In Search of the Virtual Class Education in an Information Society John Tiffin and Lalita Rajasingham Chapters 1-3 "-recognizing not just its functionality, but also faith in that functionality" (11) In Search of the Virtual Class seems based upon the premise that a new paradigm in education is absolutely necessary. In fact, the book might seem somewhat superficial if it isn't taken from the perspective of creating a new paradigm. The Choice [In Person vs. Tele-Communication] "If you have a class you travel to a classroom. Education needs an alternative." (3) [The classroom] "works not just because it is an effective communication system for instruction, but because it is a keystone in society. And if that is the case, we need to be careful how we replace it." (70) Perceptions and promises of a virtual class: "However, telelearning promises to make it possible to offer a variety of courses that no conventional school could match. In telelearning there are no physical limits to the number of courses that can be offered." (4) "-how is it possible to have the effect of a class without a reality of a classroom?" (5-6) "The idea of a virtual class is that everybody can talk and be heard and be identified and everybody can see the same words, diagrams, and pictures, at the same time." (6) "Will we use this extraordinary technology to advance the way we learn, or will we use it to create virtual classrooms that are the virtual versions of conventional classrooms?" (7-8) "Given the potential of information technology, can a communication system for learning be designed that is more effective than the classroom?" (20) Tiffin and Rajasingham use Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) as a basis for viewing education as a process communication. In light of some of the ideas asserted by some of the previous authors we've read, what are the consequences of this perspective on education? The zone of proximal development is the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers." -Lev Vygostky (22) "At one level a classroom can be seen as housing a network of people each of who is a node." (38) In the examples describing the ZPD, the ZPD `evaporates' upon the solution of the problem. Learner, Teacher, Problem, Knowledge Communication: Transmission, Storage, Processing What role do teachers and educators play in this proposed educational paradigm? Professor Abelson [of MIT] also noted that the pioneering new program may set in motion innovations in teaching. Once students begin acquiring course content on the web, faculty will be able to pay more attention to the actual process of teaching. OpenCourseWare will enable faculty to concentrate on using classroom or lab time to enhance learning, he said. One of the primary focuses in American education has been the acculturation and enculturation of people into American society. Is that goal achievable, or even desirable, in a global, virtual system of education? On OpenCourseWare's impact on education at MIT, President Vest commented, "We believe OpenCourseWare will have a strong impact on a residential learning at MIT and elsewhere. Let me be clear: We are not providing an MIT education on the Web. We are providing our core materials that are the infrastructure that undergirds an MIT education. Real education requires interaction, the interaction that is part of American teaching. Assuming that a lot of the technology required for these strategies is years away, what do the ideas proposed in Virtual Class mean for us now? "The United States is not the world, but is there any country that is not deeply perturbed about its educational system and does not feel some resonance with the problem that the Americans, as is their way, bare to the world?" (9)