New Horizons By Marilyn M. Lombardi
Standing on the Plateau
ecently, I paid a visit to my uni- Through the medium of the campus a lecture hall. Clearly, any approach to versity’s Web site, where I found itself, college and university communica- online education that restricts itself to the a campus slideshow for prospec- tions offices are offering prospective stu- delivery of pre-packaged content ignores tive students. Similar slideshows dents (and their parents) the promise of the depth and social texture of campus Rand virtual tours are posted on an experience. Institutions of higher educa- life, along with the collaborative nature of many other college and university Web tion (particularly those with centralized learning. Of the three broad aims of sites. These usually contain image after campuses) promote themselves, first, as higher education as identified by learn- image of young people lounging, walk- places with people. The physical campus ing researchers—(1) skill acquisition and ing, eating, and laughing in sun-drenched sets up the enabling conditions for a com- competence with tools and techniques; settings across campus. At the University plex social ecology to emerge over time. (2) socialization and induction into the of Wisconsin–Madison, the students are Large numbers of students engage in canons of particular communities, pro- sprawled on vast lawns in a perpetual daily role-playing (also known as “critical fessions, or disciplines; and (3) develop- summer: “a favorite place to study—and thinking”), during which they “perform” ment of an intentional, or self-directed, not to study.” They enjoy the lakeshore a particular point of view—trying it on for approach to lifelong learning—current view from the student union terrace: “fa- size, explaining, critiquing, justifying, online learning environments are rela- mous for its sights and sounds.” They take deepening, and reinforcing their under- tively successful in managing only the in the nightlife of downtown Madison: standing while strengthening their group first, most transactional of goals.2 “No matter what time you walk down identity. Ask anyone who has ever been Meanwhile, we’ve reached a critical State Street, you’ll end up seeing some- through a rigorous program of study, and juncture in our institutional commit- one you know. You’ll always run into chances are he or she will remember ments to educational technology. Ad- someone different, someone new.” learning more from fellow students than vances in networking and software design Deeper into the slideshow, students are from professors. finally allow educators to do far more actually pictured at work, but not in class- The unique value of campus life, then, than merely automate the traditional lec- rooms or lecture halls. They stand out- is a matter of proximity—the ability to posi- ture course. Over the last several years, doors, peering through land-surveying tion oneself in direct relation to relevant higher education leaders have outfitted instruments: “the advantage of out-of- people and resources. The sociologist their campuses with fat pipelines and class projects and research opportuni- Erving Goffman called these spatially de- high-speed connectivity. Increasingly, ties.” Or they gather around a computer fined moments of engagement “focused their students come to campus equipped terminal in an energetically cluttered lab- gatherings” in which people are “en- with the latest in commercially available oratory: “Research at UW-Madison is a grossed in a common flow of activity and PCs and laptops. Hard drives are bigger, participatory venture, in which students relating to one another in terms of that graphics accelerators speed up 3D image and professors often work side by side.” flow.” The gathering takes its form from display, and faster processing chips simu- And in one astounding shot taken the situation that evokes it, “the floor on late real-world physics with relative ease. through a fish-eye lens, the viewer peers which it is placed,” as Goffman put it.1 At the same time, college and univer- down on an intrepid rock-climber as he Add to this foundation the ready avail- sity open source software development reaches the top of a rather formidable ability of tools to forcefully express, em- projects are signaling dissatisfaction with campus wall. The quote that accompa- body, and exchange ideas, and the cam- commercial approaches to meeting peda- nies this photograph pretty much sums pus has all the makings of one vast gogical needs. A growing number of insti- up the general outlook: “Most of the les- “collaboratory.” tutions with the capacity to build their sons we learn here are not from lecture Despite all this, we continue to design own learning software are working to de- halls, not from books. They are from our online learning environments that do lit- sign applications suited to their individ- experiences in life.” tle more than replicate the remoteness of ual requirements. Proprietary course
68 EDUCAUSE reviewⅪ March/April 2005 © 2005 Marilyn M. Lombardi management systems may have helped window he just created with a click of the that little had changed since Kay intro- institutions leverage new media, but mouse. Remarkably, you and your profes- duced the overlapping windows interface many in higher education feel these sys- sor are now able to see one another make thirty years ago, the Croquet team intends tems are making little headway when it additions and changes to the same docu- to provide a comparable computing stan- comes to providing innovative technolo- ment, all while keeping up a steady ban- dard for a new age of collaborative work gies for real-time interactions among ter with the help of network-enabled te- and learning. people, information, and systems. As one lephony built into the software system. As of this writing, researchers and analyst concluded recently, “proprietary Impressed with your work, the professor technologists from twenty universities systems . . . seem to have hit an early invites his entire introductory astronomy have joined the higher education devel- plateau,” whereas “open source applica- class to a viewing and discussion of your opment effort, jointly spearheaded by tions are standing on that plateau looking simulation. From across campus, hun- the University of Wisconsin and the Uni- forward.”3 dreds of students gather inside the virtual versity of Minnesota. This open source Standing on that plateau, looking for- lab. The instructor’s video image (cap- development community is working to ward, open source application develop- tured by the web camera on his laptop) is ensure that the Croquet platform is able ers are taking the time to consider what visible to the students he guides through to address the special needs and concerns the demonstra- of higher education. Programmers and tion. Class- educational application developers inter- mates wander ested in familiarizing themselves with the among the Croquet programming environment are planets, talking welcome to download a developer’s pre- together in view of the technology from the Croquet small groups, Project Web site (http://croquetproject. adjusting the org/). A more complete release of the Cro- timing and mo- quet technologies is planned to appear tion of the ce- on the Croquet Web site later this year. lestial machin- Higher education is moving closer to ery, annotating an online learning environment that cap- they would do differently if they were to elements of the scene with comments or tures the social vitality and collaborative design a new online learning environ- references, and gaining an unprece- spirit of the real-world campus. A grow- ment today, knowing what they now dented appreciation for Kepler’s Laws in ing open source community of learning know about the power of computing and action. researchers, software architects, visuali- networking technologies. For example, This vision of the future in computer- zation and simulation specialists, and the members of the Croquet Project, a mediated education is driving the efforts user interface designers has taken up the new open source initiative, are exploring of the open source Croquet Project. The challenge, lending their expertise to the what it would take to make online learn- project is designed specifically to make Croquet Project. Such next-generation ing as personally involving, meaningful, the most of advanced campus networks systems promise to extend the primary and rewarding as campus-based learning. and the untapped computational re- advantages of campus-based learning The project’s participants, who are com- sources of individual machines by en- into the online realm, deepening and ing together from around the world, be- abling safe and secure cooperation— transforming the way we teach and learn. lieve that a transformative platform for among machines, among user interfaces, online learning and teaching is finally among content developers, among users, Notes within reach. and among institutions. 1. Erving Goffman, Encounters: Two Studies in the Sociol- ogy of Interaction (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, So, what is the Croquet Project? Imag- Croquet is the combined vision of its 1961), 9–10. ine you are a graduate student in astron- six core architects: David A. Smith, David 2. Kenneth A. Bruffee, Collaborative Learning: Higher omy and have been asked to demonstrate P. Reed, Andreas Raab, Julian Lombardi, Education, Interdependence, and the Authority of Knowl- edge (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, your knowledge of Kepler’s Laws. You Mark P. McCahill, and the computer vi- 1993). launch a software application on your sionary Alan Kay. The winner of both the 3. Christopher D. Coppola, “Will Open Source computer and enter a three-dimensional 2003 ACM Turing Award and the 2004 Software Unlock the Potential of eLearning?” elearning Dialogue, December 1, 2004,
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