At a fundamental level, the Web challenges the authority of the professor in the classroom by democratizing information. The ideas which are central to an education which defines competence as the ability of the student to apply knowledge and skills to unfamiliar problems are not new. These ideas were found in traditional apprenticeship programs, were implicit in settings where daughters and sons learned life sustaining skills from parents, and they were central to the successes of all traditional peoples. Face to face interaction between teacher and student and among students is still crucial and is still central. In the classroom supported by Ricci Street, teachers can take questions, get formative feedback, demonstrate techniques, tour new web pages, supervise student groups, evaluate student presentations, bring students to consensus on important class issues.
Information transfer can occur online outside of class at the students' convenience.
Using the World Wide Web to Enhance Classroom Instruction , by Norman Mathew and Maryanne Dohery-Poirier, is especially good on the control shift from teacher to student. Taking full advantage of the potential of the Web requires teachers to think about learning and teaching in new ways, as well as to master the technology itself. See also The Control Revolution . The ideas on this page are meant to be provocative. Let's talk about it at the Bistro .