Wired Tower: Perspectives on the Impact of the Internet on Higher Education, The

lates better than I the value and potential of this type of

creative redesign.)

Prediction 2: New and More

Sophisticated Academic

Technologies

Not too long ago, the term academic computing or

instructional technologies would have elicited visions of

HyperCard, the popular technology from Apple Computer

that has long been used to develop instructional supple-

ments. CD-ROMs that provide question drills might have

come to mind a close second. In the last five years, with

the growth of the Internet, the breadth and choice of

instructional technologies has gained incredible steam.

Today’s faculty and specialists can choose from virtual

classroom tools, simulation tools, discussion board tools,

collaboration tools, content management and authoring

tools, streaming media tools, assessment tools, and so

on.

Although the number of options has increased, we are

still only at the beginning. For the most part, the tools that

exist are designed to support the generic activities of teach-

ing with technology (i.e., quizzing). Among technologies

missing are tools that support the varied subjects and

teaching styles that comprise the full constellation of in-

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206

struction that exists (i.e., specialized mathematical nota-

tion tools that allow a faculty member to walk students

through complicated math formulas over the Web). In addi-

tion to being fairly generic, today’s technologies have diffi-

culty supporting the range of novice to sophisticated users,

all within a common interface.

Accentuating the current limitations, many of the tools

sold in the marketplace today are still early in their devel-

opment and have been known to break down just when

they are needed the most. Too often they crash, frustrating

students and faculty alike. Sold independently of one an-

other, they do not integrate together so that a quizzing

product from one company can be “launched” by a virtual

chat tool from another, the way that a user can click on an

attachment in an email and know that the computer will

load the appropriate software application needed to open

the file. Given that the market is still early in its develop-

ment, many of the tool providers are young companies that

from time to time become financially insolvent and close,

leaving users in a bind.

As gloomy as this description of the current state of

the academic technology market reads, my second predic-

tion is that within 10 years the state of affairs will look

very different. A broad range of learning applications will

be available for faculty and institutions to assemble as

their needs require. The technologies will support com-

mon standards for greater interoperability, and they will

Chapter 8 • Five Great Promises of E-Learning

207

improve through the same cycle of maturity and usability

that Windows did, moving from Windows 1.0 to Windows

XP, including plenty of ups and downs along the way. Al-

ready, course management systems are beginning to serve

much the same role as an operating system does on a

personal computer. The core system for creating and man-

aging online course environments, institutions are inte-

grating third-party tools into course management systems

so that faculty and students experience all of the learning

applications they need in one user interface. Services,

such as security, tracking, and session management, are

provided by the course management system to third-party

tools as seamlessly as to the tools that are native to the

system. For example, a course management system may

come with a discussion board technology as part of the

core system. As the choices of various tools increase, a

faculty member might wish to switch out the bundled dis-

cussion board with one that fits a specific need, knowing

that the third-party tool will run as seamlessly within the

environment as the original discussion board.

As e-learning adoption grows, the demand by academic

institutions for technologies will expand, enabling a viable

business climate for companies to grow profitably and in-

vest in future technologies. Much as in the desktop comput-

ing world, a few large companies will provide a broad array

of technologies, and boutique companies that specialize in

a specific product area will meet niche needs in the disci-

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