An academic challenge for the year 2000: perfect the memex
The evolution of the Internet is increasing at an ever-increasing rate. The rate of incorporation of Internet-based resources into university courses, however, does not seem to be keeping pace. In large part this seems to be a function of the mindset of university faculty rather than a technological shortcoming. For the past few years faculty have used the Internet to learn how their colleagues are adopting this new medium into their courses. Password-protected course pages will restrict that learning process if university administration and publishers exercise ownership of the intellectual property produced by faculty. A team approach is needed with instructors providing the content and graphic designers, programmers, and cognitive experts adding their skills to produce the final product. This team should be involved from conception through assessment of the results. Focusing on the development of an entire course may not be a wise investment of time and money for a faculty member. It may make more sense to focus on the development of small segments, units or modules or analytical tools that can be incorporated into a variety of courses at other institutions. If such units can be evaluated as good practices, and if an efficient distribution mechanism can be devised, the benefits should increase exponentially as new resources are contributed.
internet distance learning