control what each other does, we had to negotiate an understanding.

This is the true power of the web--everyone becomes a master of their own material, and no one is compelled to visit a site if they don't like it. It is the true example of a democracy voting with its feet.

Enhanced student interaction outside of class

One way that I extend the classroom walls electronically is by having my students respond to questions generated by other members of the class and posted on the electronic conference. The next class meeting, I have those who responded to particular questions discuss them in cooperative learning groups. They arrive at a group response to the question, then present it to the rest of the class.

Also, base groups are assigned topics to research, and they quickly learn to divvy up the topic, and E-mail each other the part they've done. (In cooperative learningese, this is known as a jigsaw technique-- each student has part of the puzzle, and the solution only becomes apparent when each fits their part with that of the other students. This technique loads heavily on the "Positive Interdependence" component of cooperative learning, Johnson, Johnson and Smith, 1991.) When they get together in class, they've already shared their knowledge, and are ready to hit the ground running.

Many of my students have adapted the pedagogy and technology of the class to meet their own needs. For example, when they are preparing for the final exam, many base groups break the task up into components, then each works on a part, and E-mails their answers to the others in their group (this is a jigsaw procedure). I find their spontaneous adaptation of both techniques to their own needs very exciting, in that a tool I taught them, E-mail, and a pedagogical technique, cooperative learning, have quickly become adapted to their own uses. Part of my goal for the course is to have them learn skills that will be of value when they leave college, and learning to work cooperatively, and to communicate electronically, are two skills they are likely to need to be successful in the future.

A unique classroom assessment technique

As mentioned earlier, my students E-mail me their written homework assignments two hours before class. Not only does this allow for incubation for them, but it provides a unique and invaluable classroom assessment technique for me. I can read my students' submissions before class, which allows me to assess what they know BEFORE class begins--I go to class having a good idea what they know and where the problems with their understanding are. This allows me to skip material that they seem to know well already, and concentrate on the areas where there are widespread weaknesses. In addition, I read their Make Up Your Own questions, so I can address the topics that they have already identified as being of interest to them. Similarly, the ongoing discussion on our electronic conference gives me vast insight into how they are viewing the more controversial areas of the course. Our discussions are enhanced since we all have an enlarged shared cognitive set--we all know what each other is thinking about the topic.

An unexpected benefit that E-mail and electronic conferencing provided is that I have a much more accurate assessment of my students' work habits. Since postings are time and date stamped, I've been amazed at how many of them do their work very late at night (a good percentage of the postings are after midnight). I know they are in fact more organized than I had thought (most of them start their work in a timely manner, usually a day or two before it is due). Consistent patterns show up, and I've been able to point out to some students whose work is poor (and usually comes in right at the deadline) how they might do better work if they started earlier.

Enhanced ability to archive and retrieve my students' work, and provide increased structure of information

Electronic submission of assignments had considerable organizational advantages for me. I know when the paper was submitted, and I know where I can find it. They submit their assignments to BFSKINNER, the other virtual member of our class, rather than me. The advantage is that their assignments don't get mixed in with all the rest of the virtual clutter in my account. The only mail BFSKINNER gets is my students' assignments, so I know where they are, and since there's nothing else in his account, it's easy to find my students' work. Further, I can file their assignments with a uniform notation-- their initials, the assignment, and as an extension, the semester, which allows me to easily find any particular student's assignment, from any semester. Another advantage of this separate account is my Teaching Assistants can have access to it, do an initial read-through of the class's submissions, yet my personal account remains secure.

Not to be overlooked is the fact electronic communication also allows students to keep systematic records of their own work as well. I encourage them to keep copies of anything they send me, just in case mine happens to get deleted (it has happened).

Provides access to diverse sources of information

I can't keep up with everything in my field, but there are repositories of information out there that can be of great value. For example, in Principles Of Learning And Behavior, several schools have established large repositories of information on conditioning -- on-line abstracts of journals, compilations of annotated references, databases on active researchers in the field, etc. The world-wide web is a true democratically distributed network of resources that is constantly changing and being updated. For a class like my Popular Delusions, where we look at current beliefs, the web is a bonanza -- it seems like every possible world view (including craziness not available in the library) is available on the web.

Our electronic conference provides more restricted access to diverse opinions -- the diverse opinions of the members of the class. I think students generally are not aware of the diversity of opinion in a typical class, and our electronic conference brings that diversity to the fore.

The table below briefly summarizes which forms of electronic communication provide what sort of benefits:

Advantages of Electronic Communication
Advantage	Repository	Public Forum	Private Discourse
Increases Accessibility	very high	very high	very high
A pedagogically better technique	-	high	high
More thoughtful communication	-	high	high
Levels the playing field	-	high	high
Enhances student interaction	-	high	high
A unique classroom assessment technique	-	very high	very high
Enhances record keeping and structure	very high	high	very high
Access to diverse sources of information	high	moderate	-

Not all forms of electronic communication are both asynchronous and asyntopic. For example, one can "talk" electronically with another person in a different location via computer--each types what they want to say, in real time, and it immediately appears on the screen of the other person. Such a program is asyntopic but not asynchronous. While it is more interactive than E-mail, anyone who has been in a talk session knows right away that it's of limited utility. People make lots of typos, and take time to go back to correct them, etc., while the other person waits.

Generally speaking, the most advantageous forms of electronic communication are those which take advantage of both asychronicity and asyntopicality. We all know how difficult it is to get a group of people together, and once we have, the time constraints we have in getting anything accomplished. How nice to not have to go out on a frigid Minnesota February morning (which it is right now), but E-mail my chapter outline to a colleague for critique. On the other hand, we still put a lot of effort into arranging to come together to meet, so there may be something about the face to face interaction that is important, and important parts of the communication process may be lost with electronic communication.

Some Cautions and a Few Suggestions

In short, electronic communication has several advantages, offering the potential for enhanced learning for students and organizational advantages for us. So, sign me up, doc, right? Not so fast. Several factors need to be addressed if electronic communication is to be worth the effort. The first is that there are some cautions to be kept in mind about using electronic communication. Electronic communication will only live up to its potential in our courses if it is employed in a rational, well thought-out manner. Ignoring these cautions can lead to electronic communication being a frustrating and counterproductive experience for everyone. Second, there are things we can do to make it serve us better. Third, there are costs associated with electronic communication. I want to turn my attention to these, and discuss ways that many of these costs can at least be minimized, if not eliminated, with some planning. Before employing electronic communication, you should address the following issues:

Have a rational plan in mind

Electronic communication should meet a need. A little confession at this point may be in order. I like technology, and much of my early use of it in my classes was driven by my desire to use it because I liked it. Much of my early frustration resulted from many of my students not being nearly so enamored with it. When I started thinking first of what needs I had in my class, and whether technology could meet that need, I had fewer problems, primarily because it started meeting my students' learning needs as well.

Electronic communication should be driven by effective pedagogy. Roger Johnson, one of the gurus of cooperative learning, frequently says that cooperative learning without a well thought out structure is just another seating plan. Electronic Communication without student learning in mind can be just one more technological hoop for students to jump through. The reason that I have not used multimedia in my classes is because it doesn't meet a particular need I have, and I am concerned that a multi-media presentation won't actively engage the students. If my subject matter were more visual, such as Anatomy and Physiology, it would probably be more useful. But even then, I would want to put the control of the mouse in the hands of the students--it's too easy for the instructor to get wrapped up in the presentation, in which case the "high-tech classroom of the future" becomes just another chalk-and-talk, minus the chalk dust on the back of the professor's coat at the end of class.

One of the forces working against effective pedagogy is the fact that campus electronic communication systems have not been designed with effective pedagogy in mind. Most computing staff are not trained in effective pedagogy, and tend to encourage a usage of the system that is not pedagogically sound. Structuring a pedagogically effective use of electronic communication may require extra steps, but the extra effort is worth it. For example, electronic communication is designed to encourage simple, immediate communication. Creating, editing and finally sending a file is more cumbersome than dashing off a quick E-mail, which is what the system promotes. I gave an earlier draft of this chapter to a friend who teaches on another campus, and who uses many of the same programs as I do, and one of her comments was,

"Is my VAX system idiosyncratic, or do you think others also have the problem of not being able to save a message and go back later to edit it? We have to send it right away, so we don't get the reflective time."

The fact is, I use the system she does quite often, and more reflective practice is possible, it's just that most faculty aren't aware of it because it is not promoted by computing staff.

Start with what you already use and know well. Even seemingly simple techniques have subtle nuances, the mastering of which can be the difference between success and failure. So, the best insurance for successfully using electronic communication is to start small, with a technique that you are already fairly comfortable with, master it, then add other components when they seem to meet a need. A brief description of my use of electronic communication as a case study may be instructive. I've been using electronic communication with my students for six years. Each year, I've modified what I'm doing or added a little more that's done electronically, so that at this point in my class, much of the course, at least that part of it that is best conducted outside of the classroom, is conducted electronically. My use of electronic communication has changed over the years as I've thought about when it's worked well and when it hasn't.

Like many of my colleagues, my introduction to electronic communication was through E-mail. I loved it, and quickly adopted it to my classes. Some of my uses of E-mail worked fine, and others not so hot. Like most things I do, I jumped into it with both feet and was sending out lots and lots of E-mail to my students. I was kind of like a little kid who first discovers hammers--I used it for everything, even when it wasn't the most appropriate tool. We liked the opportunity to communicate individually over this new medium, but my students quickly became overwhelmed by all of the E-mail I was sending them, and the system manager wasn't thrilled with my clogging his precious hard drives, either.

Add a new electronic communication technology when it better serves your needs. Discovering the electronic conference solved some of my problems and first got me to thinking about different types of electronic communication. Why did the conference work better than E-mail for some things but not others? It was clear to me from the outset that since it was more public, was hierarchically organized, and had more permanence, it was advantageous for material like syllabiand handouts. The electronic conference also allowed my students to carry on public discourse on issues raised in the course, which I thought was really neat. It turns out, this is the only part of the conference that I've retained. If the conference was an advantage for syllabi and all, why did I abandon it for this use? The start of the next semester presented me with a problem -- should I start a new conference, or keep the old one? Starting a new one meant copying all of the permanent stuff to the new one, keeping the old one meant I had lots of conversations that I either needed to delete or have an unwieldy huge conference. Worse, electronic conferences are designed to keep an historical record of the discussion, which means that it's difficult to replace an old syllabus with a new one. But if I wanted to make even slight modifications, that's what I had to do. Quite the dilemma.

Then I discovered the Web. The web provided me with the last piece of the puzzle I needed for efficient communication with my students, since it had all of the advantages of VAX Notes for my more permanent material, but without the disadvantages. Material placed on the web is permanent, but unlike an electronic conference, is easily modifiable. So, by using the technology I first knew, then adding new techniques as I became familiar with them, I was able to use each technique most effectively by using each for what it was best designed to do.

Choose the electronic communication technology that best meets your needs. What you need done should drive which mode of electronic communication you choose. Many of the problems we have with electronic communication result from the inappropriate use of an electronic tool when a different one would be more appropriate. I ran into trouble when I used a technique inappropriately--trying to use E-mail, which is designed for small quantities of private communication, for a repository. There are lots of inappropriate uses of electronic communication. A listserve is a derivative of distributed E-mail, but is being used primarily for public discourse--an inappropriate use of the technology. Anyone who is on a listserve will recognize that much of what gets posted never should have been--not all 4,000 people on the listserve need to know that Fred wants to know if Bob is ready for lunch yet, or that Mary thinks Mike is a jerk. Since listserves mimic E-mail, they are intrusive--they notify you that a new posting has arrived. Some people like listserves for this reason, but it's also a prime reason that they can be so irritating. In comparison, electronic conferences must be intentionally accessed, and people have a tendency to forget to do so, so the postings may fall on deaf ears.

Electronic communication has a steep learning curve, and can be frustrating for students. Technology does not come easily to all. Many of your students are going to experience the deer-in-the-headlights effect when they first try to learn a program with which they are unfamiliar. Computers just spook some people, and you need to be prepared to be patient with them. It's easy to see where their lack of confidence comes from. Both you and your students need to understand that you have to play strictly by the machine's rules. Electronic communication technology is like an idiot savant--it is very fast and very good at doing one thing. But if you try to get it to do something other than what it wants to do, or if you do not do things precisely as it wants them done, it will simply refuse to work and become uncommunicative. And the task of the user is to figure out what they did wrong, and not do that again. For the neophyte, this can be both frightening and frustrating (every semester someone says, during our first training session, "I think I broke it!"). Electronic Communication may be a real transition in how your students approach their work. They not only need to learn how to use the technology, but they need to make a cognitive switch in terms of how they see their roles.

To cope with this potential problem, it is important to make sure your students have lots of instruction, that you be patient with their initial attempts to use it, and provide lots of support and encouragement. Our task is to get everyone up to speed as quickly as possible so that those who are technologically challenged are not put at a disadvantage by using this form of communication. I have some real technophobes in my classes, but they all get there eventually, and most all of them like it after a while.

Some Costs of Electronic Communication

Asynchronous and asyntopic does not mean anytime, anyplace. One of the positive points of electronic submission of assignments is that the students' work is done in a setting that is more conducive to academic work--in front of a terminal rather than on the bus right before class. But what if it's a nice day, and the student wants to be inspired by the great outdoors as they write? She could always haul her subnotebook out with her--if she owns one. Another potential unlevelling of the playing field. Students who go home for the weekend, if they don't have access from home, can also be excluded.

The medium requires that participants in the communication access the system -- people have to log on to find out if there's anything there. Anyone who has become a somewhat frequent user knows how frustrating it is to send an E-mail message to someone who isn't hooked on the technology. And some of our students just are not--they get on when they have to, and if not frequently reminded, don't participate in the conversation.

Electronic communication can be a time sink. It takes a lot of time and effort to learn electronic communication technology well enough to use it effectively. And to be most effective, students need to learn how to use it effectively, also. Where does the time come from for both you and your students? Can we reasonably expect students in our courses (especially if this is the only course they have that uses the technology) to put in the extra hours that it takes to learn it?

The time commitment with technology doesn't end with learning it and thinking through how best to use it. Electronic conferences, and especially web pages, require maintenance and vigilance to remain effective. If you have your class schedule as part of your course page, it needs to be updated as changes are made, or at least every semester. Other material can get out of date even faster. Not only do you need to be vigilant about your own material, but hyperlinks sometimes disappear or go stale quickly.

One way of minimizing the problem of the increased time commitment is to use what you already know, or want to learn anyway. E-mail in particular is so ubiquitous at this point, and useful in so many ways, I highly recommend its use with students. Electronic conferences, since they have a look and feel similar to E-mail, are learned easily, and I also see no reason to not learn the technology and use it, if you are interested in encouraging your students to discuss course issues outside of class.

Learning how to set up a course page on the World Wide Web, however, is a different issue. Frankly, at this point, I would only recommend it if it is something you really want to learn how to do. It has a steep learning curve, and in all likelihood is going to be very different than anything you've learned before. It has it's own programming language, Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), and getting hooked into the Internet requires assistance (at least it did for me). In other words, if you don't find the technology inherently interesting, I don't think that it's worth the time and trouble at this point. If you are interested in learning the technology, though, it has considerable benefits. If you do decide to take the plunge, find someone who already uses it to hold your hand through the first few steps. Also, look at the source code of sites that you like -- you can learn a lot from them. Like much else with computers, once you get past those first few bewildering steps, you will pretty quickly get the hang of HTML and be off and running.

Electronic communication can be a time sink for students, also. One of the joys of the web is that the student is in control of how she navigates it. But that sense of control, and that it can take them unexpected places, can become addicting. A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that many campus counseling centers have begun offering programs for students "addicted" to the web, and many students' grades are falling due to the amount of time they spend on the Internet, surfing web sites and on "chat lines."

Using electronic communication may also require some shift in how we view our task as well. Since our students are writing more, does it mean we need to read more? Yes. But does it mean we need to correct more? Not necessarily. I have come to view my students' writing on our electronic conference as primarily for their benefit, so even though I read it and comment upon it in class, I don't spend time writing comments on their discussions. And I've also come to spend less time "correcting" their pre-class writing assignments. I do give them feedback, but since their writing primarily sets up their classroom discussions, I've found that they simply need less written comment from me. I save my commenting for complimenting the really good points made, and redirecting the submissions that are really off the mark.

Is it true, or is it bogus? Publishing books and magazines is an expensive process, so it makes sense for them to be well edited and well thought out. Because of this, we have a tendency in our society to equate professional looking with accuracy. But publishing on the web is virtually free, so almost anyone or any group can become an electronic publisher. This clearly allows for greater access to publishing -- another leveling of the playing field. But with the lowering of the cost of admission to the playing field, the web becomes the place where any demented but HTML-sophisticated crackpot can have his electronic soapbox look as good as anyone else's, and it's tough to separate the wheat from the chaff. For example, there are many more sites extolling the reality of UFOs than there are for serious skeptical inquiry of the existence of extraterrestrial life forms. Students can easily be confused by all of the misinformation, especially given the fact that it's pretty easy for anybody, including the lunatic fringe, to make "professional looking" home pages.

On the positive side, developing a set of criteria for determining what's of value and what isn't is a valuable skill, and helping students to decipher what is of value on the web helps them build that skill in a fairly benign venue.

Much of the context is lost. For all of the advantages that electronic communication brings in terms of the transmission of ideas, much of the content of personal communication is expressed through tone, body language, etc. which is missing with electronic communication. One doesn't have to look far to find out where the loss is. Ideas are expressed fine with electronic communication--in fact, probably better. But the interchange, the personal relationship that is a part of communication is missing with electronic communication. Much of the context of a conversation is lost. And when the non-verbal component of the communication can't be detected because body language and voice inflections are absent, people can be hurt by a "playful" comment that is taken seriously. Users of E-mail have tried to replace the "non-verbal" element of communication by using emoticons; all of those irritating little smiley faces that pop up in messages. How do you tell irony? Is it :-), or is it ;-)?

Since this is a relatively new medium of communication, people are still trying to work out the rules--netiquette, if you will. Learning at least some of the basics of netiquette can save embarrassment and extra work.

Not everything is communicated well textually. Electronic communication works fine for students discussing ideas that are easily expressed alphanumerically, but some disciplines rely on symbols not contained on the typical QWERTY keyboard. For example, those in mathematics have difficulty with their students doing mathematical computations on the computer, although theory, discussion, hints, and explanations are still possible and useful. Foreign languages that have different character sets also pose a special problem, especially with the text-based programs that are most widely accessible. Again, another trade-off.

A Few tips

The better you and your students understand the technology, the more useful it will be for you. The system you use no doubt has several subtle features that, the better you know them, the more useful the system will be. I have several examples:

Posting files rather than immediate mode postings make for more reflective practice. Learning how to use a mail directory efficiently makes the mail system a much more valuable filing system. Informative (and relevant) subject lines on E-mailings let you and the recipient find the right posting more easily. This is especially important on a large electronic conference. A title for the posting such as "Posting #1" doesn't tell much, whereas "Why gambling is addictive" is not only more precise, but will entice more readers to read the posting carefully. Knowing how to transfer, extract and modify files gives power to the word processing capacities of electronic communication.

The immediate mode response that most systems encourage discourages reflective writing, as is evidenced by the large number of intemperate postings common with E-mail. It is so ubiquitous that the phenomenon even has a name--flaming.

Most systems can give you feedback on what you've sent. A frequent question I get at the beginning of the semester, especially from students who are nervous about using the system, is "Did you get my homework?" I now show them how to make a simple modification so that they get copies of all of the E-mail they send.

When replying, including the relevant text of what you're responding to helps the recipient--they may have been involved in lots of things since they sent you their posting, and a response that simply says, "OK" without a proper reference may be meaningless (or misleading!).

Know how to get help. Murphy's Law applies to electronic communication as well. When using electronic communication, if things can possibly go wrong, they will, and at the worst time. Even fairly simple technology is pretty complicated and all kinds of things can easily go wrong. It's often very difficult to figure out why it's not working, even to those with some expertise. There must be some corollary of Murphy's Law to cover the use of electronic communication on the first day of class when you're all together in the new high tech computer public access area on campus. Everything that can go wrong will. Anyone who has given a workshop on computer use, either to their students or a group of faculty (worse yet!) has horror stories to tell. I gave a week-long workshop on cooperative learning last summer, and I wanted us to use an electronic conference to keep in touch with each other. We got over to the public access area, everyone sat down in front of the computer, we went through joining the conference step by step, and everyone was told the conference didn't exist. This is one of those points in your career where you really find out what you're made of. The error message was useless. So, we turned it into a cooperative learning exercise! One group finally asked me to look at the list of conferences in my directory, and we figured out that I had named it slightly different than what I was asking them to join. We tried the correct name, and things worked. Another time, my class had just arrived at the public access area, and the mainframe went down. We used the time to brainstorm about how we could use electronic communication, and it was a productive use of our time until the mainframe came back up.

Official support can be very helpful--our system manager has been of great help in customizing the system to meet my needs (such as setting up IPAVLOV). But it may not be everything you need, when you need it. I've gotten a lot of valuable assistance from my colleagues. They often best understand what I'm trying to do, and may have already worked out a solution to the problem I'm experiencing. This is even more important when I've moved into a more cutting edge area, such as using the web in my classes. A couple of my colleagues in Physics and Computer Science have been particularly helpful with helping me set up my web site, and making it do what I want it to.

Choose the most widely accessible technology. Electronic communication has the potential for leveling the playing field for many students, but lack of access to the technology can shut some students out of the conversation. Assuring access is a considerable problem. Simply put, some of your students will have greater access than others. Those on campus will likely have greater access, as will those with computers at home. A case in point--I've been working with the Weekend College program at another college for the past three years, helping to develop a pedagogy that can make a program in which students attend classes every other weekend an effective learning experience. The research is pretty clear--students need to interact with the material with some regularity, and electronic communication is ideal for that. So, we've been working to "electronicize" the classes, but we keep running up against the problem of access--since the students' learning is primarily an "off-campus" activity, what do you do about the students who do not have computers at home or at work? Can you require those students to make frequent trips to campus, especially if campus is a long drive? If you do, isn't that defeating the purpose of the program? And just those students whom you wish to serve are the ones who will be excluded. But if you don't require use of the electronic communication technology, aren't you missing one of the best tools you have at your disposal? The university could supply computers to everyone who needs one, but that may not be cost effective. This is precisely the sort of Hobson's choice into which technology can force us.

Access problems are exacerbated when you use the newest technology. There are some nice electronic communication programs that only run under a Local Area Network (LAN). The problem, though, is it eliminates those not on the LAN from easy access. For example, if someone sends me an E-mail with a WordPerfect attachment, that's fine if I'm at school. I can't read it, though, if I'm at home using my old clunker 386 connected to the mainframe by a modem. Using a technology that is widely accessible, such as VAX Notes, is more inclusive, but the program doesn't have as many options, and is fairly idiosyncratic. Again, another trade-off. (I'm not sure that it's that much of a trade-off, though--not as many bells and whistles means simpler to learn and use.)

And there's another access issue that is becoming increasingly problematic--what happens when everyone discovers E-mail and the system can't keep up? I'm finding it harder and harder to access our mainframe from home; everyone wants to use it now. For me, one of the advantages of electronic communication was that I could do it from home. Every time I get shut out at home, I kick myself for all of those workshops we put on touting the marvels of electronic communication.

Towards the Brave New World

I'm an "early adopter" of electronic communication--I've used it in my classes for six years, and my use has settled into a fairly stable pattern. I'm pretty happy with how my students get their assignments off of the web, how they submit their assignments to me through E-mail, and how the electronic conference is getting my students to interact with each other outside of class. I do see some fine tuning needed with these, however. One trend I've noticed as I've thought about this chapter is that, over time, I've asked my students to take more control over their use of the electronic conference, and I'll probably push this even more in the future, especially as they become more sophisticated users of the system. Their spontaneous use is encouraging, but I can do more to explicitly get them to use it more and more for their own uses. For example--in my Popular Delusions course, they have a take-home final, consisting of a single question that I give them the first day of class--"What do popular delusions tell us about human nature?" It strikes me that this is a question that they could be answering throughout the semester, publicly, with each of them working on their answer as a separate TOPIC on the conference, and responding to each others' musings. Just a thought--I haven't worked out the details. It's just that this technology does open up other ways of doing business. There are, however, some significant changes in my class down the road as a result of electronic communication. I want to address two of these:

I will lecture even less in the future. Currently, I spend less than half of my time in class "lecturing," but when I do, it is primarily to fill in what is missing, inaccurate, or confusing in the text. I more and more believe that any use of class time that is primarily transmission of information is not a good use of time. Class time is such a precious commodity--I want us to be talking to each other, them in their groups, me listening, responding to what they are saying, etc. I don't want to waste time in class simply conveying information. Transmitting information on the web is not only a better use of time, it may be better pedagogically, too. The web may be superior to class presentations, which are almost completely aural, since the information on the web can be any combination of textual, visual and aural, and the web allows me to present the information in hypertext as courselinks.

I probably won't have a text in the future. I've never been completely satisfied with any text I used in my classes. So if I'm not happy with my text, why didn't I just write my own? Like many professors, I have thought about it--for 25 years! But it has always seemed like such a massive undertaking, and I'm never satisfied with what I have to say (this chapter will be much better six months from now!). A textbook is such a static thing -- you have to get all of that stuff together, and once it's printed, you can't change it. The major advantage that the web provides for someone like me is that my site is a work in progress. I can put up what I have, add to it when I can, and modify it when I'm no longer satisfied with something I've said. Plus, the book-of-the-web is an endless set of links to other things that I don't have an expertise in. In short, the web as a publishing vehicle meets my style--I can start where I am now, and tomorrow's homepage is better than today's. My web site, as a compendium of the things I want my class to know, as well as links to other sites that I can create, will (hopefully) become my text in the future.

Is it Worth it?

For me, the answer, clearly, is "Yes." The flexibility it gives me to interact with my students when I want, the opportunity to better structure my students' interaction with the course material and each other, the reflective interaction my students have with the material, and the opportunity to better assess their learning are all significant advantages to me. But these advantages come at some cost--I've had to put in the effort to learn how to use the technology effectively, devise an effective plan for its use, and I need to be vigilant that I continue to use it to my students' advantage. I recommend its use to other faculty, but with the following caution:

Technology amplifies bad pedagogy. There's the old saying--to err is human, but it takes a computer to really screw up. Both the instructor and students need to have a solid understanding of how to use the technology, or electronic communication will be largely ineffective. Learning the technology well enough to use it effectively takes time, but simply learning the technology well is not enough. If its use is not grounded in a thorough understanding of cognitive development and a pedagogy that is driven by this understanding, the use of the technology will be frustrating to both instructor and students, will impede rather than enhance student learning, and will distance us from each other.

References

Ellis, H. C. Fundamentals of Human Learning, Memory, and Cognition (2nd ed.). Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown, 1978

Resources

I've included a few resources that might help you get started (or further advanced) in effectively using technology in the classroom. I've listed them in order of what I consider to be of most value.

AAHE is probably the best single source for resources related to the effective use of technology in higher education. They can be reached at:

This listserve, moderated by Steve Gilbert, Director of Technology Projects for AAHE, addresses issues of technology in higher education. Postings come at irregular intervals, but because it is a moderated listserve, they are of higher quality than is true of most listserves. It is probably the place to begin. It's free, and the discussions are insightful, current, and pre-prints of future Change articles on technology appear here first. To subscribe to the AAHESGIT Listserve, send an E-mail message (with subject line left blank) to:

In addition to frequent articles on the role of technology in higher education, the March/April issue is devoted exclusively to technological issues.

This program is designed to help colleges design a coherent strategy for using technology on their campuses. It's probably not of great value to the individual faculty member, but if you are part of a campus effort on technology, it's a valuable resource. For further information, contact Ellen Shortill at AAHE:

T. H. E. Journal (Technological Horizons in Education)
150 El Camino Real, Suite 112
Tustin, CA 92680-3670

T.H.E. Journal, published monthly, focuses on issues of technology at all educational levels, but most of the articles are of relevance to higher education. Subscription is free to those who have some role in technology on their campus.

Syllabus, published 10 times a year, features articles about the uses of technology in higher education. Subscription is $24/yr, but free to those who have some role in technology on their campus.

Syllabus also sponsors an annual conference on technology/higher education each year.

Educom Review, published bi-monthly, also addresses issues about the uses of technology in higher education. Subscription is $18/yr, but free to those who have some role in technology on their campus.

Edupage is thier bi-weekly update on technology--well worth subscribing to. Educom sponsors a large annual conference on technology/higher education each year.

Tom Creed

Tom Creed is Professor of Psychology and founded the Learning Enhancement Service at Saint John's University and the College of Saint Benedict, and currently serves as its Director. He writes about and gives workshops on active learning strategies, classroom assessment and collaborative learning, and has been a consultant for several colleges on programs to promote enhanced student learning. Most recently, he produced and wrote the User's Guide for Opening Doors: Two Cases of Formative Assessment, a videotape distributed by The Collaboration for the Advancement of College Teaching and Learning.Tom received a Ph.D. in Psychology from The American University, Washington, DC.

Three Categories of Electronic Communication
Category	Repositories	Public Forums	Private Discourse
Description	Information stored by a (usually) large entity (schools, museums, government agencies) and retrieved by individuals.	Information from others is available and can be retrieved; the information is a collective knowledge base.	Two-way communication between individuals. The communicators control what information is available to each other.
Use	Efficient gathering and storage of collected knowledge that an individual or small group would be unable to compile and maintain on their own.	Small groups of individuals with a common purpose come together to share information, create a body of knowledge on a limited topic.	Two (or more) people share information that is of importance to themselves but of little value to others, or needs to be confidential.
Conventional examples	Libraries	Roundtable Discussions, Town Hall meetings	Letters, conversation
Educational examples	Lecture	Cooperative Learning	Tutorial
Electronic forms	World Wide Web	Electronic Conferencing	E-Mail






Organization of information	Hierarchical - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Non-hierarchical
Persistence	Permanent - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - -Ephemeral
User input of information	Little - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Considerable
Modifiability by user	Unmodifiable by user - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Highly modifiable by user
Audience	Large, Public - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Small, Private
Amount of information	Mass quantities - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Small amounts
Ease of creating information	Fairly difficult - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Easy
Intrusiveness	Not - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Very