The Wired Tower: Perspectives on the Impact of the Internet on Higher Education
Venue:  (2002)

:The Wired Tower makes sense of the changes that are being wrought by the Internet and related technologies, and explores which aspects of Internet-related change offer the greatest long-term promise in higher education, which are superficial, and which should be rejected. Editor Matthew Pittinsky and his diverse contributors widen our perspective on the Internet, viewing it as the latest in a series of "macro-level" changes that have repeatedly transformed higher education and broadened access to it. Drilling down to implementation issues, they offer specific guidance on course redesign, and on the cost, policy, and staffing implications of the wired campus. Finally, Neil Postman offers an essential counterweight to technological optimism, posing skeptical questions academics should ask before buying into technological and business-based paradigms in higher education. With original contributions from: * Matthew Pittinsky, Chairman, Blackboard Inc. The key forces shaping the Internet's effects on higher education and how e-learning can reinforce traditional academic values * Arthur Levine, President, Columbia University Teacher's College What to preserve, what to change, and how the forces reshaping higher education can reinvigorate its historic mission * Greg Cappelli, Equity Analyst, Credit Suisse First Boston The education "industry:" market size, trends in Internet usage, economic/demographic pressures, and new for-profit institutions * Martin Irvine, Professor, Georgetown University Internet-based learning: an international perspective areview * Carol A. Twigg, Executive Director, Center for Academic Transformation The nitty-gritty of technology-driven course redesign, frameworks for improving quality and reducing cost * Donald Spicer, CIO, University of Maryland Supporting innovation on the wired campus: IT management challenges * Neil Postman, author, The End of Education; Chair, Department of Culture and Communication, NYU A skeptic's view: five crucial questions to ask before you adopt new technologies The effects of the Internet on colleges and universities: revolution, evolution, or both? Wide-ranging perspectives on technology in higher education Viewpoints from leading academics, administrators, and business and investment professionals Five transformative Internet-based learning practices most likely to succeed Contributors include Neil Postman (author of The End of Education) and Arthur Levine, President, Columbia Teacher's CollegeThe Internet is changing higher educationbut how? Which changes are revolutionaryand which are evolutionary, arising from deeper changes? Now, The Wired Tower brings together today's leading thinkers and doers to assess the new realities of the Internet in higher education. Blackboard Inc. Chairman Matthew Pittinsky identifies four key drivers of technology-related change in higher education: the renewed focus on teaching and learning, technology's movement from "back office" to "front office," the search for new funding, and the pressure and opportunity to ser provocative, skeptical contribution from leading social theorist Neil Postman, and concludes with a preview of the Internet-based learning trends likely to have the most profound impact.