The Tower under Siege: Technology, Power, and Education

192 Pages·2001·3.775 MB·English

by  Brian Lewis, Christine Massey, Richard Smith

MR_21594.book Page i Thursday, July 12, 2001 2:02 PM
The Tower under Siege
Technology, Power, and Education
We are facing a paradigm shift in education, pushed by technology
and the new delivery systems it makes possible, and pulled by the
demands of lifelong learning required by a knowledge economy.
The student is no longer the captive client of monopoly education
providers called “universities.” Issues involving the nature of edu-
cation, its definition, its power structure, and its culture are being
debated: the question is not only how something is taught but what
is taught, when, why, by whom, and for what purpose. Who should
control education? How much privilege should professors have?
What rights do students have as “consumers?”
In The Tower under Siege Brian Lewis, Christine Massey, and
Richard Smith explore these important themes and issues from the
varying perspectives of students, teachers, policy makers, and
administrators. They describe the opportunities, changes, and poli-
cies developing in Canadian universities and governments in
response to the education revolution. While most studies of the edu-
cation revolution tend to be highly polemical, The Tower under
Siege occupies a middle space, identifying issues and policy processes
used to manage change and create more opportunities for education.
The Tower under Siege will be of great interest to anyone con-
cerned with, excited about, or worried by the expanding role of
technology in higher education: teachers, researchers, students, par-
ents, policy makers, and administrators.
brian lewis is professor of communication and director of the
School of Communication, Simon Fraser University.
christine massey is a PhD candidate in the School of Communi-
cation, Simon Fraser University.
richard smith is assistant professor of communication and
director of the Centre for Policy Research on Science and Technol-
ogy at Simon Fraser University.
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The Tower under Siege
Technology, Policy,
and Education
brian lewis
christine massey
and richard smith
McGill-Queen’s University Press
Montreal & Kingston London Ithaca
• •
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© McGill-Queen’s University Press 2001
isbn 0-7735-2170-4 (cloth)
isbn 0-7735-2171-2 (paperback)
Legal deposit third quarter 2001
Bibliothèque nationale du Québec
Printed in Canada on acid-free paper
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Humanities
and Social Sciences Federation of Canada, using funds provided by the
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
McGill-Queen’s University Press acknowledges the financial support of the
Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry
Development Program (bpidp) for its activities. It also acknowledges the
support of the Canada Council for the Arts for its publishing program.
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Lewis, Brian
The tower under siege: technology, policy, and education
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 0-7735-2170-4 (bound) – isbn 0-7735-2171-2 (pbk.)
1. Education, Higher – Effect of technological innovations
on – Canada. 2.High technology and education – Canada. 3. Higher
education and state – Canada. 4. Educational change – Canada.
I. Massey, Christine II. Smith, Richard (Richard Keith) III. Title.
lb1028.3.l48 2001 378′.00285 c00-901723-2
This book was typeset by Dynagran Inc. in 10.5/13 Sabon.
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Contents
Preface vii
Acknowledgments xiii
1 A Call to Arms: Promises and Politics of Telelearning
Technologies 3
2 Throwing Down the Gauntlet: The Rise of the For-Profit
Educational Industry Nicholas V. Galan 11
3 From the Ramparts: Government Telelearning
Policies 29
4 Strategies: Federal and Provincial Government Policy
Initiatives 46
5 Dispatches from the Front: Policies and Policy Practices
in Post-Secondary Institutions 89
6 In the Trenches: Student Perspectives
Brent de Waal 140
7 Negotiating the Terrain: Strategies for the Future 150
Appendix: Issues Map 155
Bibliography 161
Index 173
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Preface
This book consolidates two years of work on the use of computers
for teaching and learning in Canadian universities and colleges. We
brought to this project our collective expertise in information and
technology policy and our knowledge of the Canadian post-
secondary sector, and applied it to this emerging field. We were
studying a highly changeable subject: each month, it seemed, a new
initiative was announced, a new controversy erupted, and a new
Web site appeared. Despite this volatility, certain themes continually
re-appeared. These themes guided our analysis. This book attempts
to communicate these themes and make a constructive contribution
to the debate. Ultimately, however, policy researchers can only offer
advice and guidance: it will be up to everyone involved in Canadian
post-secondary education – the administrators, the entrepreneurs,
the teachers, the students, and the bureaucrats – to pave the way for
technology and post-secondary education in Canada.
methodology
In September 1997, we began a systematic review of policies and
processes that affect the implementation and use of telelearning
technologies in Canadian post-secondary institutions. These tech-
nologies include all aspects of computers and computer networks
used in teaching and learning.
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viii Preface
Universities are among our oldest social institutions, and today
face enormous pressure to change. We have always had debates
about the purpose of the university, its pedagogical program, and its
relationship to other social and political structures. Now, however,
these debates have been given renewed vigour and urgency by the
availability of advanced information and communication technolo-
gies for teaching and learning. These include computers, computer
networks, and the software and telecommunications networks that
link them together. When these technologies are used to connect dis-
tant learners, they are called “telelearning technologies.” When re-
ferring to their use more generally to include local as well as remote
teaching innovations, we sometimes call this “technology-mediated
learning” (tml). These technologies are proving to be catalysts for
profound organizational change within higher education.
We reviewed both on-line and printed government documents. In-
terviews – in person and by telephone – were conducted with officials
in selected government departments and agencies. Policy-makers and
bureaucrats in ministries of education, finance, and development
were queried about existing and developing policies for telelearning
technologies as well as relevant policy processes (e.g., committees,
strategic planning, negotiations, and decision-making). Interview re-
sults were cross-checked with additional interviews and documentary
research. (See the bibliography for a list of interviewees.)
A similar process was put in place to review the policy issues in
universities and colleges. Administrators and faculty members from
universities and colleges across Canada were interviewed in person
and by telephone. Institutional policy and planning documents were
collected and analysed. Attention was paid to both policies in place
and policies needed as a result of arising issues. Policy processes
were also tracked as institutions sought ways to negotiate changes
in practice initiated by the use of telelearning technologies.
These primary data were complemented by secondary research
including a survey of higher-education publications, mass media,
Internet newsgroups, and newsletters.
As an enormous set of issues began to emerge, there was a need
to track and organize the data. An “issues map” was created as a
general methodological and conceptual tool. Policy issues were
tracked on a spreadsheet in which some 150 policy issues, grouped
into larger subject area, were listed. These issues were then mapped
against a range of actors and agents in the telelearning arena:
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ix Preface
faculty and instructors, students/participants, administrators, pol-
icy-makers, governments, and businesses. Issues were further
classed through a variety of overlays – major/minor, obstacle/op-
portunity, and positive/negative, for example.
In addition, a computer database was established, organized by the
same categories as the issues map, to track project data such as docu-
ments and interviews. Keyword and issue searches became possible.
overview
Our objectives as researchers were threefold:
1 to survey current policies and usage for telelearning technologies
in Canadian universities and colleges, as well as emerging private
education providers;
2 to identify and review relevant federal and provincial government
policies and programs; and
3 to identify potential new policy initiatives for telelearning tech-
nologies and develop a list of priorities for further research in pol-
icy and socio-economic impact studies.
Chapter 1 sets the context. The “education revolution” is a small
but vitally important part of the information revolution. Telelearn-
ing technologies offer our post-secondary institutions great prom-
ise, but there are also real and important tensions in our move to
on-line learning.
Policy decisions are crucial, but never have policy-makers seemed
so overcome with events, so dazed, and in such disarray. The infor-
mation revolution seems to have challenged the functions and capa-
bilities of policy itself, and has transformed the policy context.
Implementing telelearning technologies in our post-secondary in-
stitutions involves complex pedagogical and institutional issues.
Our policy research has shown that a set of issues involving the na-
ture of education, its definition, its power structure, and its culture
are now beginning to be debated. Debates about telelearning can
quickly become polarized as issues well beyond pedagogy come to
the forefront – control over education, the privilege of professors,
and the rights of students as “consumers,” something that ques-
tions not only how a subject is taught, but what, when, why, by
whom, and for what purpose it is taught. Those of us involved in
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x Preface
higher education are witnessing changes in demand, costs, funding,
delivery mechanisms, and the nature of competitors. Technology
may be the focus of debates within our institutions, but often it is
just one expression of the larger forces at play.
Part of our research involved articulating the economic, social,
and cultural issues driving these changes. Chapter 1 identifies a
middle space, a mid-range of opportunities, issues, and policy pro-
cesses that can be addressed and implemented.
Chapter 2 (by Nicholas V. Galan) continues our analysis of the
policy issues environment by examining the rise of the for-profit ed-
ucation industry, a new model of educational delivery in a competi-
tive and increasingly fragmented education “marketplace.”
Since the early 1990s, the post-secondary educational sector has
faced increasing pressure from a for-profit service industry seeking
to capitalize on emerging market opportunities in education.
Entrepreneurial individuals and organizations are vigorously
challenging the long-held view of education as an enterprise best
left to the public sector. Private providers such as the Apollo
Group, with its University of Phoenix, have successfully crafted in-
novative business models to prove the viability of profit-making
educational enterprise. Innovations in technology and media, espe-
cially the advent of the Internet, have created levers that allow
education providers to expand their scope, scale, and revenue-
generating capability in ways that are impossible in place- and
time-constrained environments.
Traditional institutions have not turned a blind eye, however:
many are carefully tracking the for-profit sector’s progress, while
some are actively entering this new market with competitive, profit-
making strategies. Chapter 2 describes new developments and pays
close attention to the economic and social trends that are driving
change in post-secondary education.
Chapters 3 and 4 examine Canadian federal and provincial policies
and initiatives. Chapter 3 focuses on general trends while chapter 4
looks in more detail at specific policies. The terrain of higher educa-
tion in Canada is changing in ways that are facilitated and encour-
aged by government policies directed at telelearning technologies.
These two chapters reveal several significant trends. First, telelearn-
ing policies for the post-secondary sector straddle the boundary
between education and economic development policy, a shift that
alters conventional educational-funding criteria. Second, telelearning