Fall 1999
Vol 8 Issue 1
IN THIS ISSUE...
Technology: Places for Student Voices
Assisting Student Learning with Technology
Technology and Computers- More than Just Classroom Learning
Laptops, Websites, and Angkor-Wat
Ten Years of Student Voices on the Electronic Forum
Learning, Programming and Moving On at MCLI
Learning that Provides a Direction for the Future
Are We Listening to International Students
Hands-On Experience, Service Learning Makes it Real at MCC's Network Academy
SEE ALSO...
The Forum
Assidere
Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction
Technology: Places for Student Voices
Alan Levine, MCLI
In his new book Weaving the Web, Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web, describes his motivation for building a "web of people:"
The Web is more a social creation than a technical one. I designed it for a social effect- to help people work together- and not as a technical toy. The ultimate goal of the Web is to support and improve our weblike existence in the world. (p.127)
In many ways, this vision is happening now. The web Berners-Lee released in 1991 now connects us for personal communications, for business transactions (raise your hands if you are shopping this year at eToys or Amazon.com, etc.), for receiving up-to-the-second news and, most interestingly for us, for learning. You do not need a status of "visionary techno-prophet" anymore to recognize the enormous impact of the web. This connected de-centralized environment is the web where our students live and learn.
This issue of the Labyrinth seeks to bring you the words of studentsthe words that describe, from their vantage point, what technology means in their personal learning process at Maricopa. Consider these words as just a sampling of the thousands and thousands of student experiences occurring throughout our system. This system itself is a "web" that goes beyond the technology of the Internet to connect teacher, learner, and communities in new, and perhaps not-yet-revealed, ways.
Consider these articles as stories in the context of a "dot.com" world where every other billboard or magazine advertisement features a web address; where every third commercial on television is "e-" this or "i-" that; where most everybody has an online grandmother or a seven-year-old nephew who is versed in PhotoShop. This world challenges our pre-conceived notions and past experiences of how learning happens. We need however, to rise to this challenge and use the technology to do more than just present data, images, or bulleted word slides. We must provide rich "web-like" environments for thinking, creating, and promoting interpersonal communication.
Thus, the communication aspect of computers, and the Internet specifically, is a natural avenue for providing a place for students to have their voices heard. It is much more than the web. Electronic mail is one channel. An electronic discussion board is another. Synchronous chat rooms, beyond the sensationalized stories in the media, are spectacular places to have immediate, meaningful interchanges not otherwise possible.
Also, we can expect even more revolutions around the corner that may make the web explosion of today seem like ancient history. Imagine the communications functionality of future wireless devices such as phones, electronic organizers, or your humble wristwatch. However, new devices and faster networks do not by themselves create meaningful connections.
The web has exploded in the last five years, but we at Maricopa recognized long before the value of electronic spaces for student communication, as pointed out in this issue's tribute to the Electronic Forum (EF) written by Karen Schwalm (GCC). At a recent meeting with a representative from an Internet software company, a group of our faculty had to explain the instructional value of electronic discussion groups where students could anonymously participate. It was something our faculty understood because of their EF experience.
Many Maricopa faculty, such as Rick Effland (MCC), have been pushing the technology edges for doing more than just content presentations. Two of Effland's former anthropology students, James Jacobs and David Jannosy, write how their technology experiences, which were integrated into Effland's course, profoundly affected their careers. For quite some time Effland has avidly used dialogue spaces (e.g. O'Reilley Webboard) for his students to discuss and exchange ideas about the history of human and society developmentspaces where literally the student "voices," their words, rise, and sometimes crowd out their instructor. What may be more remarkable (but hardly noticed by us) was that all of the communication about these articles among the Labyrinth editors, Effland, and his students took place via e-mail.
Our correspondent from Egypt, Jon Lea Fimbres, sheds light on the perspective of international students who are increasingly showing up for a United States education. Also, Colen Wilson, a Mesa Community College student who works for us at the MCLI, describes his path from a small town in the Four Corners region to a promising career in computer applications.
Finally, we interviewed students in a unique Service Learning program at the MCC Networking Academy-their words clearly say how making learning (by hands-on experience) "real" is very important.
Hopefully, this issue emphasizes the idea that providing an electronic discussion board, an e-mail address, and a chat room means little without a rich and meaningful context for learning. We cannot just build the new electronic forums. We have to be there to guide, to listen, and to respond to student voices, as well as to provide some meaningful connections between people and "all that stuff out there"- the central idea of the "weblike existence" envisioned by Tim Berners-Lee.
lab·y·rinth \'lab-u-rin(t)th\ n [ME laborintus, fr. L labyrinthus, fr. Gk labyrinthos] (14c) 1 a. : a place constructed of or full of intricate passageways and blind alleys b. : a mysterious passageway for exploring and discovering the unknown c. : a unicursal figure where it is impossible to get lost 2 : an enigma to lead us deeper into the use of new technologies for learning 3 : a publication for exploring and sharing knowledge.