Norman Coombs, Ph.D.
Rochester Institute of Technology
Rochester NY USA



 

Computer Mediated Communication is a highly interactive technology with great potential to impact the shape of modern education. The lecture has been the most common form of communication in the university between teacher and student. While the computer can be used to deliver material in a lecture or monograph format, its inherent interactive power makes it better suited to a dialogue or group discussion making the learner a participant rather than a spectator. When the computer is connected to high speed data networks, the student can increasingly access libraries, databases and other information sources instantaneously from almost anywhere. Tomorrow's information technology can bring in an educational revolution which will put the learner, not the teacher, in the center of the process and which will transform the professor from a dispenser of information into a discussion moderator and skilled resource expert. In an age of information overload, the educator will need to direct the learner in how to find what is relevant and what to do with raw information to turn it into useful knowledge.

In the middle 1980s, the Rochester Institute of Technology began to use computer mediated communication to enhance its distance education courses. My original goal, when I became involved, was to provide the same quality of education to these distance learners as I felt I did to the classroom students. I had no concept that it would change the nature of what I was doing. Intuitively, I sensed that the computer should not be used to transmit lectures, but that videos were a much better format for a one-way presentation. Happily, we found an existing series on modern American history which combined talking head professors with lots of documentary footage. Electronic mail and computer conferencing were used for the equivalent of office visits and class discussions. I strove to make these duplicate as closely as possible what was happening between myself and the on-campus students. However, gradually it became evident that the online learners were sharing more, sharing more openly and that we came to know one another more than was true for the classroom students. In fact, this has become important enough in my evolving view of education that I require some of my on- campus classes to participate in a computer mediated discussion to involve them in some of these benefits.

In a computer mediated discussion, there is no stage, and therefore there is no stage fright. As one student commented in the computer conference, "I'm not a great speaker, so the conference helps me put my thoughts together and allows me to express them better without having my tongue twisted." The computer conference system, VAX Notes, is an asynchronous format and does not function in "real time". This provides time to reflect on what one is reading and to consider what one is going to say. Some said that sometimes they hesitated to speak openly in class for fear of getting "a crazy look" from the others. More than one student said that they shared more in the computer discussions than in any previous class experience.

While a few participants complained that the lack of face-to-face communication was disconcerting, more said they found it liberating. People felt they were being judged on their comments and not on physical external features. "the everyday communication barriers are avoided," commented one student at the end of the course. He added, Whether this barrier is being hearing impaired, being Black, White, or Green, being shy or not a good speaker, or what have you, these communication gaps and many others are bridged." This insight occurred in the context of a course on African American history, and the discussion on the computer was much more open and relaxed than it was for these same students in the classroom. This fact makes computer mediated communication an ideal tool for courses in cultural diversity and multiculturalism. It also serves as a unique context for mainstreaming learners with various physical disabilities. Even hearing impaired students, for whom English is often a second language, find they can communicate better when there is no pressure. The small display on the computer monitor tends to encourage shorter statements without many compound complex sentences which assists those with limited English skills.

In the course of this more open discussion, participants often shared personal or family stories that related to the course material. At a technical university, students seldom take history courses by choice, and they regularly forget the material quickly once the exam is over. However, the more that class material became connected to their lives, the more meaningful it was for them. I believe that affective learning is good education.In African American history, students told of their parents involvement in civil rights marches and of grandparents observing lynchings. In American history, they told of their parents struggles as immigrants. This kind of personal involvement had been rare in my previous classroom experiences.

As the teacher, I found that this interactive computer medium gradually altered my perceptions of the students. Besides knowing them better because of this increased interaction, the asynchronous feature of the system permitted me a double vision of the class. On one hand, as I read and sometimes participated in the discussions, I had a psychological sense of belonging to a group activity. On the other hand, when someone caught my attention, I could focus my time and energy on that one individual without taking time or attention away from the others. The feeling I had was that of a zoom lens on a camera. At one time, I had the panoramic picture, and then, a second later, I had a close up view of one individual. I gained a greater realization that different students learn differently and could take time to focus on individual needs. One of the reasons I could give this individual attention is that computer mediated communication let me keep control of my time. I could decide whether to send a one-line email message or expand in more detail. When a student is in the office, it is difficult to control when to reply and for how long. Cmc let me be interactive without giving control of my time to others.

Every medium has its limitations. At present, networked computer conferencing and email is primarily text based. This means that special math, science and music symbols are not readily displayed. It also limits the use of pictures, maps and other graphic learning materials. The technology already exists to provide personal computers and data networks with multi media capability, and this potential will become real in a few short years. This will even provide the ability to transmit pictures of people involved in online discussions together. At present, however, some do find the lack of face-to-face communication limiting. Often, I found students went out of their way to express themselves very clearly because of this feature. They often also asked others for clarification of some point before engaging in a disagreement or confrontation.

This narrow bandwidth of communication created two interesting events in classes this year. First, during the Los Angeles riots in the spring of 1992, a woman sent me email that she had found some comments in the conference "frightening". I did not perceive them that way and did not take her comments seriously enough. When, a couple weeks later, she had to come on campus to take an exam, she arrived with two campus security guards accompanying her. She was afraid of violence during the exam. The proctor calmed hear fears and dismissed the guards, and nothing happened. Second, one student repeatedly went out of his way to describe for us his unusual dress and hair styles. While complaining that people always got upset by his appearance and judged him unfairly, it seemed that he was working hard to get a reaction from us. After classmates convinced him they were more concerned with his contributions than with his dress, he even began to discuss issues in a much less outrageous manner. In both cases, for quite different reasons, the narrow communication bandwidth interfered with the communication.

The final limitation I have observed in my cmc classes comes from the asynchronous feature of the system we have been using. On one hand, it provides a genuine flex learning environment which many students greatly appreciate. On the other hand, some students lack the self discipline to work without the pressures of time and place. The system works best for more mature learners especially those trying to squeeze learning into a full adult life.

The real impact of cmc on education is yet to come. Online information sources are only beginning in most disciplines. Even when they exist, they are all too often expensive, commercial products. As public library resources become available online or as affordable site licenses for university access to commercial databases become available, educators will have to integrate these into their courses. Hypertext and hypermedia tools are also on the horizon and will put new information power at the fingertips of teachers and students. At present, the interactive features of cmc can be used productively in cultural diversity contexts. It would also be interesting to experiment with cmc in a bilingual context. Here, of course, the bilingual differences might tend to stand out rather than to disappear. However, in an asynchronous setting, participants would have time to collect their thoughts and find their words. This would be an interesting project for someone in the Canadian education system.

Five hundred years ago, the printing press revolutionized education. Professors stopped dictating notes to the students and provided them with books instead. Cmc as an interactive medium and networked databases circling the globe hold the potential to again change the way we teach and learn.