We live much of our lives online. We shop, bank, watch movies, play games and communicate online. Should we learn online as well? Can technology be used to improve the educational experience? Or is it the harbinger of a depressing future in which anonymous institutions educate thousands of students who never meet their professors?
Let鈥檚 establish some context.
Educational technology encompasses a whole range of possibilities, everything from PowerPoint to immersive virtual reality.
Is online instruction any good? An analysis of 50聽studies performed in 2010 by the U.S. Department of Education found that university students and adult learners taking online courses 鈥減erformed modestly better, on average, than those learning the same material through traditional face-to-face instruction.鈥�
Do online courses foster isolation? Apparently not. The most common complaint from our professors involved in online education is the amount of work involved in answering and managing the endless stream of emails, comments, debates and questions from and among students.
Do students like online courses? This year, registration for such courses at Concordia reached 30,000. In 2010-11, registrants at Universit茅 Laval topped 36,000. Across Canada, more than 200 university programs are now offered online.
Online courses are more accessible to students who work full-time, are raising children, or live in remote locations. Why do we need this accessibility? A 2012 study for the U.S. Department of Education found that 73 per cent of U.S. undergraduate students were not typical 18- to 22-year-old students studying full time. In Quebec, 70聽per cent of university students work while attending university. Forty per cent of post-secondary students in Canada do the same. A complex world demands multiple forms of accessibility to education.
But let鈥檚 be clear: technology is not an end in itself, but rather a means to an end. So the questions remain: does online instruction enhance learning? Does technology improve the transmission and acquisition of knowledge? Does it allow for an enriching academic experience for both students and professors?
The ultimate goal of higher education is to improve society. Everything we do 鈥� and that includes using technology 鈥� must help us get ever closer to that goal. Higher education is about providing students with the most effective and refined methods, tools and cognitive structures. Technology can help us reach this goal.
This being said, courses are successful only when professors and students are comfortable with both the material taught and the delivery method used. Some professors use as much technology as possible, while others prefer a blackboard and some chalk. Some professors will 鈥渇lip鈥� their classroom, posting information online while using classroom time to debate and discuss. Others will tweet with their students as votes are being tallied in a provincial or federal election.
At Concordia, we recognize and celebrate this. It is up to the professor and his or her students to decide what best enhances the learning experience, what allows for the best development of critical and creative skills.
The application of technology in the educational experience can go far beyond online learning. Concordia professor Jason Lewis, working as co-director of the Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace research network, developed critical, linguistic and numeracy skills in young members of the Kahnawake community by helping them create a video game based on their legends.
Education is too complex to be perfected by a single phenomenon. Technology is not its miracle solution. But technology does allow for the creation of new possibilities for passing on and gaining access to knowledge.
It is unfortunate that this phenomenon was hardly discussed at the Quebec government鈥檚 recent summit on higher education. It is a phenomenon fully supported by the largest 91原创 and U.S. universities, including McGill, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard and Stanford.
It鈥檚 time to start talking about technology in education. We can even do it online.
Ollivier Dyens is vice-provost of teaching and learning at Montreal鈥檚 Concordia University.
