Technology: Revolutionizing or Transforming College?
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Technology: Revolutionizing or Transforming College? Catherine L. Finnegan
Published online: 30 August 2006 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2006
Daily we are reminded of the impact that technology has had on our work habits and lifestyles. Newspapers, magazines, and even National Public Radio have special sections describing the newest technological advantage for doing things faster, more efficiently and on-the-go. In 2005, the World Wide Web reached over 1 billion users with projections of reaching 2 billion users by 2015 (Worldwide internet users top 1 billion in 2005, 2006). Fully 73% of Americans report using the internet for work, education, and leisure (Madden, 2006). For the past century, as new technologies have been introduced to the American public, faculty and administrators have studied them in an attempt to understand how they can embrace the ideals of improved student learning, achievement, and success and providing greater access to higher education. Beginning in the late 19th century, prominent colleges such as Yale and Cornell, used the emerging postal service to deliver printed lecture materials to women of all classes of society. Between the World Wars, radio was proposed as a means of delivering courses remotely. Over 200 colleges and universities were granted instructional radio licenses, but only one credit course was developed. After World War II, television gained favor as another tool to deliver instruction, combined with printed materials. Researchers during this period first investigated what have become classic areas of concern for technology delivered instruction: learners’ characteristics, students’ needs, effectiveness of communication, and value of outcomes in comparison with face-to-face study. The advent of interactive satellite and cable television in the 1970s and 1980s provided more immediate ways of communicating, often emulating the in-class experience, but provoking the same questions about quality (Nasseh, 1997). Early in the 1990s, the Campus Computing Project reported that 10% of courses used email as a communication tool. A decade later nearly 80% of courses use email, 58% use internet resources, and 46% have web components (Green, 2006). In the United States, 56% of colleges and universities report offering fully online courses (Waits & Lewis, 2003).
C. L. Finnegan (*) Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, 2500 Daniells Bridge Road, Building 300, Athens, Georgia 30606, USA e-mail: [email protected]
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Innov High Educ (2006) 31: 143–145
Over 2 million students in 2005 enrolled in online courses (Allen & Seaman, 2006). Nearly 42% of participants in the Pew Internet and American Life study indicated the internet played a major role as they decided about a school or a college for themselves or their children (Madden, 2006). When I was first approached to edit this special edition of Innovative Higher Education, I was excited. I envisioned an edition filled with articles discussing some of the most forward thinking trends in the use of te
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