 | Journal of Instructional Science and Technology ISSN: 1324-0781 Editors-in-Chief: Olugbemiro JEGEDE (jegede@ouhk.edu.hk) and Som NAIDU(s.naidu@meu.unimelb.edu.au) |
Volume 1 No 4, November 1996
- - - Article 1 - - -
by
Justus H. Lewis
Justus Lewis & Associates, Singapore
Alexander Romiszowski
Syracuse University, USA
Return to Contents Page[ Abstract | Introduction| Some Cases and Examples |
The concept of the learning organization which continually updates the skills of itsmembers and in the process, is itself transformed, has become an important idea in recentmanagement theory, accepted in many business environments and also as a general planningconcept. The reasons for this are largely due to the changes in society and in theworkplace which are being brought about by the rapid impact of technology. We now have asituation where every generation of adults, through their working life, has to re-trainand adapt to changing work environments and changing social contexts on an almostcontinual basis. This need for continuing education and updating has rendered some of themore conventional models for the provision of education and training somewhat outdated.The model of the learning organization espouses an environment in which all individuals inthe organization are actively involved in both planning and participating in learningprogrammes adapted to the specific requirements of the changing work or socialenvironments in which they are placed. What are the implications for those involved indistance education?
In this paper we apply the concept of the learning organization to organizations,including distance education institutions, that have embarked or intend to embark on theuse of new technologies, particularly those involving networking activities through theuse of computer-mediated communication (CMC). We look at a variety of developments inSingapore, Europe and the Americas, using the metaphor of the learning organization as aconceptual framework. This is followed by some speculative scenarios for the future whichrelate to Indonesian distance education projects known to the authors. Finally we finishwith a suggested list of learnings that a distance education learning organization mightconsider in its efforts to learn from the experience of other users.
This section introduces the concepts of computer-mediated communication (CMC) and thelearning organization.
CMC is understood as “the use of computer systems and networks for the transfer,storage, and retrieval of information among humans” (Santoro, 1995). Santorodistinguishes three broad categories of CMC: computer conferencing involving directhuman to human communication which includes email, interactive messaging and groupconference support systems such as listserv, Usenet and bulletin boards systems; informaticswhich includes online public-access library catalogs (OPACs), interactive remote databasesand program/data archives; and computer-assisted instruction.
It seems likely that CMC in all the categories listed by Santoro will play a key rolein the future provision of distance education. Networking applications in the sense ofcomputer conferencing, using the computer as “transaction router” between peopleand to provide “simple storage and retrieval functions” are perhaps the mostprominent and promising application of CMC to distance education and this is the area onwhich we focus in this paper. Such applications of computer networking, however,frequently involve other categories of CMC.
Senge (1990) drew attention to and popularised the concept of the learningorganization. He distinguished five disciplines that are characteristic of a learningorganization: personal mastery; common mental models; shared vision; team learning;systems thinking. Of these five characteristics, systems thinking (viewing theobject of study as an interconnected, interactive whole to be systematically investigated)is the most important as it is the one that integrates and coordinates the other four.
Despite its origins in business, the concept of the learning organization applies byimplication to schools, colleges, universities and distance education systems, all ofwhich can be usefully studied as systems.
Mason (1993) notes that the metaphor of learning is only one of the many metaphors thathave been applied to business organizations. It may be one of the most fruitful comparedwith other popular metaphors such as the art of war. A learning metaphor suggestspossibilities of fruitful collaborative learning in which everyone benefits as comparedwith the concept of striving to maintain what must inevitably be a limited competitiveadvantage.
Mason further argues that learning may be strategic or routine. In routine learning onelearns to do more of the same in a more efficient way: in strategic learning, one learnsto do something different. In a learning organization it is strategic learning thatmakes the difference: learning which repositions the organization to take advantage of thechanging environment. On this view, only some organizations qualify to be classed aslearning organizations.
In this section we present a number of case examples from Singapore, Europe and theAmericas of how CMC networking is being applied and discuss some of the organizationallearning that is emerging.
Although Singapore is not an organization in the generally accepted sense, by virtue ofits small size, unique combination of attributes, and strong economic-focussed governmentleadership it qualifies in macro terms as a potential candidate. There can be no doubt ofa strong commitment to creating a climate for the increased use of information technologyand to ensuring that its people are educated and trained to standards benchmarked againstthe best of the rest of the world.
A 1992 survey (NCB, pp 42-3) found that compared with 68% in 1989, 84% of organizationsemploying 10 or more people were then computerised and in that time (since 1989) the ratioof employees per PC had decreased from 5 to 3.8. More recently, numerous developments havebeen reported in the Straits Times, particularly relating to the use of Internet which hasan estimated 10,000 private and business users, mostly through Singnet, as well as another50,000 technical and educational users of Technet, the government-funded Internet ServiceProvider, currently being privatised as Pacific Internet (Asia Magazine, September 3,1995).
The National Computer Board is “spearheading the IT2000 drive to link every home,office and government body though an intelligent communication network called the NationalInformation Infrastructure (NII).” (The Straits Times, September 28, 1995, p. 2.)Eventually, Singapore residents will be able to access this system of virtual governmentfrom home. In the meantime, video-conferencing booths will be installed in town centres toenable people to carry out transactions with government departments.
The Labour Ministry has an Internet site (The Straits Times, September 21, 1995) whichprovides labour related statistics and answers to commonly asked questions about the termsand conditions of employment in Singapore.
A further planned development for the NII (see above) is a community network which willenable people to talk to each other and to find out what is happening in their community.The motivation behind this is “to help cultivate this feeling of belonging to a placeand building up the civic institutions.”
An eight-year project, Corenet, has been started, using IT to streamline the process ofdesigning and constructing buildings (The Straits Times, Thursday, September 28, 1995, p.40). It will allow government agencies and professionals such as developers, architectsand engineers to communicate and exchange information. Currently property prices anddetails of upcoming condominium projects are available online. A system for checkingbuilding plans electronically is forecast to be available by the end of 1996.
The Law Society of Singapore is encouraging its members to use IT (The Straits Times,Wednesday, August 16, 1995, p.18). Among the changes reported are
Tourism being a major industry in Singapore, travel agents are being encouraged to usethe Information Super-Highway. It is predicted (The Straits Times, September 14, 1995)that the program infrastructure and information necessary for consumers to make enquiresand book travel via their home television sets, will probably be in place within fiveyears.
In education, polytechnics are generally well equipped with sophisticated networkedcomputer laboratories. Lecturers are encouraged to use multimedia in the lecturepresentations. Resources are channelled into developing software for use in the schools.
Despite the high profile given to technological applications in business in Singapore,there is a reluctance to use CMC to experiment with new approaches to teaching. The OpenUniversity (UK) courses are classroom-based. So are the many post-graduate courses offeredby other foreign institutions. The foreign institutions that operate in Singapore appearto be satisfied with setting up offices and classrooms, hiring local teachers forface-to-face lectures and tutorials and flying in their own staff periodically to meet thestudents and ensure that standards are met.
In the experience of one of the authors, the use of multimedia in the polytechnics isfocussed on the packaging of the traditional large group lecture format in more attractiveways. In one instance, a 'smart' lecture theatre has been developed that allows lecturersand students to interact electronically on, for example, answering multiple choicequestions. In another instance, a new self-access language learning facility is plannedaround the extensive use of printed modules supplemented by audio and video tapes, andsome interactive locally-developed computer packages. These have been largely developedthrough the individual initiatives of their authors with some management support, but arenot regarded from an institutional point of view as spearheading any revolutionary newshifts in the general approach to teaching. In one of the universities, the students usedthe university's Notes Conferencing system to start a “Deutsch Gossip Column”(German language discussion group). When the lecturer became aware of this and was invitedto participate, she encouraged the project and currently it is flourishing as an adjunctto the main classroom activities (Lewis and Morse, in press). However, the organizationalimplications of this use of CMC are still to be addressed.
The reasons for this reluctance may relate to the prevalent mind-set and culture andmay be comparable in some respects to the IBM case discussed further on. Singapore hasachieved spectacular progress using its current traditional exam-focussed educationalsystem and although the potential of CMC is recognised, it seems likely that there is afairly large learning curve to be traversed in using CMC in an interactive educationalcontext. This learning needs to occur on two levels: by the individual users, bothteachers and students, in using CMC as a learning medium; and the management, in takinginto account the implications of this new approach to learning for the system as a whole.
In this section we look at two European projects, ELNET and JITOL, which have activelyaimed to develop systems and collaborative learning approaches which make effective use ofthe new educational possibilities of advanced learning technologies.
ELNET, the European 'Business and Languages' Learning Network, (Davies, 1994) was avirtual learning organization based on 15 existing European educational institutions. Itoperated from 1990-1992 as a “multi-stranded pilot network of learning groups drawnfrom the United Kingdom, France and Germany” (Davies, p. 250), part of a much largerresearch and development program to encourage cross-European collaboration in educationand training making use of advanced communication technologies.
ELNET was “ ... an organization with a complex mix of technology and formal andsemi-formal agreements with educational institutions underpinned by non-formalinterpersonal links ... an example of a Distributed Learning System” (p. 251). Itsprimary objective was to 'develop strategies for learning in groups across time anddistance and culture in the business and languages domain” (p. 249). To assist usersto navigate in its text-based computer conferencing environment, ELNET was structuredusing the metaphor of a 'virtual college' with classrooms, a resource area and anadministration.
Davies identifies the learning from ELNET as deriving from a combination of newtechnology, the methodologies developed “to handle the new communication pathsoffered by these technologies” and the “access to authentic cross-Europeanresources and interaction”. These led to changes in the curriculum and changes in themethods used to teach and learn which emphasized active learning, collaborative grouplearning and inter-cultural learning.
The computer-mediated communication systems (CMCS) enabled continuous feedback to beprovided between learner and learner as well as the more traditional (and generally slowerand erratic) feedback from teacher to students. Access to learners from other culturesthrough CMCS provided resources for learning the language and learning about othercountries' business culture. Both students and tutors were involved collaboratively inlearning groups which discussed and compared the cultural differences in businessenvironments.
From this project, ELNET developed a checklist for establishing European LearningLinks:
These factors would seem to be applicable in a wider context to other organizations andsystems of distance education and particularly those which require the use of technologynew to the participants. Furthermore, the example serves to illustrate the essential needfor a total systems approach to planning and execution of such projects.
ELNET fits the concept of a learning organization. It was a virtual organizationlinking a number of institutions; its structure was modelled on a type of 'real'organization, a college; its focus was the development of strategies for learning ingroups rather than individual learning and as such, much collaborative team learning wasinvolved; there was a shared vision of intercultural learning. Also, the learning thatresulted could be described in Mason's terms as “strategic”: it was not simplydoing more of the same more effectively but involved changes both in the curriculum andteaching methods leading to active learning, collaborative group learning andinter-cultural learning.
The JITOL (Just-in-Time Open Learning) project (Goodyear & Steeples, 1992) targetsthe advanced learning technologies (ALT) industry and is a part of the EuropeanCommission's DELTA Programme.
It is an open learning as distinct from a distance education program. Goodyear &Steeples describe open learning as “learning that occurs ... where the learner has ahigh level of control over the location, timing, content and/or method of study” (p.164), noting that these four variables are not necessarily correlated. They challenge theview of open learning which sees it as an activity where a solitary learner usesself-study material. These they see as by-products “of the economics and socialorganization of learning” (p. 165) rather than intrinsic to the concept: openlearning need be neither solitary nor involve the use of self-study material.
The managers of the JITOL project have focussed on supporting interaction betweenpeople for both educational and economic reasons. Educationally, they list the value of
Economically, it is less expensive to provide a mixture of “ready-made learningresources and human interaction” rather than to maintain complete availability ofhigh quality, up to date resources appropriate to the needs of a variety of learners.Using computer conferencing, tutors and learners can discuss and comment on availablelearning material and these conferences can be archived to provide further resources.Because the discussion arises out of the perceived needs of the students, it is likely tobe highly relevant to students' learning needs.
Goodyear and Steeples enumerate a sequential list of tasks which they envisage learnersand tutors would engage in and then discuss a variety of IT tools which they have used tosupport these activities. Of particular interest is their discussion of the need for ahypertext-like environment in which users can work collaboratively to write, edit andgenerate databases of knowledge relating to the subject. They argue that users should haveto learn only one set of tools that enable them to define time, access and structuring ofinformation. At the time of writing they were developing software that would make possible“a collaborative hypertext environment ... , a multimedia database system and then asystem demonstrator which marries conferencing and multimedia” (p. 174).
The JITOL case is another example of strategic learning, in this case moving the focusof open learning from individual learners to the group. It also emphasizes the need for acollaborative team approach in which different perspectives on the same problem are sharedand discussed. This new approach to learning itself creates a need for new technologicaldevelopments in the form of shared software for a collaborative hypertext environment.
In North America, the training department of IBM operates as an independent companyunder the name “Skill Dynamics - USA” and “Skill Dynamics - Canada”.Many of the people who work in these departments are very experienced trainers andeducators. They have picked up their skills “on the job”, but often lack anyformal qualifications related to their profession. They have come into the trainingfunction from a variety of technical and administrative specialist areas, often because oftheir specialist subject matter knowledge.
The need for a more academic grounding and formal qualification for these staff wasrecognized. The management saw a growing need for formal qualification in the morescience-based aspects of the training profession. The staff themselves saw a need tocompete with recent graduates from HRD-related programmes in an increasingly tough jobmarket. Both sides wished to address the need for higher education without having eitherto resign from their jobs or take extensive periods of study leave. Skill Dynamicsgenerated a request for proposals to offer a flexible master's degree programme in“educational and training technology”, which could be studied at least partly ata distance. The proposal prepared by the Department of Instructional Design, Developmentand Evaluation (IDD&E) of Syracuse University was selected and in 1992 some 30professionals from Skill Dynamics commenced their course of study.
The IBM-Canada Master's Programme”, as it has come to be called, differs little incontent and structure from the regular master's degree in IDD&E offered on campus. Thecore courses are identical, but some elective courses have been designed specifically withthe IBM students in mind. The degree requirements (number and type of course credits,exams, projects, etc.) are identical, although more use is made of experience credits withthis group than is the norm with campus-based students.
The main difference is in the course delivery system. This is a mix of fairlyconventional group teaching sessions and electronically-mediated distance education. Theconventional classes are given on a “weekend-workshop” basis about once a monthin Toronto, at Skill Dynamics, using the facilities of their training centre. During theintervening weeks, students work with a variety of teaching and reference materials, notthat different from those used by the campus-based students, but they keep in touch withthe instructors and with each other by a combination of electronic mail andcomputer-mediated group discussion.
In many respects, the project is not all that “revolutionary”. Thetechnologies used are simple and have been available for some time. The reason forpresenting this case here is to illustrate that even a company as computer-sophisticatedas IBM, has to go through a process of learning in order to use CMC effectively foreducational purposes.
The first “learning experience” was in the setting up of the CMC system forthis project. All IBM offices in North America, and indeed all employees at theprofessional levels represented by this student group, are interlinked by rathersophisticated CMC systems that are used intensively for the processing of all manner ofwork. The IBM network and the productivity tools it supports appeared to be an idealenvironment in which to conduct the educational CMC group discussion activities that thestudy programme required. However, it turned out that there was an insuperable barrierhere: the Master's Programme course instructors and administrative staff were not IBMemployees. It proved impossible to bend the bureaucratic rules that limit access to theIBM CMC systems to IBM employees, even though the project was being executed for IBM atIBM's request. Possible weakening of the security system that protects company informationoutweighed any arguments for “effective educational communication” that theSkill Dynamics management could muster.
It was necessary to use the Syracuse University computer system as the host site andhave the IBM'ers telnet in to the group discussion sessions. Technically this was not sodifficult, but in the days before the Internet was open to all manner of users, thebureaucratic issues at both the IBM and university ends that had to be addressed in orderto achieve the required “connectivity” were quite formidable. We all learnedthat all that was being published on the topic of “global communications andconnectivity” was not as feasible as the technology experts would have us believe.
From an organizational learning perspective, there is a considerable“organizational learning curve” to be traversed before organizations not onlyassimilate a new technology like CMC into their culture, but also accommodate theirculture to be able to profit from the technology to the extent that is theoreticallypossible.
The second learning experience occurred during the actual courses, especially thosethat made quite intensive use of CMC.
The instructors and progamme administrators at Syracuse University expected that theIBM-Canada student group, being made up of regular computer users, would not exhibit someto the phobias and difficulties that were often observed among the regular campus-basedstudents. The IDD&E programme had been using CMC as an extension of classroom-basedactivities for some years. Many courses expected students to undertake electronicdiscussions of specific set topics in the periods between one class and the next. It istypically observed that students fall into three groups: regular and intensivecontributors to the discussion; occasional or once only contributors; and those who nevercontribute anything, although many do generally read what others have contributed. Therelative proportions of these groups varies somewhat, dependent on several factors (classsize, content of course, type of topic, etc.) and it has been noticed that over the yearsas the general “computer literacy” levels of students have increased, there hasbeen a slight tendency for the intensive contributor group to grow in relative size.
In the case of the IBM'ers, there were several factors which led us to expect a muchhigher than average level of contribution: the greater maturity and seriousness of thisgroup of students, the uniformly high level of computer skills, the daily use of CMCtechnologies as part of the normal work routine; the fact that this was a distanceeducation programme and the CMC activities were not peripheral but mainstream componentsof the course.
It was quite a surprise, therefore, to discover that the rates of participation of thisgroup were not radically different from typical on-campus student groups. Investigationrevealed a very similar set of reasons given for non-participation: feeling uncomfortablewith the asynchronous nature of the group discussion; concern with putting personalviewpoint into the relatively permanent medium of print and the relatively public accessoffered by the network; finding that “everything I wanted to say has been saidalready by someone else”. In short, the much higher levels of computer-use skillspossessed by this group were not sufficient to make them comfortable users of CMC foreducational purposes. As one of the students said when interviewed on this subject:
“When we started to use computer-conferencing in this course, I expected the sortof superficial chat that often passes for conferencing in our regular work-related use ofCMC. But the nature of the conversation in our course is quite different. And the way tobest participate in the conversation is not clear at first. I started out thinking that Iwould be bored by having to use the computer network for yet one more type of activity.But now I see that the way we are using it is so different from what we do in our job,that I have had to learn a whole new set of skills in order to participate usefully in theconference. I think that with all the computer expertise I have, learning to use the CMCsystem to effect was the biggest challenge of the course.”
The full name of this university is the “Universidad Nacional Experimental SimonRodriguez” or UNESR. The added word “experimental” in the title indicatesthat this university has been singled out to be the test-bed for innovations in highereducation. The university is not at all typical as, although not exceedingly large innumbers, it operates no fewer than 30 separate campuses, one in Caracas and the others indifferent provinces. It is therefore a “Universidad Nacional” in more than justthe name.
One challenge for the university is to grow from a consortium of “localcommunity-focussed colleges” to be a university of national stature and a leader ininnovation. One strategy is to pool the resources (human, material, informational) of theseparate campuses and make all of them available and usable at all campuses. This is to beachieved by the electronic networking of the separate campuses so as to effectively createone “virtual campus”. This is a major undertaking, and the technological aspectsof the necessary network facilities and infrastructure are only part of the problem.Another is the preparation of the organizational climate and the development of the humanresources necessary to make the project a success. As a part of the organizationaldevelopment, the UNESR is sending many of its key faculty members on study internshipsoverseas. Currently, there are 11 such interns spending a period of 10 months at theIDD&E department of Syracuse University, where they are studying various aspects ofthe utilization of technology in higher education. This group is the first of several thatwill study technology applications abroad. The IDD&E department is expecting to hostsome 30 more such interns over the next two years.
As the visiting scholars are being selected on the basis of their roles in UNESR andtheir skills relative to the “virtual campus” project, the normal internselection criteria related to language skills are not being applied. Consequently, thegroup of 11 interns currently in the USA arrived with varying levels of English languageability, from excellent to nearly non-existent.
For many of the group, the first two months in the USA were devoted to intensive,full-time, English language learning. This apparent “problem” was seen as a formof “opportunity”. Although conventional language teaching methodologies werealso used, a large part of the intensive and individualized programme was made availablethrough “technology-based training”: interactive video; CD-ROM multimediamaterials; the Internet.
The setting up of this English Language Learning Centre within the IDD&E was itselfa learning experience for Syracuse University - not only as regards the technology-basedaspects of materials selection, evaluation and integration, but even more as regardsorganizational aspects. It was not easy for the university to learn why this particularform of language teaching should be preferred for this particular group: that throughusing technology to learn English they were also achieving their primary goal as interns— to learn about the use of technology in education. It was even more difficult forthe university to understand why a language teaching system was being set up and operatedin the School of Education, rather than in the School of Languages and why this should beseen as an opportunity for interdisciplinary learning rather than an infringement ofacademic turf.
The use of CMC techniques on the Internet was a learning experience for all concerned.The particular use of the Internet was to access some of the MUD's (Multi-User Domains)and especially MOO's (MUD's - Object Oriented) that have sprung up on the Internet. A MUDis what it says: a domain or “place” in cyberspace where multiple users cancongregate in real time and exchange information, viewpoints, ideas, on the subject (ordomain) to which the particular MUD is devoted. A MOO is a MUD within which the users cancreate a form of “virtual reality” by creating “objects” that remainbehind when the particular user logs off. Thus the environment of a MOO is ever changingas different people interact with what they find there when they log on and then createnew things for other users to interact with. Most current MOO's are limited to text-onlycommunication. Nevertheless, the verbal “worlds” that the users create have aform of reality that often generates a level of fascination and involvement among usersthat borders on addiction. There are several MOO's in existence that are devoted tolanguage learning (or improvement). The user who logs on will typically meet otherlearners of the same language at different levels of ability, and also native speakers. Asthey interact, these users help each other to improve their use of the (written) language.
The Venezualan interns were introduced to a MOO devoted to the English language. Oncethey overcame their inhibitions and the novelty of interacting in real-time CMC withpeople they had never met, most of the interns, became avid users of the MOO. Not onlythose who really needed to improve their English, but also their more advanced colleagues,spent hours happily interacting in cyberspace, the more advanced ones helping the othersto improve, but also often being helped by some stranger they met (maybe a native speaker)who would comment on some aspect of the communication (s)he had “overheard”. Inno time, the interns (who had largely travelled alone to the USA) had involved theirfamily members and friends back in Venezuela (those who had access to the Internet) andalso some of the other UNESR faculty members who were scheduled to go abroad at a laterdate.
One organizational learning effect of this experience has been to motivate both theUNESR faculty members and the administration to engage in technology-based languagelearning activities prior to departure for an overseas internship.
The “Escola do Futuro” is not really a school as such. It is a researchprogramme devoted to investigating the impact and appropriate use of technology ineducation in the future. The programme commenced some five years ago in the School ofCommunication and Art at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Since then it has grown tobecome an independent research-and-development institute within the university. Itsupports itself almost entirely by external grants and funded projects and supports over100 research staff largely funded by a scholarship programme operated by the Braziliangovernment.
The School of the Future supports several projects that utilize and/or investigate theutilization of CMC. One of the four major sub-divisions of the programme is devoted to theuse of computer networks, including but not exclusively the Internet, in education. Manyof these projects may serve as case examples of how the educational institutions that getinvolved in the use of networks for learning must themselves pass through a learningprocess in order to both assimilate the technology and accommodate to it.
One lesson that is being learned in many of the projects is that once theinfrastructure is in place, many of the most useful and most creative uses of networkingare generated “from the bottom up” by the students themselves and theirimmediate teachers. The acceptance of this phenomenon is not always easy in anorganizational context where it is traditional to plan education (including educationalinnovation) 'from the top down” by federal, state or municipal task forces whodevelop major funded projects to be adopted and implemented by the schools.
Many of the early CMC projects that were planned top-down involved the networking of aset of schools, often private schools owned by the same organization, and then imposing ajoint project. An example may be a science study project in which all the networkedschools are required to participate by performing some local research (perhaps on theweather or on local wild life) and then emailing their findings to a common database. Acommon problem with this form of project (observed in Europe and the USA as well as inBrazil) is that the use of the resultant database varies widely from school to school. Theproject almost obliges the collaborating schools to create and submit part of theinformation in the database, but does little to ensure that the data is used to effectiveeducational purpose, or indeed used at all.
In contrast, many bottom-up projects of the cross-cultural communication andinterchange type are born with little need for incentive from the top, provided thenetworking infrastructure is in place. In both types of projects, however, the schoolsinvolved must not only learn to “work the technology” but must also learn how toget some form of “added value” from their use of the technology.
One interesting project that was born “bottom-up” occurred in 1992 when Riode Janeiro hosted the UNESCO-sponsored World Ecology Conference. At that time the Schoolof the Future was networking a mere handful of schools in different regions of Brazil. Afew of these schools, located in Rio, came up with the idea of interviewing the variousdignitaries visiting the conference and otherwise “playing journalist” in orderto circulate their daily news journal electronically to other interested schools. The ideawas picked up by the School of the Future researchers and somewhat expanded. Rather thanmerely circulating the news items to the few Brazilian schools that were networked at thattime, why not use the University of Sao Paulo's link to Bitnet in order to circulate thejournal worldwide. After all, the conference was of international interest and importance.
The Rio children did a good job of playing journalist and on a daily basis emailedtheir messages to the university department of languages. There the messages weretranslated into English, improved editorially and the resultant daily newspaper on theEcology Conference was circulated via Bitnet to schools in dozens of countries and read bymany thousands of school children, many of whom sent back messages to the journalist team.The whole project was not supported by a special budget, and it took only a matter ofweeks from the idea to the reality. Many lessons of both inter- and intra-organizationalcollaboration were learned as a by-product of this simple and short student-generated CMCproject.
In this section we present three scenarios relating ongoing or planned distanceeducation projects in Indonesia, that are known to the authors, with the technicalpotential of CMC and the theoretical construct of the learning organization.
Universitas Terbuka, Indonesia's Open University is, in terms of sheer number ofstudents, one of the major institutions of its type in the world. Upwards of one third ofa million students are registered annually. Most of the basic instruction is currentlygiven by means of printed modules that are circulated to the students through the mail.Tutorial support is given by a variety of means, but the most common forms areface-to-face tutorials (where these are viable) and personal correspondence. The questionof "viability" is critical in this respect.
Students in the large urban areas, and even more, students who are registered asa group by their employers, have the physical opportunity to gather together ingroups with a tutor. Even in these favored urban locations, not all students canparticipate in group tutorials, as these have to be payed for, unless a sponsoringemployer is covering the cost. Poorer students and all students resident in outlying areashave to rely on the distance-delivered tutorial support alternatives, the most availableand most common of which is to exchange letters with course tutors. This method oftutorial support is not very effective due to a combination of factors which have beenfully researched (Iskandar, 1994).
One important factor is the relatively limited number of tutors available to respond to students. Another is the often long time delay (several weeks)between a student writing to a tutor and receiving a reply (an outcome of theprevious factor compounded by the slow postal service). The outcome is a sort oftwo-class system: the "elite" who are in a position to participate ingroup face-to-face tutorials, and the others who for various reasons cannot. Theparadox of this situation is that it is this latter group who is particularlyoutside the reach of the conventional universities.
Some two years ago, a proposal to develop a solution was prepared by the Department ofInstructional Design, Development and Evaluation of Syracuse University. Thisproposal suggested a relatively "low-technology" system of tutorialsupport, based on a combination of the use of the national fax system and the localWartels (telephone offices) to reduce the communication delays, and a computer-managedsystem for the generation of routine feedback to students on their assignments to reducethe workload of the existing tutors and allow them to respond faster and better to morestudents (Romiszowski, 1993). This proposal is still under analysis, now being part of abroader proposal for a programme of research and development on alternativestrategies for the application of new technologies in Universitas Terbuka (Nilan et. al.1995).
In the meantime, access to the Internet has become more available and more affordable. In particular, current plans to make Internet access one of the standard services available to all citizens at the local Wartels are becoming a reality. When that happens, it will make a lot more sense, both economically and technically, to use the Internet services as the carrier of messages between students and tutors. The Internet also offers further opportunities for innovation. In addition to one-on-one tutorial exchange, it becomes technically feasible to direct the same message to a group. The group tutorials now restricted to certain privileged groups of students could be offered to the vast majority of Universitas Terbuka students. Furthermore, in other similar contexts where networking facilities have been made available, for example the British Open University (Mason 1989), the students have developed creative ways of using the network to form self-support and study groups. Indeed, in the British O.U. experience it was the students more than the staff who were instrumental in using the network for the benefit of the course. It was because of the students' activities that network services became an essential component of the delivery system of many distance education courses.
What does such a scenario imply for the organization? What will tutors, administrators and top management (as well as of course the students) of Universitas Terbuka have to learn in order to assimilate such changes. Whatwill the organization as a whole have to learn in order to accommodate its structure,culture and climate so as to make it possible for the changes to take effect? How willthis learning process be planned and implemented? To what extent is UniversitasTerbuka today a "learning organization" as defined earlier in this paper?Or what steps have to be taken in order to transform the university into a learningorganization?
For an organization the size and complexity of Universitas Terbuka, such questions never have simple answers. And the answers can only be found by thesystematic application of systemic analysis, aided perhaps by the application of neuralnetwork theory. (Some discussion of the potential relevance of neural network theory todistance education systems may be found in another paper by Lewis and Tien, 1995, alsopresented at this conference.)
Indonesia's current 5-year development plan, which went into operation in May 1995, envisages a massive increase in small business formation as one of the routes toward full employment and general prosperity. To make this vision a reality, many thousands of new small business owners and managers will have to be formed. They will need training and support in order to develop the skills of successfully launching and profitably operating a new business - the so-called "entrepreneurial skills". The training and development department of the Ministry of Industry is in the process of planning an approach to this massive training challenge. For a number of fairly obvious reasons, distance education is being considered as an attractive alternative to conventional training systems. But what form of distance education system will make most sense in this context?
The more "conventional" forms of distance education based on printed study modules (of which there are several examples in Indonesia in the professional training sector as well as the more academic courses of Universitas Terbuka) are seen to be not fully adequate to the task. One reason is the sort of experience described in the previous scenario: the difficulty of offering effective and efficient tutorial support to trainees scattered the length and breadth of the Indonesian Archipelago. Another is the relatively low level of schooling that may be expected among some of the candidates for small business ownership, which would imply a lack of the habit of studying alone from books. A more mediated and more interactive form of distance education is seen as better meeting the requirements of the trainee population.
How should such a more ambitious distance education project be planned and implementedin the Indonesian reality? What are the technological resources and opportunities thatcould be economically made available for such a project? What are the social andeconomic forces that may restrict what is viable or affordable? Could such a systemoperate on the relatively "closed" model of specific programmes of coursesleading to some form of "certificate of entrepreneurship" that is the hallmarkof most of Indonesia's conventional education and training systems today? Or does theproblem demand a more flexible solution: a more "open" systemof professional training than any currently in place; more open, and openin many more senses, than the Universitas Terbuka model? How could the plannedsolution best use new technologies: for mass dissemination of standard informationpackages, or for the creation of opportunities for small business owners to help eachother, and in so doing to help themselves to develop their entrepreneurial skills? As inthe previous scenario, these questions indicate the complexity of the problem to besolved, and therefore imply that the answers are likely to be similarly complex (one ofthe principles of general systems theory: the control system must be as complex and haveas many degrees of freedom as the system that it is attempting to control). In short, theapplication of a systems approach to the problem, within an organizational context thatis willing to learn (both assimilate innovation and accommodate itself to allow theinnovation to flourish), is essential in order to come up with a viable and long lastingsolution.
The organizational learning process may be facilitated by the study of other similarorganizations in other places or contexts that have gone through a similar problem-solvingprocess. One of the authors of the present paper has recently been working with anorganization called SEBRAE, which is the Brazilian Government's service of support andtraining for medium, small and "micro" businesses. This organization has beenoperating a relatively conventional system of entrepreneurship training for decades. Now,for reasons similar to those occurring within the Indonesian economy, Brazil is rethinkingits strategy for the next few decades. One outcome of this rethinking is the concept ofthe "Open School" for small business entrepreneurs (SEBRAE, 1995).
The driving idea behind the "Open School" is to make it possible forthe small business manager/owner to access information, either for reference or forlearning purposes, at the exact time when that information is going to be ofpractical use. The concept of "just-in-time training" is at the heart ofthe Open School. With the proliferation of computers as the general purposeadministration tool, even in small business contexts (see the Singapore case examplequoted earlier), and the advent of universal access to the Internet (see both theSingapore case and the Universitas Terbuka scenario), the technologicalinfrastructure that could support such an Open School is rapidly becoming availablein most countries. But this infrastructure, although a necessary condition, isby no means sufficient to enable such an information/training systemto flourish. Another important condition is that the potential users ofthe system learn how to use it effectively. In addition to acquiring new skillsof self-directed study, the small business owner will have to learn how to use theOpen School services. This goes beyond acquiring the knowledge and skills ofoperating the hardware and software. As the IBM-Canada case example illustrated, aneven more challenging learning task is to master the skills of collaborative learningat a distance. And let us make no mistake - a large part of the learning in suchan "Open School of Entrepreneurship" must be collaborative smallgroup learning. The nature of the content and the objectives of a coursein entrepreneurship dictate that much of the learning activity mustbe "experiential". This, in turn, dictates that the teaching methods mustbe "conversational": they must involve the interchange andcritical evaluation of students' original ideas and viewpoints (a fulldiscussion of these issues may be found in another paper by Romiszowski andLewis, 1995, also presented at this conference). This presents thesecond learning challenge, and perhaps the most critical "necessarycondition" for the project to succeed: the need for the host organization togo through a learning process that will enable it to assimilate the concepts andprinciples that underly successful distance-learning of higher order knowledgeand skills and accommodate its own structure and culture so as to enable theseconcepts and principles to be embodied in the new system's structure and operationalprocedures. The analysis/synthesis process involved in the design of the new systemmust be truly "systemic", involving not only the proposed system (OpenSchool of Entrepreneurship), but also the supra-system within which the new systemmust operate (in the Brazilian case, SEBRAE; in the Indonesian case, the Ministryof Industry and its related executing agencies) and the client-system that is tobe served (the small business owners and managers who are, in Indonesia as in Brazil,geographically scattered and culturally diverse).
Perhaps one part of this essential learning process could itself be achievedthrough some form of collaborative-learning interchange between Indonesia and Brazil:two countries both of sub-continental size, at similar stages of industrial andsocio-economical development, with many similar problems to solve, and both at thistime facing the specific problems of the small business entrepreneur.
The final Indonesia-related scenario we would like to discuss is the case of thehosts of this conference: the Indonesian Distance Learning Network (IDLN). The IDLNis an organization specifically set up to help other organizations involved indistance education to learn from each other as well as from other external sources(visiting scholars and consultants, study tours to overseas institutions, conferencessuch as the present one). It would appear that, by definition, the IDLN isa learning organization. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say that the IDLNexists as a forum and catalyst to help its member institutions become learningorganizations. In this sense, it is a "teaching organization" or again moreaccurately a "facilitating organization".
How may we picture the position of the IDLN with respect to new technologies and,particularly, CMC? If, as many believe, CMC systems are destined to become majorcomponents in most distance education systems of the future (and we believe, mosteducational systems as distance education becomes incorporated into the mainstream ofconventional education), then one of the major roles of the IDLN will be tofacilitate the process of adoption and use of CMC by its member institutions. Inso doing, the IDLN will also take an active role in teaching itsmember institutions the knowledge and skills that are necessary toplan, implement and manage educational CMC systems cost/effectively. In order tobe able to teach its members, the IDLN must first learn. And at the present stage ofdevelopment (and the very rapid rate of innovation) of new technologies andeducational CMC applications in particular, this learning process will involve anactive agenda of research and development: research on a worldwide basis of newdevelopments, opportunities and the results actually being achieved indistance education applications; development in the Indonesian context,focussed on the adoption and adaptation of technologies and systems thatmake sense in the local context. Thus, the IDLN may be seen quite clearlyas being both a "learning organization" and a"teaching/facilitating" organization. In both of these roles, the adoptionof a total systems approach would appear to be essential in order to deal with thesize and complexity of the (Indonesian education/training) problems beingfaced and the (new technology) opportunities that are presenting themselvesas candidate components of possible solutions.
We have looked at a variety of “organizations”, some “real” andsome “virtual” that make extensive use of CMC, applying the metaphorical conceptof the learning organization, and asking what learning can be derived for distancelearning systems embarking on the use of CMC in teaching and learning.
There can be no easy answers and quick fixes when dealing with an organization ascomplex as a distance education system. In this section we list a few observations,suggesting some items for a future research agenda, and present a Table of putative“Success Factors” for consideration.
From the foregoing, there appear to be at least two general considerations which adistance learning organization should bear in mind when considering the use of CMC.Relating to these considerations are a number of possible research directions.
The IBM and Singapore examples suggest that familiarity with CMC technology and theability to apply it in one context do not necessarily guarantee the ability or themotivation to use it successfully in a distance learning context or indeed to integrate itin a major way into a new teaching programme. This suggests that a distance learningorganization should be pursuing at least three lines of research (comparable to the threelevels of technical, strategic, and policy considerations characteristic of a qualitymanagement system): how best to ensure that learners have the necessary technical skillsto cope with the medium; how best to ensure that learners acquire relevant intellectualand psychological strategies to gain the most benefit from the use of CMC; and what arethe cultural and motivational factors that influence the adoption of CMC technology in ateaching and learning environment.
When CMC networking begins to be used seriously, the nature of the teaching andlearning environment is inevitably changed. New possibilities appear. Students relatedifferently to each other and to the teacher. In the Deutsch Gossip Column referred toearlier, for example, the students started to produce their own lists of German grammarand syntax and to refer each other to the relevant parts. In the traditional classroomthis would unquestionably be regarded as the teacher's responsibility.
This suggests a further research agenda which could include on the operational level aninvestigation of the “optimum mix” of CMC and other learning activities toenhance the learning environment for students and teachers; and on the systems level, aninvestigation of the decision-making factors which influence the level of support given toinnovations in teaching.
As a start to the learning process, we present a synthesis of some of the findings todate on the educational use of CMC. The following is a comparative list of factorsidentified in the reporting of a variety of CMC projects. These factors either contributeto the success or otherwise of CMC projects or are a direct or indirect benefit of usingCMC. The categories we have identified are: technology-related; organizational; personal;pedagogic; cost and resource related.
Table 1. Indicators of success
| Possible Success Factors | Possible Contra-indicative Factors | |
| Technology-related | Can save time in distributing information. (But only if the informants are regularly using a computer for other functions.) | CDs are unsuitable for reading on the bus (but how many people regularly read on the bus?) |
| Can ensure that users receive timely up-to-date information appropriate to their needs | ||
| Developments should focus on methods of communicating that support sharing of knowledge in a community of learners, recognising that “much useful knowledge is held in the minds of practitioners” | Downloading & printing can take hours | |
| Developments should focus on systems that enable interactions amongst learners to be easily stored & re-accessed as new sources of knowledge by future learners. | Competition between manufacturers to produce the latest gizmo can ignore the real needs of the likely users | |
| Focus on identifying/creating communal transparent tools for creating, reading, editing & storing files | A 'good' software program can act as a benchmark to shape expectations and inhibit development of alternative approaches. | |
| Organizational | Leadership & ongoing support from senior management | Advance of technology shifts task focus and expectations. Many hours can be 'wasted' on getting a document to look right rather than on structuring the content of the document. |
| Blend of public & private involvement in developments | ||
| Creating a climate for the use of technology in learning | Lack of adequate timescale to implement | |
| Organizational leadership which supports & encourages local initiatives | Lack of detailed planning | |
| Collaborative team work which draws on a variety of experience & expertise to develop & implement agreed initiatives | Lack of formalised agreements to sustain commitment though difficulties and problems | |
| Adequate technical backup | Non-educational considerations take precedence over educational priorities | |
| Adequate initial & ongoing training for users in all categories | ||
| Adopting an “incremental elicitation of users' needs” approach | ||
| Personal | Willingness to use the technology | |
| Tolerance of problems with the interface | ||
| Access to technical help to sort out interface & other technical problems | ||
| 24 hour access to a computer with a modem & telephone line | ||
| Willingness to adopt a collaborative approach | ||
| Willingness to spend time in initial needs analysis, negotiation & front end planning | ||
| Pedagogic | Collaborative learning approach | |
| Bottom-up initiative that uses existing infrastructure | Assumption that keyboarding and cmc navigational tools can simply be 'picked up' without specific instruction | |
| Encouraging the development of learning links with other similar institutions | ||
| Providing links with Internet resources such as MOO's and MUD's | Assumption that familiarity with the technology will automatically facilitate the use of CMC as a learning tool | |
| Cost & resource-related | Can supplement interactive computer-based resources with 'live' interaction which is then archived for future use. | High cost of maintaining up-to-date computer-based learning resources |
| Can eliminate time spent in creating, maintaining & servicing mailing list by putting all relevant information, properly labelled, on a central server and allowing recipients to read & download what is relevant to them | Rate of technological innovation is faster than human capability of learning | |
| Management has committed adequate resources over a period of time | The more advanced, the more to go wrong | |
| Time spent in initial comparison of systems, planning, etc | ||
| Downtime when hardware/software has problems |
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