The Technical Codes of Online Education

This article addresses an impasse in debates about online education in university education. One side presents a story of the progressive development of technology as it is applied to the organisation of higher education, leading to pedagogical advances and to the new forms of administration required for the realisation of the technology's full potentials, both pedagogical and economic. The other side views online education as a lever of neoliberal reform that extends to the university a capitalism that is now digital, global, and knowledge-based. Both sides of the debate share the same underlying philosophy of technology, according to which technology is a fait accompli with which the university must comply or which it must reject out of hand in defence of traditional academic values and priorities. The authors argue that critical theory of technology offers a way to redress this impasse by providing a philosophical orientation capable of widening the debate over online education and university restructuring through its emphasis on the dynamics of technological design and development as social and political processes. They examine the case of an early experiment in educational computer conferencing, drawing significant conclusions from it about methodology and policy in the online education debate.

[1]  C. Bissell.  Canada's crisis in higher education , 1957 .

[2]  C. Kerr.  The uses of the university , 1964 .

[3]  L. Winner.  Autonomous Technology: Technics-out-of-Control as a Theme in Political Thought , 1977 .

[4]  B. Massumi,et al.  The postmodern condition : a report on knowledge , 1979 .

[5]  E. B. Kerr.  CHAPTER 3 – Acceptance and Usage of Computer-Mediated Communication Systems , 1982 .

[6]  T. Pinch,et al.  The Social Construction of Facts and Artefacts: or How the Sociology of Science and the Sociology of Technology might Benefit Each Other , 1984 .

[7]  L. Winner.  The Whale and the Reactor , 2020 .

[8]  J. Johnson.  Mixing Humans and Nonhumans Together: The Sociology of a Door-Closer , 1988 .

[9]  Som Naidu,et al.  Computer Conferencing in Distance Education. , 1988 .

[10]  Robin Mason.  The Use of Computer-Mediated Communication for Distance Education at the Open University, 1988. CITE Report No. 56. , 1988 .

[11]  Chris Colbourn,et al.  Mindweave: communication, computers and distance education , 1990 .

[12]  A. Feenberg.  The critical theory of technology , 1990 .

[13]  B. Latour.  Technology is Society Made Durable , 1990 .

[14]  Starr Roxanne Hiltz,et al.  The Virtual Classroom: Learning Without Limits Via Computer Networks , 1994 .

[15]  Andrew Feenberg,et al.  Building a global network: the WBSI experience , 1994 .

[16]  Linda M. Harasim,et al.  Book Reviews : Global Networks: Computers and International Communication Linda M. Harasim (Ed.) Publisher: MIT Press, Cambridge, MA 92142 Year of Publication: 1993 Length: 410 pages Price: $29.95 , 1994 .

[17]  A. Malhotra,et al.  Alternative Modernity: The Technical Turn in Philosophy and Social Theory , 1995 .

[18]  M. Castells.  The rise of the network society , 1996 .

[19]  Karol I. Pelc,et al.  The virtual classroom: Learning without limits via computer networks , 1996 .

[20]  Bill Readings,et al.  The university in ruins , 1996 .

[21]  Larry L. Leslie,et al.  Academic Capitalism: Politics, Policies, and the Entrepreneurial University , 1997 .

[22]  Marita Moll,et al.  Tech High: Globalization and the Future of Canadian Education. A Collection of Critical Perspectives on Social, Cultural, and Political Dilemmas. , 1997 .

[23]  D. Noble.  Digital Diploma Mills, Part II: The Coming Battle over Online Instruction , 1998 .

[24]  L. R. Shade.  Tech High: Globalization and the Future of Canadian Education , 1998 .

[25]  Andrew Feenberg.  Distance Learning: Promise or Threat? , 1999 .

[26]  Frank White.  Digital Diploma Mills: A Dissenting Voice , 1999, First Monday.

[27]  B. Latour.  On Recalling Ant , 1999 .

[28]  Dan Schiller,et al.  Digital Capitalism: Networking the Global Market System , 1999 .

[29]  Paul Standish,et al.  Enquiries at the interface : philosophical problems of online education , 2000 .

[30]  A. Bates.  Managing Technological Change: Strategies for College and University Leaders. The Jossey-Bass Higher and Adult Education Series. , 2000 .

[31]  Gary Klass.  Plato as Distance Education Pioneer: Status and Quality Threats of Internet Education , 2000, First Monday.

[32]  Stanley Aronowitz,et al.  The Knowledge Factory: Dismantling the Corporate University and Creating True Higher Learning. , 2000 .

[33]  Chris Werry.  The work of education in the age of E-College , 2001 .

[34]  Gerard Delanty.  Challenging Knowledge: The University in the Knowledge Society , 2001 .

[35]  Chris Jones,et al.  Networked Learning: Perspectives and Issues , 2001 .

[36]  Les Levidow,et al.  Marketizing higher education: neoliberal strategies and counter-strategies , 2002 .

[37]  Michael Margolis.  The Tower Under Siege: Technology, Power and Education , 2002 .

[38]  A. Feenberg.  Transforming Technology: A Critical Theory Revisited , 2002 .

[39]  Michiel Horn,et al.  The Tower under Siege: Technology, Power, and Education ed. by Brian Lewis, Christine Massey, Richard Smith (review) , 2002 .

[40]  W. Graves.  New Educational Wealth as a Return on Investment in Technology. , 2002 .

[41]  Terry Anderson.  Book Review - Delivering Digitally: Managing the transition to the knowledge media. Editors: A. Inglis, P. Ling, and V. Joosten , 2002 .

[42]  Travis Reindl.  Digital Diploma Mills: The Automation of Higher Education , 2002 .

[43]  Rosemary Deem,et al.  New managerialism: the manager-academic and technology of management in universities - looking forward to virtuality? , 2002 .

[44]  Alistair Inglis,et al.  Delivering Digitally: Managing the Transition to the New Knowledge Media , 2002 .

[45]  S. Brint.  The future of the city of intellect : the changing American university , 2003 .

[46]  Somaiya Naidu.  Learning and Teaching with Technology : Principles and Practices , 2003 .

[47]  University Alert: The Information Railroad Is Coming , 2003 .

[48]  A. Hamill.  Delivering digitally: managing the transition to the knowledge media , 2003 .

[49]  C. Gunawardena,et al.  DISTANCE EDUCATION , 2003 .

[50]  James Cornford,et al.  Putting the University Online: Information, Technology, and Organizational Change , 2003 .

[51]  Ramune Petuchovaite,et al.  The Virtual University? Knowledge, Markets and Management , 2003, J. Documentation.

[52]  Paul J. Stortz.  Counting Out the Scholars: The Case against Performance Indicators in Higher Education (review) , 2005 .

[53]  Man Xin.  Dynamics of online discussion: A model of collaborative discourse in computer conferencing , 2004 .