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Gray, Lynton; Warrender, Ann-MarieEvidence for Action. Papers Prepared for FEFC'sLearning & Technology Committee. FEDA Paper.Further Education Development Agency, London(England).

ISSN-1361-99779624p.

Further Education Development Agency, PublicationsDept., Mendip Centre, Blagdon, Bristol BS18 6 RG,United Kingdom (6.50 pounds).Reports Research/Technical (143) Collected Works

Serials (022)FE Matters; vl n5 1996

MF01/PC01 Plus Postage.Adult Education; *Community Colleges; Computer Usesin Education; Distance Education; Educational Change;*Educational Practices; *Educational Technology;Educational Trends; Foreign Countries; *IndustrialTraining; Internet; *Multimedia Instruction; OpenEducation; Student Centered Curriculum; TechnicalInstitutes; Technological Advancement; Two YearCollegesCanada; *United Kingdom; United States

ABSTRACTThis document contains four reports on technology and

further education (FE) that Lynton Gray and Ann-Marie Warrenderprepared for the Further Education Funding Council's Learning andTechnology Committee. The first report, "Main Themes from Learning &Technology Committee Press Surveys," examines three themes that wereidentified during a review of British press coverage of the role ofinformation/learning technologies in FE: technological developments,organizational changes and learning applications. "Learning andTechnology in American Community Colleges," which is based onmaterials presented at an American Association of Community Collegesconvention, discusses the following topics: technology and teaching,distance learning, technologies and the Internet, and industry andstudent-centered learning. "Multimedia and Education," which is basedon materials presented at an Association for the Advancement ofComputing in Education conference, examines the following topics:technology for teachers, breaching the technological barriers, theimpact of national initiatives, publishing and multimedia, andCanada's Open Learning Agency. "Learning Technologies in IndustrialTraining" explains the uses of information and learning technologiesby a small sample of British companies in their own trainingprograms. The implications of the four papers- for reform of FE aresummarized in a final section titled "Evidence for Action." (MN)

Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be madefrom the original document.

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Lynton Gray and Ann-Marie Warrender Volume i Number 5

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Further EducationDevelopment Agency

Evidence for action

Papers prepared for FEFC's Learning& Technology CommitteeLynton Gray and Ann-Marie Warrender

FE MATTERSFEDA paper

Copyright © Further Education DevelopmentAgency 1996

Registered charity: 104415

ISSN: 1361-9977

Cover design: Mike Pope. Thanks to HaltonCollege for the photograph and to the Guardian,Daily Telegraph and Independent.

Designer: Mike Pope

Editor: Oliver Thornton

Printer: Blackmore Press, Shaftesbury, Dorset

FE MATTERS FEDA paper 4

ContentsIntroduction 3

1. Main themes from Learning &Technology Committee press surveys 5

Technological developments

Organisational changes

Learning applications

2. Learning and technology in Americancommunity colleges 11

Technology and teaching

Distance learning

Technologies and the Internet

Industry and student-centred learning

Summary

3. Multimedia and education 15

Technology for teachers

Breaching the technological barriers

The impact of national initiatives

Publishing and multimedia

The Open Learning Agency

Conclusions

4. Learning technologies in industrialtraining 18

5. Evidence for action 20

FEDA publications 22

5FE MATTERS FEDA paper

IntroductionThe findings and recommendations of theFurther Education Funding Council's Learning& Technology Committee were published inJanuary 1996. From its outset in October 1993the Committee sought support from The StaffCollege (later FEDA) in undertaking researchand providing information on issues relating tothe applications of technology in supportinglearning. This included the preparation of anumber of reports and background papers forthe committee, as well as a regular presscuttings service.

A report on the major Staff College researchprogramme for the committee, on the uses ofinformation and learning technologies inEnglish further education colleges waspublished by FEDA in September 1995 (Learningand technology in further education colleges,Lynton Gray and Ann-Marie Warrender). Thisissue of FE Matters brings together another fourreports and papers prepared over the past 18months by the same two researchers for theCommittee. They are published as acontribution to the debate across the FE sectorfollowing the publication of the Committee'sfinal report. Some of the papers have beenrevised in the light of further investigations bythe FEDA research team. Between them, theyshould provide a flavour of the evidence whichhelped the Committee arrive at itsrecommendations.

The first paper draws together the main themesfrom the regular press surveys undertaken fromOctober 1993 to July 1995 for the Committee byThe Staff College /FEDA Information Service,amounting to over 2,000 items. The paper isorganised in the three broad categories in whichthe press cuttings were catalogued for thecommittee:

technological developments

organisational changeslearning applications

This review of nearly two years' press coverageof information and learning technologies isinevitably partial. It provides insights into therapidly changing technologies and theirapplications in the FE environment over the

period that the Learning & TechnologyCommittee came to the conclusions andrecommendations of its final report.

The second and third papers are based onreports to the committee on visits to majorNorth American conferences, organised by theAmerican Association of Community Colleges(Paper 2) and the Association for theAdvancement of Computing in Education(Paper 3). The reports drew on conferencepresentations and demonstrations along withvisits to innovative community colleges inMinnesota and British Columbia. The paperspoint to some (then) current applications oftechnology relevant to FE colleges as well as theaspirations of users from further technologicalprogress.

The final paper summarises a more detailedreport prepared for the committee on the usesbeing made of information and learningtechnologies by a small sample of major Britishcompanies in their own training programmes.The companies share with the Americancolleges of the two previous papers an emphasison using technologies to support relativelytraditional classroom-based and instructor-ledteaching rather than individualised anddistance learning.


1. Main themes fromLearning & TechnologyCommittee press surveysFrom its third meeting in March 1994 until July1995, the committee made use of a regular presscuttings service to help keep track ofdevelopments relevant to its work. The presscuttings were organised in three broadcategories:

technological developments

organisational changes

pedagogical applicationsKey themes arising from the press surveys ineach of these categories are summarised below.

Technological developments

Technology and the labour market

There has been much press coverage of ways inwhich developments in IT have made a cost-effective and flexible workforce the inevitableway forward for British companies. They arematched by more critical reports thattemporary, fixed term contracts are on theincrease with one-third of companies employ-ing senior staff on a relatively short-termcontractual basis. 'Flexitime' technologiessupport these trends. The belief that IT offersincreased opportunities for female workers isdented by reports of trends. Various pressreports indicate that most of the studentsenrolled on university IT-related courses aremale and only ten per cent of members of theBritish Computer Society are female.

Many press reports have plotted ways in whichtechnology has reduced and deskilled theworkforce. Many traditional jobs have becomeobsolete, but this has led to greater efficiencyand greater customer satisfaction. An increasingnumber of companies now employ'teleworkers' staff who work on computersfrom home, heralding the age of the 'virtualoffice'. One company in seven in a recent 300company survey uses teleworkers.

The long-promised 'paperless office' is still a longway off: only five per cent of global information

7

is stored on-line and computers are stimulatingthe sales of printers, fax machines and paper.

Technology is reported as a means of checkingand reversing rural depopulation and economicdecline. 'Electronic community' experiments inrural Wales, the Hebrides and Bristol haveattracted press coverage with their promises,not yet fulfilled, of teleworking andtelelearning.

New products and new technologiesComputer hardware doubles in power everyyear and a half. Much of the extra power isrequired, however, to drive increasinglysophisticated and disc-hungry software. Inconsequence, both hardware and softwarerapidly become obsolete.

Press coverage tends to polarise choices TV orthe PC, cable or satellite, BT or its competitors,and CD-ROM or the Internet. The PC rather thanthe TV set is forecast as the focus for multimediaservices in the home. Multimedia PCs packagedin a single cabinet including CD player, stereosystem, a TV and video player, telephone-answering system and facsimile machine,complete with modem for attachment to thetelephone network, are already available. In1994 world-wide sales of multimedia personalcomputers quadrupled. However, reportedresearch by market analyst IDC found that only25 per cent of UK households had a PC, withonly ten per cent thinking of making a purchasethis year and two-thirds of households havingno purchase plans.

There is extensive coverage of TV-based video-on-demand trials which incorporate homeshopping (more popular with the press thanwith consumers), video games and sports.

CD-ROMs are ten years old, with costs falling,capacity increasing and sales of players anddiscs booming in USA and Europe. Coveragehas focused on:

the relative merits of CD-ROM and theInternet as interactive data-carryingmediaCD-ROMs that combine elements ofeducation and information withentertainment (edutainment)


the fortunes of competing systemsCD -I, CDTV, etc.

new products including high densityvideo CDS, CD Plus and CD recordersfor home recording

Progress towards the 'one-step' deviceintegrating PC and TV has been a regularforecast, with the expectation that the PC willsupplant the TV as the heart of the household'edutainment' system.

There has been much press interest in thepromises and problems of handwriting andvoice recognition. The promises are thatkeyboards will 'within months' becomeredundant, but the problems en route are welldocumented.

Smart cards (plastic cards embedded with acomputer chip) are forecast to become part ofdaily life. Their potential uses to claimbenefit payments, pay road tolls, pay-for-TVservices attract stories that they willcompletely replace the role of cash. The pilotscheme in Swindon whereby people can assignas much cash as they like into their card forimmediate use was scrutinised. The presscoverage highlighted potential problems,including infringement on civil liberties, as itwould essentially be an ID card.

The falling costs of virtual reality games, usingcheap (£200) headsets, feature strongly in recentstories about the changing market for computergames. Multimedia applications on opensystems are expected by most reporters toreplace the current generation of cartridgegames on dedicated games machines.

The Internet

The Internet is now 27 years old, but has hadmore press coverage in the last year than in therest of its history. Its growth in terms of usersand the Internet access industry is plottedregularly: in August 1995 it was estimated thatthere were six million host computers and 60million users with at least one million moresigning up each month. It is anticipated that theInternet will be a part of most homes inindustrialised countries within a decade, but islikely to exclude poor and elderly people.

6 FE MATTERS FEDA paper

Much of the coverage is sensationalised withstories about pornography easily accessible tochildren. Other coverage offers instruction inInternet access, browsers, uses and 'netiquette'.Some is disparaging, describing it as a 'networkfor academics and boffins' and likening it to amuddy pathway rather than a superhighway('the superhypeway'). Problems of encryptionand authentication of e-mail messages still needto be resolved.

Applications include seeking jobs anduniversity /college places. Companies arereported to be using the Internet increasinglyfor selling products, with claims that it offerssmall businesses and large organisationsexcellent opportunities to advertise theirproducts to a potentially very large audience.Other reports are more sceptical, claiming thatits main uses will remain education andentertainment.

The Clinton/Gore advocacy of the informationsuperhighway in the US government's NationalInformation Infrastructure: Agenda for Actionhas attracted speculation about UKgovernmental interest in information highwaysand on-line services. Proposals from theDepartments of Trade & Industry, Educationand National Heritage in 1994-5 attractedmoderate press coverage, as did Labour Partyproposals for a cable-based University forIndustry and a new regulatory frameworkwhich would empower BT to provide optic fibreconnections to every home in Britain.

Crime and security

Press interest in crime is as marked intechnology reports as elsewhere. Enterprisinghackers get full press coverage, especiallywhere their targets are banks and governmentoffices. Corporate crime involves supplyingcounterfeit software products and patentoffences.

As Internet facilities increase, their criminalapplications interest the press, who ring alarmbells and demand the tightening up of Netsecurity. The press is intrigued by defamationand libel on the Internet and the availability ofpornography.

Products such as voice recognition systems arebeing developed to improve information andcomputer security. Signature verificationsoftware is reported as effective against creditcard and benefit fraud, etc.

Software piracy is a global problem: it isestimated that in China 94% of software in useis copied. Court cases on infringement of patentand copyright which may affect the availabilityof software and its distribution attract pressattention. Intellectual property law and its effecton the success of the development and use ofthe information infrastructure is in need ofclarification. The introduction of technologiesthat allow people to record on CD-ROMs couldresult in big reductions in profits for companiesso the press speculates that copyright ownerswill discourage the adoption of technologycapable of reproducing high-quality copies oftheir material.

Organisational changes

The computer market is becoming increasinglycompetitive and companies need to expand byat least 20% each year in order to survive andcontinue to compete. Much of the businessnews concerns the manoeuvres of theconverging IT-based industries and theirmergers, take-overs and joint ventures.

Coverage of the link-ups between Novell andWordPerfect, IBM and Apple and the globalmedia /entertainment companies (particularlythe US Disney /ABC merger) pointed to theconvergence of the computer, tele-communications and media industries and tothe ways in which large software companiesincreasingly produce in-house developments byacquiring smaller, specialised companies.

Microsoft's much delayed launch of Windows95 generated the greatest number of columninches with claims that it, through MicrosoftNetwork (its Internet gateway), willrevolutionise the way people learn andcommunicate. The media hype and enormousmarketing budgets attracted as much coverageas the product itself.

Much of the press coverage considered theimplications of the dominance of Microsoft as

the world's most successful software company.Its link-ups with Sony for developing super-highway products and Tele-Communications,the largest US cable-TV operator, generatedstories that it would provide an 'end-to-endsoftware solution' for interactive TV, includingdistributed operating system software forconnecting television set-top boxes and PCswith a wide variety of services.

IBM's varying fortunes have been closelyfollowed. Its difficulties in breaking into the PCmarket and its enormous job-sheddingprogramme preceded stories about its moreaggressive marketing strategies and its slowlyincreasing profitability.

There has been obvious press interest in theresponse of newspapers to the newtechnologies. The growth of on-line electronicnewspapers has been recorded, with forecasts ofsoftware 'agents' used to select the news itemswhich come together as personalisednewspapers within the next decade. Will thesebe on subscription or be free newspapers, paidfor by advertisers and sponsors?

Learning applications

Home-based and distance learningAs an increasing number of 'virtual courses',including FE courses, became available over theInternet, press coverage featured new learningopportunities, such as the ability to log on to aMBA course from a PC and attend a lecture bywalking into a virtual classroom. This is seen asextremely beneficial for those people who wantto improve their qualifications, but cannotafford to give up their full-time jobs.

International examples of the uses of newtechnologies to re-invigorate distance learningare frequent. In the USA the Public BroadcastingService (PBS) introduced new telecourses,making it possible for Americans to gain variousdegrees from home, while the Open Universityin the UK launched its first course on compactdisc. The opportunities for marketing distancelearning courses internationally are alsoreported, for example the Mind ExtensionUniversity's penetration of Taiwan and Thailand.


Reported applications of technologies whichsupport distance learning include theestablishment of World Wide Web home pagesby providers (universities and colleges) toindicate what courses are available, and theprospects of 'pay-as-you-view' systems whichwould eliminate problems of collecting coursefees.

As an alternative to formal training, many largeorganisations, particularly major financialinstitutions, are reported to be offering staff theopportunity of distance learning. This is madepossible by the CD-ROM and its low costs. Thecombination of voice, video, text and graphicsallows managers to interact with the 'computer-tutor' in a way that is proving effective andpopular. The prospects of NVQ trainingthrough multimedia are being considered andthe first products reviewed. The advantageseliminating the need for students to assemble ina classroom at some central location anddramatic falls in per capita costs make it anextremely desirable option. It is argued thatNVQ training by multimedia is more interestingto employees than traditional methods, so thatsome employees are motivated to do sometraining in their own time.

School/college-based learningThe educational potential of the 'informationsuperhighway' is widely discussed.

The need for a regulatory framework whichencourages educational as well asentertainment and commercial uses isadvocated by the Labour Party and others.There is concern that financial gain willdetermine development rather than educationalneed.

Pilot schemes which link schools to the Internetattract press coverage. The Internet is reportedas the way forward, offering a huge source ofinformation at students' fingertips. Otherreports dwell on current problems of selectivityand the technical challenges posed by Internetaccess.

CD-ROM databases and interactive CD-ROMsare reported to have been introduced into manyschools and colleges, making learning both


enjoyable and accessible. Reviews of thegrowing numbers of multimedia products forschools are accompanied by reports of theinitiatives by the Departments of Trade &Industry and Education to encourage privatesector sponsorship and other support formultimedia education.

'Edutainment' is the latest market to beexploited by software companies. It is a newblend of entertainment and education. Forexample the Mario Brothers will no longer bejust a game; it will also have an educationalelement. Edutainment is to be directed atchildren aged between eight and 14.

The introduction and evaluation of AmericanIntegrated Learning Systems (ILS) attracts presscoverage. Pilot schemes have revealed that itcan have a significant effect on under-achieversand reluctant learners.

Recurring reports of the challenges faced byteachers in using the available technologiesfocus on their lack of time to absorb thetechnologies and newly available teachingmaterials. Support for teachers through, forexample, the Schools Technology Help line inSouth Wales is reported, along with other pilotprojects, to link teachers and students in remoteand disadvantaged communities.

Learning management innovations also attractsome attention. Student tracking might befacilitated by the use of 'active badges' andsensors. Barcodes, swipe cards and radio signalsin some innovative schools and colleges arereported as vehicles for facilitating studentregistration and access to learning resources.

The high-technology libraryPilot schemes in which libraries providecommunity Internet access are reported alongwith plans for them to be connected usingInternet, local, national and regional databasesand interactive facilities. It is suggested thatthese changes would improve availablefacilities and extend library participation.

The Follett Report (1993) on university librariesand its consequences have attracted presscoverage. In 1994-5, £4.75 million was provided

10

to promote the use of IT in libraries. Priorityareas include electronic document and articledelivery, electronic journals, electronic storageof journals, on-demand publishing to supportstudents in their work, training and awarenessof information resources, and access to networkresources.

11FE MATTERS FEDA paper 9

2. Learning and technologyin American communitycollegesOne of the committee's terms of reference wasto take account of 'the potential impact of newdevelopments in technology, in this country andabroad, on the learning process'. Developmentsin this country were examined by The StaffCollege (now FEDA) and NCET through twosubstantial research studies, which have sincebeen published. The committee also receivedreports on overseas developments followingstudy visits by committee members andadvisers.

Two of the reports to the committee followedvisits to major North American conferences,with accompanying visits to innovativecommunity colleges in Minnesota and BritishColumbia. These reports outline some keytrends in the uses of technology for teachingand learning in the American communitycollege sector.

Technology and teaching

The American Association of CommunityColleges (AACC) annual convention provides asnapshot of current concerns, interests andinitiatives in the North American communitycollege sector. Incentives generated by adistinctively North American enthusiasm forawards are showcased at the annual conference,and provide an opportunity to examine newapplications of information and learningtechnologies. Successful innovations (not just ininformation and learning technologies) areencouraged and promoted through state andnational awards. The latter include theAACC /IBM Networked Distributed EducationAward one winner linked college classes inHawaii with similar Australian classes andthe Instructional Telecommunications Council'sregional and national annual awards forcolleges and individuals.

1 Lynton Gray and Ann-Marie Warrender Learning andtechnology in further education colleges (FEDA, 1995); andTechnology and learning in the further education sector (NCET,

1995)

As emphasised in other reports to thecommittee from North America, theapplications of educational technology in theUS and Canadian post-school sectors areprimarily for teaching rather than for learningpurposes. A consensus view from the group ofabout 20 UK senior college managers whovisited the community colleges was that theyenvied the resources available (and in particularthe abundant space both within and outsidecollege buildings), but were less impressed withthe applications of those resources to thelearning needs of the college's students and itswider communities. Although there was talkeverywhere of resource constraints andpressures, they did not seem (as yet) to havestimulated the radical re-appraisal of learningneeds and the roles of teachers and other staffwhich has occurred across the UK's FE sector.

The influence of the teaching force as anorganised, unionised influence on collegemanagement is very powerful (and not just inMinnesota). Teachers have large classes, highsalaries but relatively light teaching loads byUK standards (15 hours per week; they can thenearn very substantial additional overtimepayments). They are, therefore, expensiveresources and considerable investment has beenmade in technologies designed to enhance theefficiency of those resources.

Much of this investment is aimed at distributingthe teaching more widely, especially acrosssparsely populated areas, where communitycolleges have satellite centres and wherecolleges have merged. This trend is accentuatedby current enthusiasm across the US for state-wide mergers of all their community collegeswith state universities and other state-fundedpost-school institutions. Satellite, microwaveand telephone lines are used to carry teachers'wisdom to otherwise uneconomically smallgroups of students on several sites. Cost-benefitanalyses of the different communicationssystems have been undertaken before investing.

However, teachers are not taking to the newlearning technologies enthusiastically. Collegesand states are, therefore, making very heavyinvestments in 'multimedia faculty trainingcenters' staff development facilities equipped

12 FE MATTERS FEDA paper 11

with state-of-the art technologies and a team ofexpert tutors. Teachers are released full- or part-time to be trained in the relevant presentationskills and given additional bonus payments (ofabout £100 per day) as attendance allowances.In consequence, some colleges have a growingnumber of staff capable of teaching'telecourses'. E-mail and video-conferencingfacilities augment those for distance teaching, toput students on the satellite sites in touch withtutors and students on other sites. The basicpurpose is to create the 'virtual classroom'rather than to encourage independent,technology-based learning.

Distance learning

Radical voices are drawing attention to the needto re-appraise conventional practice in thecolleges and 're-engineer' them to improve theirefficiency (by reducing the period it takes toqualify) and to address new markets, especiallyadult learners. 'Tele learning' is advocated as anapproach to reduce the period for achieving apart-time degree from six years on average tothree years. It is also seen as the vehicle forreaching out to the 50 million adults alreadyinvolved in learning 'outside academe'; thephrase is significant: community collegesperceive themselves very much as part of theAmerican HE system.

A growing proportion of potential students are'teleworkers' who work and can study at home.The US Bureau of Labor forecasts that these willnumber 25 million by the year 2000, and pointsto the savings in transport costs and airpollution when they no longer commute towork. For some, 'telelearning' is the futurefor American mass HE, delivering learningmore productively at a time when educationalcosts are a serious political issue; aided bystate legislation it will give access by rightto educational cable and related services toregistered students.

With these ends in mind, interest now extendsbeyond the efficient transmission of collegecourses via cable and satellite to the use oftechnologies which support interaction betweenlearners and tutors, and which support learning


through electronic registration, library services,guidance and computer-based assessment.

Community colleges are being encouraged toco-operate to achieve these ends. One extremeaspect of this is the state-wide mergers referredto on page 12. However, co-operation is alsopromoted as a means of resisting the growingbacklash from traditionalists who wish toeliminate telecourses. Collaboration ispromoted as an effective and efficient way ofproducing course and support materials, withthe motto 'export the best and import the rest'.This is a direct challenge to the traditional viewthat teachers should develop their own coursematerials (never as powerful an ideology in theStates as it has been in Britain). Collaborationextends to state-wide staff development centresand to the development of training materials forboth staff and students to provide them with thedistinctive skills needed for telelearning.

Technologies and the Internet

Technology for community colleges is bigbusiness across the USA. The major computerhardware, software and telecommunicationssuppliers were very visible at the convention,offering video-conferencing facilities and awide range of accredited 'telecourses'. TheAACC convention featured a session led fromAdelaide by staff from South AustraliaTechnical and Further Education (TAFE), usingrelatively low-grade telephone links; such linksare becoming almost a standard feature of thework of some colleges. Their efficiency has beenenhanced by the use of ceiling microphones andsurveillance cameras, controlled outside theclassroom and so avoiding the intrusive effectsof technicians, visible cameras and gooseneckmicrophones inside. One small collegedescribed its 16 camera system which wascentrally controlled by one technician; it is usedfor remotely controlled testing and teaching.

The Internet is becoming as important a linkbetween colleges across the USA as it hasalready become for universities. Coursematerials (for teaching purposes) are developedand shared. One group of colleges reportedusing a 'cyberbus' which travelled around a

rural part of the eastern USA providing Internetaccess to accredited distance learning courses.By modelling itself on farm co-operatives,another college has transformed itself into a'communiversity' by pooling communityresources to provide community bulletinboards, e-mail, library access, an interactivevideo network and an electronic shopping mall.Some states are giving priority to communityaccess to the Internet in Hawaii every studenthas free access. Colleges reported the impact ofthe new access tools, which can be learned inhalf an hour, in opening up the Internet tostudents and others who previously found itoff-putting.

The skills needed to support and manage theinformation superhighways have been specifiedthrough the federally funded NationalPhotonics Skills Standards Project. By the turnof the century, 400,000 additional technicianswill be needed for this work and communitycolleges are being exhorted to establish the newcourses which will bridge this gap. Work-basedlearning is promoted as the means to avoidexpensive capital re-equipment across thecommunity college sector.

Industry and student-centredlearning

Individualised, student-centred learning isperceived mainly as a remedial need,particularly for high-school drop outs, whohave not been able to succeed in the standardteacher-directed classrooms of Americanschools and colleges. Software has beendeveloped for 'school-to-work' programmes,often funded by school districts which do nototherwise fund work in community collegesand federally funded 'tech-prep' initiatives.

The impact of changes in the secondary schoolcurriculum are now bearing in on thecommunity colleges, as they prepare to receivestudents whose teaching has includedcompetence-based technical education taughtthrough problem-solving approaches, ratherthan traditional didactic methods. Employersare seeking college graduates with relevantcareer-centred skills, including work behaviour

Y4

skills, and are pressing for curriculum change.This is reinforced by messages (of ratherdubious validity) which emphasise thatsuccessful careers demand computer literacytwo- thirds of college graduates use computersin their work, as opposed to less than one tenthof high-school drop outs.

Software packages are being developed forthese new learning programmes. They are beingused by colleges for remedial self-pacedinstruction, particularly in maths, reading andtechnical skills, although there are alsocourseware packages for parenting skills,substance abuse, etc. The packages are availablein MS-DOS, Windows and CD-ROM formatsand have built-in assessment to agreed nationalstandards. Some of these packages are beingused in conjunction with business and industryfor work-based learning, as fallingunemployment rates in some states mean thatemployers seek to enhance existing workers'skills, rather than recruit those with therequisite skills.

Summary

The complexities of a community collegenetwork with 1,500 colleges and 10 millionstudents, organised in 50 different statesystems, are impossible to capture in a shortstudy visit. Every available technology seems tobe in use, with ambitious plans to usetechnologies still just around the corner. Somecrude generalisations of trends in the uses oftechnology for teaching and learning purposesare that:

the Internet seems likely to reinforce thetraditional, teacher-centred approacheswhich dominate college teaching, asteachers draw materials from each otherfor classroom use, and consign student-centred learning to the category of'remediation'there has been and will continue to beheavy investment in the technologies fordistance learning (or rather distanceteaching) as colleges reach out to newmarkets and seek economies of scale,effectively increasing class sizes throughtechnological means


community colleges are firmlyintegrated with the US HE sector and areusing technologies to reinforce theirlinks with universities throughfranchises, shared teaching programmesand shared staff developmentprogrammesresource constraints are nowencouraging colleges to look to businessand industry as sources of support, notjust as sponsors but as partnerscolleges are actively seeking to turntemporary students into permanentclients, partly through 'one-stop shop'approaches, selling on courses develop-ed elsewhere and, more radically,considering how degrees might containa time expiry date, after which statutoryrenewal is required


15

3. Multimedia and educationNine months earlier, the committee received areport on the second annual internationalconference of the Association for theAdvancement of Computing in Education(AACE), held in Vancouver in June 1994. Itstheme was Educational Multimedia andHypermedia. In view of the lively interest in theUS and Canadian community college sectors ineducational technology and new approaches tolearning, it was a matter of some surprise thatthese sectors and indeed technical andvocational education internationally wereeclipsed by the school and HE sectors at theconference. At a large conference with a host ofparallel activities, it is impossible to attempt anycomprehensive overview of activities, but theconference did provide participants with a six-inch-thick volume of proceedings, containingsummaries or full papers from nearly 400 papers,demonstrations, panels, symposia and keynotespeeches, so that on returning home they couldappreciate that they had attended all the wrongsessions and missed all the really interestingones.

Some generalisations reported to the committeefrom the 20 or so sessions attended weresubsequently augmented by browsing throughthe proceedings.

Technology for teachers

The emphasis throughout the conference wasvery firmly on the use of the latestdevelopments in technology to supportteachers, rather than directly to enhance studentlearning. Technology is being deployed as ameans of enabling teachers to reach largernumbers of students through bigger classes andto present information in more palatable dosesto students. The only freedoms students hadwere to roam through pre-preparedhypermedia stacks according to teacherdirections and to browse those stacks at theirown pace in their own time. Only one keynotespeaker, Ted Nelson (one of the pioneers whodeveloped the computer industry in the 1960s),attacked the 'pre-Columbian' nature of CD-ROM 'when you get to the end you fall off'.

There was little evidence that issues aboutstudent learning and the impact of technologyon learning processes were being considered,still less researched. The focus on instructionrather than learning distracted attention fromimportant issues about the ways in whichstudents learn and whether different groups ofstudents learn in significantly different ways.

There was little emphasis at the conference onusing technology to support student-directedlearning, perhaps a response to earlier fears thattechnology could be used to replace rather thansupport teachers. The overall impression wasthat the thinking behind the primitive linear'programmed learning' technologies of the1960s was still dominant, and that multimediaprovided ways and means of programminglearning in more sophisticated, but still verymuch predetermined modes. One significantexception was the keynote presentation of theBritish Open University's first integratedmultimedia project, on the unlikely theme of'Homer: Poetry and Society', a demonstration ofguided discovery which showed what aclassical education ought to involve.

Breaching the technological barriers

There was a good deal of confidence throughoutthe conference that the major developmentalbarriers to technology's use for educationalpurposes had been or were about to beremoved. Oddly enough, most presentationssuggested otherwise! They were dogged bytechnical failure and presenters' technicalineptitude in handling the now-ubiquitouscomputer-screen projection via overheadprojector. However, the recurrent theme wasthat for 20 years the need for information-carrying networks which could carry not justtext but also graphics, photographs, video andsound had impeded progress. Now these wereavailable and the Internet (and the other globalnetworks) provided a revolutionary newinternational information service at little or nocost; for example the state of Maryland hadrecently made Internet available to all itscitizens for free.

However, new problems were emerging. Theyincluded the control of copyright and the

FE MATTERS1 6

FEDA paper 15

information overload (a dominant theme ininformal discussions was the difficulty ofwading through the vast numbers of e-mailmessages on Internet, accumulating whileparticipants were away in Vancouver!).Concerns were also expressed at the attempts(later abandoned) by the American government,through its 'clipper chip' proposal, to takecontrol of Internet traffic, not just in the USA butglobally; and the 'Balkanisation' of the Internetas more and more user groups pour ever-growing volumes of increasingly esotericinformation along the new highways.

The impact of national initiatives

Presentations from the UK university sectordrew attention, both directly and indirectly, tothe achievements of the major nationalinitiatives of the past decade Computers inTeaching (CTI) and the Teaching and LearningTechnology Programme (TLTP). While, withtypical British self-deprecation, these wererarely lauded, they nonetheless contrastedsharply with the small-scale and short-termresearch initiatives in the North Americanuniversity sector.

In the latter, the universities were competing forfunding to support research and developmentfrom federal, private business and researchfoundation sources. The results weredesperately disappointing. Paper after paper,not just from North America but from Europeand Asia, demonstrated only that universityresearchers are latching on to multimedia as thestate-of-the art technology which brings in theresearch grants for small-scale, highly specialiststudies whose effect on student learning islikely to be slight. Grant-winning seems todepend upon a catchy title, for example,'Glucomedia', 'SMALLTALKER', 'COMPRAN'and 'button theory' are among the levers pickedat random in the Proceedings.

A useful (and technically adept) presentation byJohn Castleford of Leicester University's CTICentre for Geography, a consortium of 75universities and one of the largest CTI projects,indicated the ways in which a nationalcollaborative initiative was able to achieve

i6 FE MATTERS FEDA paper

outcomes beyond the scope of any singleuniversity project. While the problems faced inthe early days by CTI were not shirked, theadvantages of high-quality coursewareavailable throughout the university sector werepalpably demonstrated. Attention was alsodrawn to the complementarity of the CTI andTLTP initiatives, now that they were bothfunded through HEFC.

Publishing and multimedia

The American publishing industry is nowtaking seriously the business opportunitiespresented by multimedia in education. Inkeeping with the teacher (rather than student)focus, the emphasis is on generous give-awaysto instructors in order to get them to invest inthe new technologies which would then carrypublishers' software.

At a publishers' symposium, the 'old' thinkingof the major publishers contrasted sharply withthe more imaginative approaches of small, newpublishing houses, which were significantlyfrom computing rather than publishingbackgrounds. For example, the majorpublishers seemed to perceive multimediapublishing as no more than high-technologyversions of text books. They refused to reviewcopyright arrangements in ways which wouldallow the widespread networking ofinformation, with tiny copyright payments foreach use.

This idea is the dream of Ted Nelson, inventorof hypertext and a keynote conference speaker.His Xanadu projects have sought for years tofind ways of networking copyrighted materialsfreely, with copyright payments made onlywhen they are used. He claimed that thetechnology to achieve this was now available,but the publishing industry would not co-operate.

The Open Learning Agency

A conference presentation by Tony Bates (ex-Open University) was complemented by anafternoon visit to the Open Learning Agency(OLA) in East Vancouver. The keynote

17

presentation presented a vision of widebandinformation highways within the next decade.The challenge was to ensure that theeducational and training services carried bythese highways were relevant to users' needs.Informal work-based learning a social as wellas an individual activity wouldaccommodate individuals' distinctive learningstyles, allowing them to access information andmentors as and when needed. The workundertaken by OLA in collaboration with otherBritish Columbian organisations was cited asone means of providing the tools necessary forsuch workstation-based learning.

The visit to OLA indicated that current activitiesare, by necessity, rather more traditional thanthe vision the conference presented. The wideassortment of post-secondary open learningcourses ranges from adult basic education touniversity-level programmes accredited by anumber of Canadian universities. Most coursesare short (up to four months) and many arebought in from other producers andbroadcasters, including the North America-wide 'Open Campus', based at the University ofMaryland. OLA has its own television channel,the Knowledge Network, reaching half a millionBritish Columbian viewers a week.

Conclusions

Some questions raised for the Learning andTechnology Committee by these experiencesprovided a structure for exploring internationalevidence. They are:

What do we know about the ways inwhich students learn, and how is thatknowledge relevant to the application oftechnology to learning?

Are institutional initiatives orinnovations designed primarily tofacilitate student learning or to ease thetasks of teaching?

Who is investing in learning technologyresearch and development and why?What is the balance of national(regional), private business, researchfoundation and institutional research?

How does that balance affect thedirection taken by R&D?

How do employers influence theteaching/learning approaches of post-secondary technical and vocationalinstitutions (if at all)? Do they expresspreferences for on-job / work-basedlearning, off-job/college-based or offjob /home -based learning for theiremployees and potential employees?How do students make their viewsknown with respect to the uses oftechnologies in their learning? Do theyexpress preferences for teacher-directedor independent learning? Do differenttypes of students express differentpreferences?

is FE MATTERS FEDA paper 17

4. Learning technologies inindustrial trainingA short investigation early in 1995 looked at theuses made by major industries of informationand learning technologies in their own trainingprogrammes. Visits to seven companies werecomplemented by an analysis of the availablepress clippings (see 1. Main themes fromLearning & Technology Committee presssurveys) and a literature review. The keyfindings from the study are that:

traditional classroom-based instructor-led training still forms a significantcomponent of training delivery

planning of training provision is directedtoward the acquisition of trainingapplications using new technologies andintegrating technology-based trainingwith classroom-based activitytraining requirements are determinedthrough internal staff appraisal processes

companies maintain dedicated trainingcentres with banks of computerworkstations, usually networked, alongwith video-conferencing and privatebroadcast facilities for multimediatransmission and Internet access

custom-designed courseware is usedalong with customised commercialpackages

short, sharp training will be increasinglyused to fill perceived gaps in personal,managerial or technical skills

Traditional classroom-based instructor-ledtraining still forms a significant component ofthe delivery strategies in many of thecompanies visited. This type of delivery isfrequently supported and/or complemented tovarying degrees by the use of technology-delivered training.

More than half those interviewed claim thattrainees prefer the classroom-based instructor-led training to other methods of delivery. In theabsence of empirical evidence, it is not clearwhether this is an accurate reflection ofemployees' preferences. However, the planningof training provision in most of the companies

18 FE MATTERS FEN. paper

in this sample is directed toward the acquisitionof training applications using new technologies.

While few of the organisations have a formalcompany training policy, all determine theirtraining requirements through internal staffappraisal processes. Thus there is an emphasison individuals taking responsibility for theirown self-development, with line managersclosely involved in ensuring that individualtraining needs are met for the people theymanage. In many cases, individualdevelopment plans jointly agreed in theappraisal process form the basis of the internaltraining provision strategy.

All of the companies included in the samplemaintain training facilities at each of their mainsites. These dedicated training centres generallyinclude a bank of computer workstations,usually networked. The range of capability ofthe workstations varies from 'dumb' terminalsto very sophisticated 'intelligent' PC-basedterminals. Some training centres provide mainlyopen learning facilities on terminals which maybe networked or standalone. Common facilitiesinclude CD-ROMs, interactive video laserdisk,multimedia and, increasingly, CD-I machines.

Access to computer-based training frompersonal workstations is available in 70% of thecompanies included in the sample. In mostcases, this is limited to only a subset of theavailable courseware in a company's trainingdirectory.

Videoconferencing facilities are currentlyavailable in five of the seven companies.However, only two have videoconferencing asas part of their training programme. Issues ofcost seem to be the main factors limiting its usefor training.

Multinationals are beginning to use privatebroadcast facilities for multimedia transmission.Internet and the World Wide Web areincreasingly being used, although there is littleevidence that they have yet been integrated intomainstream training programmes.

Most of the companies are involved in thedevelopment of custom-designed courseware.Companies such as Lloyds Bank both externallycommission and internally develop training

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packages for use on a variety of platforms,including CD-ROM, CD-I and multimedia.They work with producers of commercialtraining software to tailor it to cater for theirspecific requirements, while in-house unitsdevelop additional support materials tocomplement commercially produced trainingpackages.

Accreditation of company training does notseem to be a significant issue for most of thecompanies, with the exception of those whichare accredited training centres for genericsoftware (e.g. products supplied by Microsoft,Novell, etc.). The other exception is Lloyds Bankwhich provides a wide range of NVQ-accredited programmes along with accreditedassessor training and trainer training.

The trend in planning for the use of technology-delivered training programmes appears to bestrongly focused on:

integrating technology-based trainingwith classroom-based activityfocusing on short, sharp training to fillperceived gaps in personal, managerialor technical skills of the individualwithin their current job rolemaintaining an evolutionary ' up-skilling' trenddeveloping a wider range of interactivemultimedia training packages closelylinked to the company's internalsystems and products


5. Evidence for actionThe considerable amount of information aboutinnovations in information and learningtechnologies gleaned from the ongoing presssurveys throughout most of the two yearduration of the Learning & TechnologyCommittee, the experiences shared byinternational educational institutions and thereports on visits to workplace training facilitiesall contributed to the evidence gathered by theCommittee. The key messages and ideasgathered from these disparate sources, alongwith the findings of a series of complementaryresearch studies and other evidence submittedby interested parties and expert witnesses,combined to inform the Committee's finalreport (Report of the Learning & TechnologyCommittee, Further Education Funding Council,1996).

Every source of enquiry highlighted the rapiddevelopment of information and learningtechnologies and their increasingly pervasiveinfluence on almost all aspects of the lives ofindividuals and communities. There werenumerous examples of innovative approachesto using technology to support and managelearning, although all too frequently theseinitiatives remained isolated from mainstreamlearning delivery practice. Consequently, thereis still much 're-inventing of wheels' along withmany lost opportunities to make a positiveimpact on the quality of the learningexperiences available to most learners ineducational institutions. This all points to theneed for everybody involved in managing,delivering and administering FE to develop:

more informed awareness of andcommitment to the potential of the newand emerging information and learningtechnologies

skills and confidence in usingappropriate technological applicationsto facilitate learning

Collaborative projects involving a number ofcollege partners are recommended byexperienced educational technologists as themost viable way of developing relevant courseand learning support materials. In most cases,


collaboration offers a more efficient andeffective use of scarce expertise and resourcesthan single institution projects. While there isevidence of collaborative initiatives involvingFE institutions in this country (e.g. the FurtherEducation National Consortium), there is stillmuch unrealised potential for mutuallybeneficial co-operation in tailoring informationand learning technologies to meet learners'needs.

The evidence also suggests that open anddistance learning is likely to surge in popularityas technology becomes increasingly interactiveand user-friendly. Colleges which monitor suchdevelopments and position themselves to caterfor this expanding market of open and flexiblelearners are likely to achieve an edge on theircompetitors.

Much of the groundwork of investigatingpotential applications of modern technologiesfor more effective teaching and learning hasbeen done by relatively small numbers ofeducational technology enthusiasts. They havedemonstrated via a myriad of isolated projectsthe added benefits which information andlearning technologies can bring to the teachingand learning process. It is now time todisseminate these lessons throughout theeducational and training communities. This willrequire visionary commitment by educationalpolicy makers and managers of our educationalinstitutions.

There is always resistance to change, butcolleges of FE can no longer afford to ignore therole of modern technologies in promotinglearning. Substantial investment will berequired to reskill those involved in the deliverymethods and administrative infrastructureswhich support learning and learners. Theevidence gathered in the various studiesreported here (and elsewhere) highlights thevalue of co-operative, collaborative approachesin producing cost-effective and mutuallybeneficial learning outcomes by the mosteffective application of information andlearning technologies. No one can afford toobserve learning technology developmentseither complacently or cynically from thesidelines. Everyone whose job is to support

21

learning in some way has a responsibility tofamiliarise themselves with the potentialapplications and use of modern technologiesand actively to promote their use where theyoffer the most effective mode of delivery orsupport for learners and the learning process.

2 2 FE MATTERS FEDA paper 21

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