Somewhere something has gone terribly terribly wrong! 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 Birth of the Internet Internet comes to TAFE Online Modules Web Enhanced Classes

WHO AM I? ESL teacher (12 years) 3 years teaching ‘online’ Professional Development Officer (Online Learning) TAFE SA eLearning Coordinator (Douglas Mawson Institute of Technology)

The Death of Online Education? Not really, but it is being transformed eLearning (includes ON CAMPUS web enhanced instruction) 3 day international conference and not one session on online education as it was initially conceived

Why the transformation? The fully remote model is expensive and time (and time = money) hungry to establish requires high degree of technical skill from teachers and students suits only highly motivated, independent learners BUT IN THE CORPORATE WORLD: they have the money saves travel costs eg Qantas College Online

The Dance with the Devil Educational institutions have the content, the subject expertise, and want the technology the corporate world has the money so…do we dance with the devil?* *Richard Katz, Educause

Is Online Education a Capitalist Plot?? “Online Education will be capital’s beach-head into education.” - Kit Taylor (American Economics Professor, 1995)

The Youth Factor Grange Primary School

The Youth Factor 2004: the first generation of children who have never NOT known the Net reach high school 13-15 yr olds are the ‘most wired’ (the ‘baby boomer echoes’)

The Youth Factor Research* on 7,000 children in USA and 1,000 in Canada revealed: Most successful students online are the 13 –15 year old group. 78% have used the Internet to do their homework 60% have communicated with teachers online *Forrester research (http://www.forrester.com/Home)

Internet equalled WebCT 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 Internet comes to TAFE

WebCT = web course tools WebCT is course delivery software WebCT has the largest percentage of the market worldwide of any course delivery tool But……only 15% of all online courses in North America use a course delivery tool

What is possible in WebCT? in principal, whatever you can do on the Internet, you can do in WebCT if things don’t work in WebCT it is more likely to be TAFE firewalls (a necessary evil?)

What is possible in WebCT? Online courses (remote, or in conjunction with face to face classes) storage for course resources, assignments Communication Hubs

WebCT Communication Hubs WebCT - not just an online tool (and not everyone wants to go online) great resource for f2f classes/workgroups explosion across TAFE SA

WebCT Communication Hubs WebCT was designed as an online course delivery tool early adopters designed and delivered content how can you use this with f2f classes? What if you just use a homepage for storing resources/documents? plus communication tools and links?

WebCT Communication Hubs And so the concept of hubs was born Uses: f2f delivery and distance delivery professional development projects workgroup communication across campuses

WebCT Communication Hubs Face to face teaching discussion and chat class homepage student pix and bios a sense of place/a home on the Internet links to resources

Multimedia in WebCT? Sound (music and voice) Flash animation sophisticated chat webcasts

What is possible in WebCT? Can it take you to the tops of mountains? NO!

What is possible in WebCT? Can it give you the peace of a sunset? NO!

What is possible in WebCT? Can it give you the opportunity to provide an educational experience that is: relevant? current? potentially inspiring? learner focused?

What is possible in WebCT? Can it give you the satisfaction of knowing that you have given students the skills they may need to take their place in the community as happy, successful people?

YES!!!

from smoke signals to the Internet Man - the compulsive communicator (David Attenborough)

This presentation on the web at: THANK YOU michaelc@tafe.sa.edu.au This presentation on the web at: http://www.chariot.net.au/~michaelc/tvikeynote/index.htm