Editor’s note: Robert Dugan is a computer network professional who has been involved in providing internet applications to educators. He has recently worked for Placeware and Worldstream. The views expressed in this article are his own.

Over the years educational technologists have promoted the use of computers for learning. The light-speed development of information technology coupled with the increasing need in the educational community for effective tools and delivery models has heightened the urgency for understanding and implementation. What is remarkable about information technology today is that it is giving educators far greater choices and facilitating greater access to what will likely become commonplace for lifelong learning. However, most of what is available via the Internet is virtually untapped by the average educator. This may be primarily due to the traditionally limited resources accessible to the education market, and the presently costly nature of such technology. It is also partly due, in this author’s opinion, to the lack of awareness on the part of educators underscored by the technology companies’ lack of marketing effort to recruit the education market to the frontier of technology.

It is encouraging that there are groups, including some in the U.S. government, who see the integration of technology and education as a critical issue. The Congressional Web-Based Education Commission held its final public hearing in early September, concluding testimony from technology and education experts. The commission, made up of members of Congress, educators, and business officials, was created about a year ago to study the role of the Internet in education. In its last two days of testimony, the committee heard recommendations that the federal government should work to develop technical standards for online education, provide broadband networks to rural areas, and invest more in research and development in education. Now that it has finished its fifth and final public hearing, the commission was expected to make recommendations to Congress and the President this past November.

In the next five years we will see dramatic development of new categories of computing and communication products - or network appliances - that may serve educational needs. For example, a Japanese company, Bandai Entertainment, is already marketing a $650 device based on Apple technologies that includes a keyboard and CD player for accessing the net. Using a television set for its display the network enables the development of a new price point for web access and communication. A shift to a web-centric teaching and learning paradigm is within reach as a result. Such new home appliances combined with solid and substantive educational content purposed specifically for the web may support the evolution of a highly rich and interactive model for distance learning.

Previous iterations of distance learning technologies (e.g. correspondence courses) did not offer timely or personal interactivity. Often students were left with simple and limited options of fax, phone, or in-person appointments with their instructor. Streaming technologies today provide far greater choices enabling the delivery of distance learning programs anytime and anywhere. Next generation technologies will extend the communication feature set even further beyond today's capabilities, including wireless technologies.

Judith V. Boettcher of Florida State University described three dyads of dialogue among learners today (http://www.cren.net/~jboettch/jvb_cause.html):

1. The dialogue between the faculty and the students,
2. The dialogue between and among students,
3. The dialogue between a student and the instructional resources, such as books, films, reference materials, research data, and experts.

Communication and computing technologies available may be powerful enablers of these dialogues. Examples include:

• Real-time (synchronous) or delayed (asynchronous) classroom lectures, accessed by students from home, from work, or from anywhere.
• On-line electronic discussions, one-on-one or one-to-many, including desktop conferencing advisor sessions.
• Synchronous - or asynchronous - project meetings and study groups.
• Intensive synchronous "dorm" room chats across many dorms or homes.
• Collaborative projects among students anywhere on the globe.
• Use of digitized lectures or discussions, electronic films, books, or music; viewing of recorded significant events and interviews; comprehensive databases of primary and secondary research materials.
• Problem-solving "tests" addressing real problems linked to current events. (Consider situations similar to Judge Ito asking the Harvard law students for copies of their research on media in the courtroom.)
• Satellite events that address key issues and that are moderated by local faculty.

One of the critical areas of technology ideally suited for distance learning is the use of streaming technology not only to deliver lessons, which many educational institutions and organizations have been doing for some time, but also to receive feedback from their student population that enhances the learning cycle and creates an enriched environment for both. Streaming media technology enables the real time or on demand distribution of audio, video and multimedia on the Internet and is the simultaneous transfer of digital media (video, voice and data) so that it is received as a continuous real-time stream. Web sites don’t offer just static content any more, they offer a wide range of interactive functions, from searching, user profiling, testing, polling, discussion boards, etc. The term “webcast” is fast becoming commonplace among educational technologists.

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