Online education is evaporating all the old boundaries, the things that kept people apart … New computer networking technology requires and enables a whole new way of teaching and learning. For the first time in human history we can have many-to-many communication across time and across space.
Predictor: Harasim, Linda
Prediction, in context:In a 1994 article for a Simon Fraser University publication, Linda Harasim is quoted in a discussion of online education. The article says:”The Internet is not a highway. ‘The Internet is more like a community,’ says Linda Harasim. ‘Anyway, it’s not a road going somewhere. That’s why people are having trouble understanding it. It’s a place … Online education is evaporating all the old boundaries, the things that kept people apart.’ Besides greater access, the new model encourages active rather than passive learning. It encourages group learning, too. Harasim believes that online education through computer networking is creating a paradigm shift in education. ‘The old models came from 19th Century technology and they’re based on transmission models,’ says Harasim, ‘One-to-many broadcast: the TV, the radio, the newspaper, the lecture! New computer networking technology requires and enables a whole new way of teaching and learning. For the first time in human history we can have many-to-many communication across time and across space. Never before have we been able to have group interaction that’s time and place independent – the framework for a learning society.’ … According to Harasim, the new technology requires new learning models.”
Biography:Linda Harasim, a professor in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada, was the Project Leader of Virtual-U, one of the first multimedia network systems customized for course delivery and enhancement. She spoke at conferences and wrote or co-wrote many articles and books on online education, including “Learning Networks: a Field Guide to Teaching and Learning Online” (MIT Press, 1995). (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)
Date of prediction: September 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: E-learning
Name of publication: The Centre For Systems Science
Title, headline, chapter name: Shaping Cyberspace Into Human Space
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://css.sfu.ca/update/vol6/6.3-harasim.main.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Gulbranson, Mathea