cyberschool: the uncertain future of education

 

In “Visions for a Virtual University,” the final section of The Wired Professor, Keating and Hargitai explore different manifestations of internetworked distance education.  They pay cautious and critical attention to programs such as the “Online Campus” at the University of Phoenix that explicitly construct education as a “service business” (212).  Wary of the commercialization of higher education, they lament the loss of classroom interactivity implied by the concept of a virtual university, and they question the ethics of using the web as a diploma-mill.  They contrast profit-driven models with programs like UNIWORLD that work to bring marginalized communities into academic conversations about such topics as labor migration, religion, and environmental management.  Rather than viewing the internet as a cost-efficient means of information delivery, UNIWORLD designers see it as a “critical teaching platform with global reach” (215).  The dream of empowering underprivileged communities, however, raises access issues that neither UNIWORLD nor The Wired Professor addresses.  Underfunded communities often lack the technological resources and training to participate in internet education.  Developers of UNIWORLD claim to need at least one face-to-face meeting with course participants, but such a need ignores the socioeconomic conditions that necessitate distance education.  Who would fund and organize such a gathering?  How could continued access to appropriate technology and assistance be assured for the target student audience?  Keating and Hargitai sidestep these questions because their book and their own pedagogies assume consistent face-to-face interaction between teachers and students.  The idea of a wholly virtual university, while seemingly empowering those whose circumstances prevent participation in traditional education, finally frightens more than attracts the authors of The Wired Professor.