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)