Electronic Learning Environments

Bertalan Komenczi

Issues of Media and Information Science

Electronic Learning Environments

Bertalan Komenczi

Eger, 2011

Reviewed by:

CleverBoard Interactive Tools and Solutions Ltd.

The Project is supported by the European Union and co-financed by the

European Social Fund

Managing Publisher: dr. Kis-Tóth Lajos

Printed in the Press of the Eszterházy Károly College, Eger

Executive: Kérészy László

Technical Editor: Nagy Sándorné

Opencourseware and SCORM based ICT e-learning content development for the BA

and MA degree information specialist librarians curriculum,

TÁMOP-4.1.2-08/1/A-2009-0005

5

Introduction

1. THE SYSTEM-ORIENTED APPROACH OF TEACHING AND

LEARNING ................................................................................................. 13

1.1 Learning and teaching in the system of cultural evolution...................... 13 1.1.1. Cultural transmission ................................................................... 16 1.1.2. Mimetic culture............................................................................ 19 1.1.3. Mythic culture.............................................................................. 22 1.1.4 Theoretical culture ........................................................................ 24 1.1.5. Electronic media and the world of networks ............................... 34 1.1.6. Symbolic environment and cognitive habitus at the

beginning of the 21st century ....................................................... 38

1.2. Learning Environment ............................................................................ 46 1.2.1. The basic forms of the organization of learning environments ... 48 1.2.3. Constructivist learning environment............................................ 57 1.2.4. Complementary learning environment ........................................ 60 1.2.5. Problem-centered learning environment...................................... 65

2. NEW CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS S FOR TEACHING AND

LEARNING ................................................................................................. 69

2.1. A new understanding of teaching ........................................................... 69 2.1.1. The dimensions of learning ......................................................... 71 2.1.2. The forms of learning .................................................................. 73

2.2. The new normative elements of the organization of the learning

environment ........................................................................................... 77 2.2.1. The focal points of the design of up-to-date learning

environments ............................................................................... 77 2.2.2. The trends of transforming learning environments...................... 80

2.3. The transformation of the learning environment: virtual campus and

blended learning? ................................................................................... 82 2.3.1. An American experimental project for the transformation of

university courses ........................................................................ 84 2.3.2. The development of the virtual campus character of an

Australian university ................................................................... 88 2.3.3. Virtual seminar in Germany ........................................................ 89 2.3.4. The promises of the virtual campus ............................................. 91

2.4. Teacher and technology ......................................................................... 92

6

2.4.1. The role of the teacher in the electronic classroom ..................... 93 2.4.2 The relationship between conventional and online learning ........ 98

2.5. Scenarios and trends for the future ....................................................... 102 2.5.1. The future trends of information and communication

technology ................................................................................. 105 2.5.2. Pedagogical method in the future .............................................. 109 2.5.3. The relationship of information and communication

technology and pedagogical methodology ................................ 112 2.5.4. Viewpoints for understanding the information technological

challenge ................................................................................... 120

3. Electronic Learning Environments .......................................................... 126

3.1. The system characteristics of electronic learning environments .......... 126 3.1.1. Electronic learning environment ............................................... 126 3.1.2. The mesoworld model of the electronic learning

environment .............................................................................. 127 3.1.3. The relation system of electronic learning environments .......... 133 3.1.4. Conclusions gained from the mesoworld model ....................... 135 3.1.5. The communication-centered view of the electronic

learning environment ................................................................ 137 3.1.6. Conclusions derived from a communication-centered model ... 140

3.2. Information and communication equipment in an electronic learning

environment ......................................................................................... 142 3.2.1. The system-organizational function of information and

communication tools ................................................................. 142 3.2.2. The information mediating function of information and

communication tools ................................................................. 143 3.2.3. The communication function of information and

communication tools ................................................................. 144

3.3. The basic forms of electronic information management ...................... 144 3.3.1. Databases and search engines .................................................... 145 3.3.2. Hypertext ................................................................................... 146 3.3.3. Multimedia and hypermedia ...................................................... 147 3.3.4. The Internet and the World Wide Web ..................................... 148

3.4. World Wide Web and education .......................................................... 149 3.4.1. The levels of web integration .................................................... 150 3.4.2. The basic forms of networked teaching and learning ................ 153

4. THE CONCEPTUALIZATION OF THE NOTION OF

E-LEARNING ........................................................................................... 163

4.1. Attempts to conceptualize the notion of e-learning ............................. 163

4.2. The Design-oriented definition of the concept of e-learning ............... 167

7

4.3. The tool kit of e-learning developments ............................................... 169 4.3.1. The first circle: the toolkit of computerized learning ................ 170 4.3.2. The second circle: internet and web-based learning .................. 175 4.3.3. The third circle: distance education ........................................... 178 4.3.4 The fourth circle: system integration .......................................... 180

4.4. Various possibilities of grasping the instructional role of

e-learning ............................................................................................. 183 4.4.1. E-learning as an alternative of conventional education ............. 183 4.4.2. E-learning additively supplements conventional education ...... 184 4.4.3. The relationship of e-learning and conventional learning is

complementary .......................................................................... 184 4.4.4. E-learning is the tool of transforming the educational

institution ................................................................................... 185 4.4.5. E-learning is the tool of the systemic transformation of

education ................................................................................... 185

REFERENCES ............................................................................................... 187

Picture .............................................................. Hiba! A könyvjelző nem létezik.

9

INTRODUCTION

The primary motivation for the writing of this book was the need to provide a

new pedagogical interpretation of the electronic learning environments. The

present work makes an attempt to describe and present the option system and the

resulting challenge exerted by information and communication technology

devices on the theory and practice of instruction and learning. Having provided

an overview and survey of the latest developments and analyzed the respective

processes we strove for the exploration of more profound and generally

applicable trends, impact systems, and correlations beneath the dynamically

changing surface phenomena.

Our analytical effort was primarily motivated by a desire to understand the

innovative capacity and novelty value of the vigorously proliferating new

technologies, in addition to assessing the nature and extent of their impact on the

centuries old systems and methods of traditional education and that of the

various learning schemes. One of the focal points of the present work is the

interpretation of the concept of electronic learning environments and the

description of the respective features. We attempted to identify such conceptual

models and thematic approaches which in addition to being integrated into a

system can be suitable for the presentation of the options and possibilities

provided by electronic learning environments. Furthermore, the scope of our

research included the impact of electronic information and communication tools

on traditional learning environments, along with the respective correlation

between electronic and traditional learning environments. The book raises

several questions as well: What characteristics are changed, which components

tend to resist change? Should all forthcoming, scheduled, or pending

modifications be considered equally necessary and positive? Can we fully

substantiate the positive perspective and the associated demands for radical

change promoted by proponents of a full scale, unqualified, comprehensive

application of information technology devices in the education process? In what

way our expectations are modified as a result of the application of said apparatus

in the instruction and learning process? Is it possible to interpret or view certain

pedagogical phenomena in a non-traditional manner? Is it possible or even

necessary to incorporate new elements into pedagogical concepts and

approaches? Is it feasible to develop a differing, more comprehensive approach

examining the teaching and learning process in the evolutionary or historical

context in addition to the traditional social sciences oriented pedagogical theory

and pedagogical history perspective?

The present work aims to fulfil several objectives. On the one hand it

provides a summary of the results and related experiences of a comprehensive,

10

broad-scoped research and development effort launched several years ago. It

also attempts to perform a critical analysis whose validity is primarily assured by

its internal consistency, the logical coherence of the identified inherent

correlations, and the harmony with existing scholarly knowledge. On the other

hand it also functions as a systematized exploration of experiences, results, and

scholarly insights gained during the investigation of the respective subject. Thus

the present effort can be considered an educational text introducing students into

the crucial theoretical and practical correlations of the electronic and information

and communication technology supported learning process.

The respective interpretive and analytical approach is guided by a system-

oriented perspective. The vertical dimension of the system principle entails the

expansion of the evolutionary theory in order to provide a comprehensive and

broad scoped assessment of the impact of biological, cultural, and technological

factors on human cognition, and especially on the option system of pedagogical

interactions. The horizontal dimension implies the expansion of the concepts of

learning environment and learning in order to facilitate a comparison with other

system components. This perspective entails the inclusion and incorporation of

such disciplines into educational and pedagogical theory analyses, which have

been relegated to a rather peripheral role so far.

Consequently, certain educational theory terms and concepts are not always

used as traditionally treated by educational theorists. Thus in certain cases the

term pedagogy does not necessary refer to the sub discipline in humanities, but

as a ―terminus technicus‖ of humane etology implies inherent attitudes and

behavioural forms for learning and instruction. The simultaneous use of

instruction and learning also contains references to humane etology and

evolutionary psychology. In our present use the term learning is always

interpreted in a broader sense than the equivalent expression used by traditional

didactic theory. Surpassing the limits of teaching and learning processes taking

place within the framework of the traditional instructional structure the term,

learning environment can be defined in the context of cultural evolution as a

species-unique physical, biological, and cultural criteria system functioning as a

unique ecological niche offering a background for the personal development of

children.

The book is divided into four sections. In the first part we employ a system

oriented approach to explore the instruction and learning processes. First the

consecutive cognitive habitus of human cognition forming the background of

pedagogical interaction is mapped in a cultural evolution perspective followed

by the interpretation and discussion of the learning environment concept

complemented by the introduction of the basic types of the arrangement of

learning environments.

11

In the second part of the book the new conceptual frameworks and forms of

interpreting the instruction and learning process are surveyed. Having provided

an overview of the forms and dimensions of learning we introduce normative

perspectives and the respective anticipatory trends of the modernization of

learning environments. Furthermore, based upon the examination of specific

examples and case studies we explore higher education aspirations resting on the

application of information technology in addition to exploring the correlation

between instructor and technology, and that of traditional and on-line based

learning. Subsequently we examine the characteristic innovative future trends

and concepts expected to be realized by the use of electronic information and

communication technology.

Part three of the book introduces the characteristic features of electronic

learning environments. Following a scholarly analysis with the help of two

system models we outline the major new features of electronic learning

environments as compared to traditional ones. In addition to the scholarly

analysis of the concept of electronic learning environments we focus on the

newest aspects of the latter to be followed by a survey of basic functions. Next

the new technology provided information management options will be integrated

into a system with special emphasis on the actual internal logical correlations of

innovative solutions behind the ephemeral monitor-surface world.

The book provides a scholarly look at the respective on-line learning

philosophies highlighting various perspectives on the ―evolution‖ of Internet use

of higher education institutions along with categorizing the increasingly diverse

options afforded by on-line learning programs. The success of the elaboration

and operation of electronic learning environments is dependent upon the role

assigned by relevant actors to the utilization of the particular technology or

―medium‖, and the respective methodology in the promotion of the effectiveness

of the learning effort. The last section of Chapter Three is dedicated to the

exploration of this issue.

Chapter Four focuses on the analysis and interpretation of the e-learning

concept. While the term is the most popular expression referring to the

educational use of info-communication technology, most definitions tend to

concentrate only on a particular segment of this highly complex concept. The e-

learning definition forwarded in the present volume rests on a comprehensive

framework system reflecting the respective solution‘s internal coherence while

its design-oriented aspects facilitate the planning and evaluation of electronic

learning environments and educational materials. Due to their comprehensive

features and widely held image as a potential answer to challenges expressed by

contemporary educational policy aspirations e-learning programs have attained a

unique educational strategy dimension. This chapter summarizes the various

12

meanings of e-learning programs in comparison to traditional instruction

methods expressed at different system levels of the educational process.

While electronic learning environments have become a reality and an

indispensable aspect of contemporary educational philosophies, the respective

pedagogical reflection and evaluation efforts tend to be stranded at the

revolutionary pre-paradigm forming stage. Consequently, the present book

cannot forward completed, unanimously accepted, and professionally codified

conclusions tested in a variety of ways as the particular research efforts amount

only to an experimental attempt at the interpretation of the respective

phenomena along with the systematization of the attained experiences.

Furthermore, it hopes to facilitate a better understanding of electronic learning

environments by the elaboration of new perspectives and professional aspects

while encouraging the posing of new questions. It affords both a freeze frame

and cross section view reflecting the contemporary directions, trends, and

innovative patterns of the impact system formed between the applied technology

and didactic approaches. While due to the dynamically changing aspects of the

field of information and communication technology we could not guarantee the

applicability of our recommendation on the long run, we are convinced that the

goals of the present work exploring an area fraught with misconceptions are

warranted and necessary. It is beyond doubt that instructors, management of

higher education institutions, professional experts involved in the arrangement

and research of education efforts along with educational policy makers should be

as informed as possible regarding the developments of this field. We hope that

our effort will not only facilitate a better understanding of newly developed

electronic learning environments but promotes the prevalence of a pedagogically

rational approach in the arrangement and realization of the goals of the teaching

and learning process.

13

1. THE SYSTEM-ORIENTED APPROACH OF TEACHING AND

LEARNING

1.1 Learning and teaching in the system of cultural evolution

Capability and inclination for learning and teaching are our innate capacities:

continuous learning is a natural attribute of human life. We pick up information

from our environment, which during processing strengthen or modify our inner

representations, our mental models and hypotheses concerning the structure and

functioning of the outside world. Besides, the content of our inner world-model

is being continuously formed by the rewriting and reevaluating (Karmiloff –

Smith 1994) of already existing mental representations. This inner constructive

activity constitutes for us the main source of a new, creative understanding of

reality.

The ability of learning is a general and basic characteristic of highly-

developed animals: it is a part of the basic biological make-up that enhances

survival; it is a form of adaptation to the parameters of the environment. The

response patterns directed to the standard or slowly changing characteristics of

the outside world are fixed in the genetic make-up, the genome, and make the

individuals of the various species able to accommodate to a certain part of the

environment (ecological niche). The genome is a closed program package,

which is fixed at the moment of conception, and it cannot be reprogrammed or

overwritten during the individual‘s life. This set of orders may have open

elements, whose missing partial elements are supplemented by the environment

– let us think, for example, of certain birds‘ learning to sing or imprinting

(Lorentz 1985). However, this does not change the basically closed nature of the

program. In the course of biological evolution those individuals, which contain

the most apt program, will have a greater chance to pass on to their descendents

their successful genomes (natural selection). This process is ―genetic

transmission,‖ which – through the chain of consecutive, increasingly suitable

individuals – makes possible for the populations of certain species a slow,

continuous, and gradual assimilation to the environment. According to the

general, system-oriented understanding of learning, genetic transmission can

also be understood as learning. The following definition, for example, may be

applied for evolutionary ―learning‖ as well: ―learning is a lasting and adaptive

transformation emerging as a result of a mutual interaction with the environment

within a system or its steering partial system‖ (Nahalka, 1999). The system in

this case is the population, which, due to genetic transmission, has amassed in its

14

gene pool a significant set of knowledge1 The ―knowledge‖ accumulated in the

genes is the knowledge of the population and the species. This knowledge

always refers to the past, its success is probabilistic, and is almost completely

deterministic on the level of the individual. The subject of learning in this case is

an evolutionary entity, that is, the species, not the individual.

Beside genetic transmission, however, the possibility of individual learning

also appeared in the initial forms of life. The learning appearing at the systemic

level of the individual is a quick and effective mode of adaptation to the

changing environmental conditions of the present. With its help, the organism is

able to identify in its environment rules and patterns, and to behave accordingly.

Even the simplest nervous systems are able to model certain elements that are

essential for the animal.2 This basically characteristic modeling ability is

especially highly developed in the brain of higher ranking vertebrates, birds, and

mammals. As a result, all vertebrates possessing a developed central nervous

system have a dual ―set of knowledge‖: the joint system of ―instructions‖

included in the genetic code and the inner representations formed in the brain.

The genome stores the experiences of the evolutionary distant past; it is the

storehouse of descriptions referring to ancient worlds, while the brain constructs

the environmental models of the current present.3

The brain – as opposed to the genome – is an open information system: it is

programmed and is programmable as an effect of the inputs of the environment,

and a part of these programs can be modified and overwritten. Beniger –

interpreting the ideas of Mayr4 – speaks about a double programming. Beniger

argues that in living organisms existence or being is controlled by closed

programs, while experience or behavior is steered by open programs.

Functionally, the open program is the equivalent of the closed program and the

pressure of selection is aimed at the full programming.5 This method of learning

means the continual modification of inner representations in the course of their

interaction with the environment. The organism parses its environment

1 It is the gene pool of the species as a whole that becomes carved to fit the environments that its

ancestors have encountered … our DNA is a coded description of the worlds in which our

ancestors survived. And isn‘t it an arresting thought? We are digital archives of the African

Pliocene… (Dawkins, R. : Unweaving the Rainbow). 2 ―The brain and the entire neuro-muscular system, and therefore the possibility of culture are

projected even by the most primitive organisms, and today we know that the origin of these can

be found in the earliest forms of life.‖ (Beniger, 1986). 3 ―Where the gene pool of a species is sculpted into a set of models of ancestral worlds, the brain

of an individual houses a parallel set of models of the animal's own world. … (Dawkins, R. :

Unweaving the Rainbow). 4 Mayr, E.: ―Behavior Programs and Evolutionary Strategies.‖ American Scientist, 1974, 62 (6)

650-659. 5 Beniger, 1983.

15

continually; based on the incoming information, the representations formed in its

brain constitute a simplified model of the outside world, which is certain to

contain the elements of the environment that are most important for the survival

of the animal. The model is dynamic and is appropriate for simulation and

prediction – using a computing analogy, it is a ―loaded software that can be run,

and which is continually refreshed.‖ It is important to emphasize that – as

opposed to the Cartesian view and naïve materialistic ideas – we are not talking

about the mirroring or the representation of the outside world. What we are

saying is that our world is ―virtual‖ even at this elemental level of reality

interpretation (Ditfurth 1976; Lorenz 1977: Popper 1984: Dawkins 1998 et al).6

In the animal kingdom the primary teaching medium is the part of the

environment that is perceptible for the individuals of the given species (Jacob,

1986). The animals‘ most important information source is the actual state of the

environment, and in the case of animals living in groups we need to include here

the peers‘ signals as well. The organism processes and stores in a re-callable

form information picked up from the current environment and significant for the

optimization of adaptation. Consequently, the ―survival kit‖ acquired in the

course of genetic transmission is supplemented with the flexible, quickly

reacting information system of individual experiment gathering.

The knowledge accumulated in the animals‘ inner representations and

environmental models is a ―personal‖ one, tied to discrete contexts and

situations, and enclosed in the particular, idiosyncratic world of the nervous

system. The memory and knowledge of animals refer only to things that have

happened to them, and – judging by all signs – they cannot even access this

knowledge at will. Even the functioning of the brain of the primate mammals

ethologically closest to humans is under the control of the outside environment.

Tied to the actual present, their life performs as a series of episodes; their

memory is built on the representation of events that have happened to them –

possibly in the form of mental images. Besides the fact that they have a limited

access to the content of their brain, their ability to share with each other their

actual representations is extremely limited too. Their communication does not

basically differ from the characteristic social interactions of the animal kingdom:

it is a closed system based on the use of a small number of signs with a fixed

meaning, which is aimed at the optimal control of group functioning.

If we consider the development of the particularly human psyche from an

evolutionary perspective, we need to start from the cognitive world and social

relation system of the most highly developed mammals, the humanoids – which

Merlin Donald called episodic culture. The episodic culture of the humanoid

6 The brain does not register the exact image of the world considered as a metaphysical truth,

rather it functions by making its own model‖ (Jacob, 1986).

16

primate mammals can be considered as the starting point of human cognitive

evolution. The evolution of the human mind is nothing other than the process in

the course of which personal knowledge – for its possessor – became freely

accessible, modifiable7, and ready to be shared with peers. Parallel to this, the

structure and structuring of memory and knowledge underwent several changes

– induced by the continually renewed forms and tools of communication and

technology. This process is cultural evolution, which is built upon the cultural

transmission that surpasses the individual line of learning. The first longer stage

of cultural evolution co-evolved with biological evolution in an iterative mode

and in a synergic interaction. With the appearance of Homo sapiens, cultural

evolution became independent and has gradually been accelerating, on an

essentially unchanged biological base – as far as we know.

1.1.1. Cultural transmission

A condition of cultural evolution is the phenomenon called cultural

transmission, which often appears also in the animal kingdom.8

As opposed to the basically vertical nature of genetic transmission,

cultural transmission is fundamentally horizontal. While genetic

transmission in populations through descendant lines involves the

transmission of gene stocks between generations, cultural transmission is

the reception within a given generation of the experience gleaned by

peers. Thus, cultural transmission is built, already at its beginning, upon

web-like information relations. In the case of cumulative cultural

evolution, a specifically human form of cultural transmission, emphasis

is placed again on the vertical nature of the process.. In humans we can

speak of ―dual inheritance‖, that is, human phenotype is defined by what

the descendant has inherited from the ancestors biologically and

culturally.

Cultural transmission – as opposed to genetic transmission – makes possible

a certain level of adaptation of peers‘ experience and ―knowledge.‖9 This

collective, sociocultural form of learning is especially well developed in non-

7 ―… the animal brain works under the control of the external environment and the internal life

sustaining stimuli. However, the human brain is able to use for its self-activation its earlier

representations, that is, in a certain sense it became more and more independent from an external

control.‖ (Csányi, 2006). 8 ―Broadly speaking, cultural transmission is a moderately common evolutionary process that

enables individual organisms to save much time and effort, not to mention risk, by exploiting the

already existing knowledge and skills of conspecifics..‖ (Tomasello, 1999.) 9 For example fledgling birds mimic their parents‘ song; little rats eat the same food as their

mother; ants can find food following their peers‘ pheromone signs; chimpanzees learn from one

another the use of tools, etc.

17

human primate mammals; this is why ethologists speak about chimpanzee and

macaque cultures.

While in primate mammals, the most characteristic cultural transmission

forms include exposure, stimulus enhancement, mimicking, and imitative

learning (Tomasello, 1999), some forms of active learning can be observed as

well. (e.g., Boesch 1996).

In the case of humans, the basic forms of cultural transmission are: imitative

learning, instructed learning and cooperative learning. Each of these forms is

given a specific psychic dimension, unheard of in the animal kingdom, via the

attribution of intentionality (the understanding of others as intentional agents),

and the theory (the understanding of others as mental agents), as well as the

cooperative ability based on shared goals and intentions.10

Humans‘ constructive

ability is also unique, which has made possible the development of a diversified

world of tools and symbols. Socio-genesis is a peculiarly human activity: a

social inventiveness based on actual or virtual cooperation, which makes

possible the creation of such works that could not have been accomplished by

single participants. A further important characteristic that differentiates humans

from animals is humans‘ ability to share with others their inner representations

and personal understanding of reality. For this aim humans have invented highly

effective communication procedures and tools.11

Cultural transmission, constructive ability, and a peculiarly human

communication make cultural evolution possible, which – similar to biological

evolution – is a cumulative process, that is, it is realized through the differential

selection of variable entities. It is this way that language, culture, sciences, as

well as technology change and evolve.

The world of tools, ideas, and symbols developed as a result of social

construction based on a long line of successive generations forms a peculiar

ontogenetic niche, in which cognitive resources12

are present in a concentrated

form. This environment constitutes the background for young people‘s cognitive

development along with representing an innate feature affecting humans while

10

―This understanding of others as intentional beings like the self is crucial in human cultural

learning because cultural artifacts and social practices—exemplified prototypically by the use

of tools and linguistic symbols—invariably point beyond themselves to other outside entities:

tools point to the problems they are designed to solve and linguistic symbols point to the

communicative situations they are designed to represent.‖ (Tomasello, op cit.). 11

Human communication ―is a medium suitable for the exchange of mental representations,‖ an

open generative system as opposed to animals‘ closed signal system, which is suitable for the

coordination of genetically determined internal states as well as the signalization of

environmental changes (Csányi 2006). 12

It is Tomasello who uses the term ―cognitive resources,‖ as, for example, in ―humans can

accumulate their cognitive resources in such a manner that is quite dissimilar from other animal

species‖ (op cit.).

18

providing a medium for learning. Drawing on Bourdieu‘s concept of the

―habitus,‖ Tomasello refers to this system of effects and possibilities as

―cognitive habitus.‖13

In the process of cultural evolution leading up to today,

various forms of the ―cognitive habitus‖ have developed, which at the same time

have provided a specific environmental system of conditions and effects for the

aims of goal-oriented teaching and learning. In what follows, we‘ll call this

effect-system learning environment. This understanding of learning environment

diverges from its usual pedagogic conception, which uses this term to refer to

the system of conditions of school learning. The context of cultural evolution

entails a broader understanding of the learning environment implying a physical,

biological, and cultural skill system. This scheme functioning as a specific

ecological niche, constitutes the background of children‘s development, the

environment from which and through which learning in a broader sense takes

place.14

Cultural transmission has been realized through the chain of cognitive

habituses throughout the history of human development. This line of process has

led from the episodic thinking of primate mammals to the mental world of

today‘s modern humans.15

To understand the series of changes, Merlin Donald‘s

conception has been adopted, according to which, this evolution happened in

several steps and through adaptations that brought about the appearance of

newer and newer representational systems, procedures of information

processing, and communication forms. The newer forms did not eliminate the

earlier ones, which, thus, can be found in today‘s mental structure, forming its

functional parts.16

Therefore, the cognitive architecture of today‘s modern

human brain is not a homogeneous information processing device, but a hybrid

mosaic-like construct. Another noteworthy aspect of Donald‘s conception is that

it unites the biological, cultural, and technological factors of humans‘ psychic

development in a single evolutionary continuum. In what follows, we will

understand within the framework of this conception the changing forms of

human cognition, cognitive habitus – and with it teaching and learning.

13

―Developing children are thus growing up in the midst of the very best tools and symbols their

forebears have invented for negotiating the rigors of their physical and social worlds.

(Tomassello, op cit.). 14

This concept of learning environment is not an arbitrary construction; its based on the ever-

broadening conception of learning. 15

―The apogee of episodic culture, the culture of large humanoids, indicated the point of departure

of humans‘ journey‖ (Donald 2001, 141). 16

Paul MacLean‘s classical ―triune brain‖ theory shows a similar complexity in the structure and

function of the brain (MacLean, Paul D.: The Triune Brain in Evolution, NY, 1990, Plenum

Press). While, however, MacLean‘s theory places the human brain in the continuum of the

entire biological (brain) evolution – it shows the mosaic-likeness of the biological structure of

the brain – Donald does the same with respect to the construction of the cognitive sphere.

19

1.1.2. Mimetic culture

The first human manifestation of a specifically human cultural environment

is the formation that Donald calls ―mimetic culture.‖ The term comes from the

Greek language, and it refers to mimesis, or acting out. According to Donald,

―Mimetic skill or mimesis rests on the ability to produce conscious, self-

initiated, representational acts that are intentional but not linguistic‖ (Donald

1991, 168). Mimetic culture, the cultural universe of Homo erectus, could have

begun approximately 2 million years ago, and was dominant until the

appearance of Homo sapiens. The functioning of the mimetic brain shows a

significant difference from the episodic brain. The differences are apparent in

the inner functioning mode of the brain, and they resulted in an understanding of

the outside world that differs from an earlier one. Inner representations became

differentiated, the rewriting of representations was made possible, and evocation

of the contents of the inner psychic world became largely independent from the

environment.17

Parallel to the development of a richer inner psychic world

appeared the need and ability to make some of the representations explicit and

conveyable to others. As a result of the processes, the information stored in inner

representations becomes the most significant cognitive resource and the most

important source of further changes.18

The models of the outside world were

refined, human psyche became capable of self-reflection, as well as the activity

of the attribution of intention and thought. As a result, the collective

environment became so to speak ―animated‖ by the increased autonomy and

budding creativity of the inner world. Compared to their counterparts in the

episodic world, the humans of mimetic culture have a different perspective.

They see the world and their peers in it differently than do beings enclosed in an

episodic world.

Whereas simple cases of intentional action can be demonstrated in certain

primate mammals, in humans, complex, multi-leveled systems of intentionality

have evolved (Tomasello et al, 2005, 2007). Divided intentionality includes

17

―My claim is that a specifically human way to gain knowledge is for the mind to exploit

internally the information that is has already stored, by re-describing its representations or,

more precisely, by iteratively re-presenting in different representational formats what its

internal representations represent‖ (Karmiloff-Smith, A. 1994), ―Précis of Beyond Modularity:

A Developmental Perspective on Cognitive Science.‖ Behavioral and Brain Sciences 17, (4),

693-745. 18

―Animals living alone consider the instant condition of the environment as the most important

source of information. Animals living in a collective glean their most important information

from a much narrower circle, from their peers; constructional ability has made it possible for

humans to consider the information stored in their brain as the most important environment…‖

(Csányi 2006, 342).

20

shared goals, socially coordinated action plans, and joined attention scenes.19

Social cooperation and attraction trigger the process which Csányi (1999) calls

communicative compulsion. The first specifically human information

transmitting system – miming or intentional communication through one‘s own

body – is generated by the ability to form secondary and tertiary representations

and by the push of the communicative compulsion. The mimetic communicative

system is intentional, generative (an open, developing system), and referential (it

refers to something, it images something). Mimesis is the first, pre-linguistic

form of the ability of social understanding implying analogous information

transmission built on an episodic data base.20

The introduction of the notion of

mimetic cultural formation constitutes that unique new element of Donald‘s

concept, which diverges from earlier ideas in explaining the process of human

cultural evolution, the development of language, and the origins of

consciousness.

The possibility of mimetic transmission brings about further differentiation of

inner representations. The inner psychic world became divided into a personal,

partially implicit field (local representations), and a shared representational

system, communicable also for peers, which constituted the content of group

communication (global representations). Shared knowledge or social semantics

made its appearance in the new world of ―virtual reality‖ shared with fellow

subjects. Reliably operating systems of safekeeping, developing, and

transmitting shared knowledge came to life. In the world of Homo erectus

special, genetically fixed adaptations appeared, which in human etiology are

referred to as proto-pedagogy or, in short, ―pedagogy.‖ ―Human pedagogy‖ is an

adaptation fixed in the human genome, which came to being for securing an

effective transmission of knowledge. This is a special form of knowledge

transmission among peers, whose important element is ―pedagogical

interaction,‖ which implies a specially structured communication. Infants‘ innate

19

―We propose that human beings, and only human beings, are biologically adapted for

participating in collaborative activities involving shared goals and socially coordinated action

plans (joint intentions). Interactions of this type require not only an assessing of the goals,

intentions, and perceptions of other persons, but also, in addition, a motivation to share these

things in interaction with others – and perhaps special forms of dialogic cognitive

representation for doing so.‖ Tomasello et al.: ―Assessing and sharing intentions: The origins of

cultural cognition.‖ In Behavioral and Brain Sciences (2005), 28, 675-735. 20

―The mental abilities most central to enculturation, those involved in joining cognitive

communities, developed very early, and logically and empirically prior to language both in

development and in evolution‖ (Merlin Donald: A Mind So Rare: The Evolution of Human

Consciousness. New York – London, 2001, W.W. Norton Company, 254). ―The great divide in

human evolution was not language but the formation of cognitive communities in the first

place. Symbolic cognition could not spontaneously self- generate itself until those communities

were a reality. This reverses the standard order of succession, placing cultural evolution first

and language second‖ (op cit, 254).

21

face preference, eye contact and imitational ability – to mention only a few items

on the list of continually expanding ―basic abilities‖ – form parts of this

adaptation.

Some researchers argue that we are talking of a secondary phenomenon,

which can be derived from more basic human adaptations (language,

esthetics, culture, mind theory) (Csibra – Gergely 2005, 2007). In their

opinion, language and mind theory are not necessary for pedagogic

knowledge transmission, moreover, it is probable that this cognitive

mechanism, which makes human pedagogy possible could have

contributed to the development of language and mind theory. Humans

were adapted to a species specific mode of knowledge transmission and

knowledge reception, which are teaching and learning. Contrary to a

previous conception of early social and cognitive development (which

explains small children‘s intensive learning), this theory supposes a

cognitive learning directed to adults (infants‘ above mentioned innate

abilities).21

According to this theory, ―the birth of pedagogy‖ can be tied

to the increasingly more sophisticated tool use of early humans. The

theory departs from the idea that the grips of more complex, multi-step

tool using and tool manufacturing technology were not readily

acquirable through simple observation (non-transparent forms of

knowledge). Therefore – as a specifically human adaptation – came to

being the joint ability of active transmission and active reception of

knowledge connected to tool use. This urge to adopt non-transparent

forms of knowledge and attitudinal patterns spread over to fields beyond

tool use, and forms a part of innate human behavioral repertoire. The

human ethological understanding of pedagogy is, thus, a specific form of

cultural transmission, which includes the explicit manifestation of

generalizable knowledge (on the part of the ―teacher‖), and its

interpretation as knowledge content on the part of the learner.

According to the ―evolutionary design‖ of pedagogy, humans ―know‖ already

at birth that the adults in their environment constitute for them a valuable

resource of knowledge.22

Differences of opinion among cognitive psychologists

– concerning the order of priority of certain theories of adaptation – do not

change the fact that the basic behavioral patterns of teaching and learning must

be present already in the pre-human world. These behavioral patterns form – as

the components of our genetic inheritance – an integral part of our cognitive

architecture. Mimetic pedagogy is built upon this genetic base, to which Donald

dedicates a chapter in its book (Donald 1991, 176). Here, he claims that in

21

Op cit, 3. 22

Gergely, G. – Csibra, G,: ―Social Learning and Social Cognition: The Case For Pedagogy.‖ In

Munakata, Yuko – Johnson, Mark (eds.): Process Change in Brain and Cognitive

Development. Attention and Performance XXI. Oxford, 2005, Oxford University Press.

22

simple societies most of children‘s education is still of a mimetic nature. The

mimetic pedagogical elements that the author enumerates here make it obvious

that a systematic transmission of knowledge through mimesis has since

constituted an integral part and basic layer of all pedagogy.23

1.1.3. Mythic culture

The mimetic culture of Homo erectus – which supposedly included certain

forms of language use – proved to be a successful adaptation, since it has

survived for more than a million years. Stable social organizations were born,

the life space of groups of pre-humans spread over most of the fast land area of

the Earth. However, in the world of Homo erectus, time almost stood still.

One of the reasons of this lack of change could have been the fact that the

shared knowledge of pre-humans was based on an episodic database; it was

closely tied to events, and was dependent on context. The appearance of speech

was the factor which considerably broadened the system of possibilities of inner

representational model formation, and made possible much more effective forms

of communication. Donald calls this new phase of cultural evolution mythic

culture, which term refers to what he considers as the primary function of human

speech and the nature of selective pressure that lead to its evolution. In his

opinion, language came to being as a means of the meaning-seeking

constructivist urge of the mind. ―The mind has expanded its reach beyond the

episodic perception of events, beyond the mimetic reconstruction of episodes to

a comprehensive modeling of the entire human universe‖ (Donald 1991, 214).

There are also other theories explaining the evolution of language,

however, these are in a complementary rather than mutually exclusive

relation to Donald‘s conception. The most widely accepted notion

attributes this especially effective form of human information exchange

to challenges derived from humans‘ social life (the ―social brain‖ or

―Machiavellian intelligence‖ hypothesis). Humans living in a group

needed to keep in mind complex and steadily changing social relations,

which became increasingly complex due to a refined mutual

intentionality, as well as the ability of mind theory. The quick

recognition of the intentions of the other became essential, as well as the

judgment of his or her reliability, feelings of friendliness or hostility –

and the sharing and exchange of respective information. In the words of

Fukuyama, ―other humans fast became the most important and most

dangerous part of humans‘ environment, and due to this, very quickly

23

―Children mimic adults […] including manners, bodily posture and gesture; they learn all

important scripts and habits connected to each important scene of action, as well as learn the

manual and survival skills necessary for a tribal life style. […] They also learn how, in different

contexts, complex limitations control impulsive behavior …‖ (Donald 1999/2001, 163.)

23

the development of cognitive abilities aiding social interaction became

the most urging demand of evolutionary fitness 24

For Homo sapiens, the representation of reality through linguistic symbols

provided a hugely effective modeling and communicative device. The fine

analysis of the world represented in the mind of the individual became possible,

and through this, the transformation of the world and the mind. An important

condition of the development of language was the ability to invent signs, and to

continually expand and further develop the set of signs. With the appearance of

language, a new level of model construction was ushered in: symbolic invention.

Let us make a mental note that at this point of development, a change of medium

is taking place! It is no longer the body that expresses in visually decodable

forms derived from inner representations the intention to communicate. This

function is fulfilled by a specialized system of organs interpreting the series of

air oscillations generated by the sound forming system. This is the point when

the first abstract human system of symbols is born.

Language is more than a simple ―labeling‖ of representations formed about

the elements of reality. Linguistic symbols are collective human entities, this

gives the pragmatic background, which makes possible to understand others‘

communicative intentions (intersubjectivity). Beyond this, linguistic signs make

elements of reality appear from several perspectives, which thus can become

independent from the given perceptual situation – that is, depending on the aim

of communication, the same thing can be considered in several ways. Language

changes also the nature of cognitive representations. ―Through this, an abstract,

virtual reality comes into being, in which the qualities of objects – either objects

proper or human beings, real or imaginary, or the representations of relations

between them – are attributed by the mind using language‖ (Csányi 2006, 73).

Spoken language is essential in knowledge transmission, it makes possible a

very precise information exchange and it is an ideal teaching and learning

medium. It completely reshapes the cultural ecological niche of human

ontogenesis, and makes possible the thinking mode based on symbol use, which

―can be acquired on a high level through a years-long interaction with practiced

symbol users‖ (Tomasello 1999, 255). The child growing up in language-using

societies gets to know reality through linguistic mediation. A key role is played

in this by those social interactions, which Tomasello calls ―joint attentional

interactions.‖ As a result of these interactions with adults is formed the world

view typical of language-using humans, which contains aspects of reality that

were non-existent for pre-symbolic cognition.

24

The Great Disruption: Human Nature and the Reconstitution of the Social Order . New York:

Free Press, 1999.

24

Live speech, ―face-to-face‖ communication is to our day the most basic and

effective means of keeping up inter-human relationships. Information exchange

based on language use makes possible a complex, ―broad band‖ information

transmission. In the course of linguistic process, acoustic signs are supplemented

by visually noticeable meta-communicative non-verbal signals, but the

emotional attunement tied to the utterance can be transmitted ―piggy backing‖

on acoustic signals (paraverbal information, the suprasegmental and

―ectosemantic‖ band of speech). Speech is a central medium in the operation of

school learning environment and the coordination of lesson activities, it

integrates the various medium effects into an efficient personality forming effect

group. László Vekerdi correctly asserted that ―the basis and medium of any

education can only be a clean, unadulterated mother tongue, preserved in its old

beauty.‖26

The most effective ―educational technology‖ is unmediated human

communication, to this can also be traced back the ―ancient forms‖ of the

methodology of teaching.27

Personal speech communication can be an effective,

successful educational method in mass education and within the framework of

frontal education as well. Good teachers are able to achieve in this way an

intellectually inspiring and developing, lasting effect. According to certain

opinions, there are no realistic alternatives to this traditional method of

education.28

1.1.4 Theoretical culture

The cultural formation referred to as theoretical or modern by Donald is the

newest dimension of human information processing. Its revolutionary new

element is the discovery of a new class of earlier unknown symbols: the

invention of the formation of external graphic representations. This ―visuo-

symbolic invention‖29

has again basically changed human cultural environment,

cultural habitus, and the organization of inner representational patterns.

26

Vekerdi László: Három magyar tanár (Three Hungarian Teachers): Sándor Karácsony, László

Németh, Árpád Szabó. In A Sorskérdések árnyékában (In the Shadow of Questions of Fate). Új

Forrás könyvek, 1997, Tatabánya.

27 The dialogue of teacher and student, the teacher‘s lecture, the interrogative dialogue between

teacher and students. 28

―The American idea enthusiastically supported in the 1920s and 30s that teachers can be

substituted by educational films and radio broadcasts did not render the hoped-for results.

There exist also believers in educational television, interactive computer programs, and

internet-based online learning. But there is nothing on the horizon that would threaten to

displace the age-old tried-out and accepted method: a teacher standing before a group of pupils

and imparting wisdom by word of mouth.‖ The Economist. Millennium special edition, Volume

353, number 8151, 1999, 12, 31. 29

The expression is used by Donald.

25

Representations existing only in memory traces (engrams in the brain) could be

moved into so called ―external symbolic storage systems‖ (ESS), as well as

―external memory fields.‖30

The extra-memory external reminding signals

(exograms) constituted the materialization of joint, intersubjective inner

representations; they became public, lasting, and universally accessible, which

had far-reaching consequences concerning the cognitive world of humans. The

information capture outside of consciousness made it possible to differentiate

knowledge from the living brain, and thus, the construction of objective

knowledge systems. In the cultural history of humankind, this was the turning

point, when changes became actually cumulative, they speeded up, and the

―ratchet effect‖ set in.31

The term ―theoretical culture‖ refers to the fact that this

cognitive ability system made possible an analytical thinking and theory

formation that superseded the earlier ones.32

For the establishment and understanding of external symbol systems, it was

necessary to form and learn the ability to code consciousness content into signs

and to decode signs. All this requires the complex, synchronized functioning of

the human neuron-based information processing apparatus. Especially intensive

is the working of the human mind during attentive, in-depth reading. When we

are reading, we input at a lightning speed data, symbol systems in the brain‘s

information processing system, which are evaluated in different ways by the

synthesizing and integrating operation of the brain. We structure information, we

incorporate it into our existing knowledge system, and thus we formulate and

expand our explicit semantic, analytic knowledge. The thusly collected

knowledge and the activity aiming its formation is principally tied to the left half

of the brain. This half of the brain is the center of logical verbal functioning. On

the basis of collected information, however, our imagination also sets in, and we

form a special intuitive image world. The center of this brain activity is the right

half of the brain. The activity of this half of the brain is the center of the

intuitive, imagistic, so called episodic consciousness realm, which is woven

through implicit, personal, emotional relations. Semantic and analytic

knowledge is complemented by an imagistic, holistic reality conception. During

reading, both are active; they are modified and built in a constant interaction

with each other. Reading is the most basic cognitive competence of modern

man: it is the well-read person that can fully comprehend the messages of new

30

These expressions are coined by Donald. 31

The ―ratchet effect‖ is Tomasello‘s term. 32

―But the proliferation of the ESS eventually created the intellectual climate for fundamental

change: the human mind began to reflect upon the contents of its own representations, to

modify and refine them. The shift was away from immediate, pragmatic problem solving and

reasoning, toward the application of these skills to the permanent symbolic representations

contained in external memory sources.‖ (Donald 1991, 335).

26

media. The concept of cultivation is inseparable from reading; it is impossible to

imagine a well-functioning, value oriented and knowledge-centered society

without the general practice of the ability of reading.

While language has made possible the reference (―displacement‖) to non-

present entities, persons, and things, the parties to a conversation had to share an

acoustic space in a spatially and temporally simultaneous manner. With

displaced symbols, this limitation of thought transmission was also eliminated:

the transmission of human experience, knowledge, and ideas became

independent from person, time, and space. Consequently, the circle of

transferable and receivable knowledge was extended, coupled with an increase

in the role of the impersonal, not directly experienced factors in the formation of

our set of knowledge.33

Ancient forms of writing were attempts aimed at the

transmission of thoughts through visually perceptible signs, and they were not at

all or only marginally connected to speech. Phonetic writing owed its success to

its simplicity, and thus to its easy learnability, as well as to the fact that it

directly transcribes sounding speech. With this mode of writing everything can

be written down that can be said, and every written-down thing can be spoken.34

Verba volant, scripta manent – words fly away while writing persists. The Latin

adage grasps the essence of the transformation with significant consequences

that was caused by the appearance of phonetic writing in the development of

human societies. István Hajnal wrote the following about the process: ―While

orality ruled, the structural parts and particles of society revolved side by side as

simple wheels, barely touching one another, and without adapting to each other‘s

motion. Writing made these wheels cogged: they evolved from independent

particles into ones that transmitted their motion to one another, modifying one

another.35

33

It was the printing press that created the mass possibility of this knowledge concentration. The

title of a lecture of the Munnich neurobiologist, Ernst Pöppel expresses succinctly and

metaphorically the role played by reading in the construction of modern human personality:

Lesen als sammeln und sich sammeln – which could be translated as ―Reading as knowledge

collection and the collection of ourselves‖ (Pöppel, Ernst: Lesen als Sammeln und sich

sammeln. Neurowissenschaftliche Grundlagen der Lesefähigkeit. Teleakademie, Südwestfunk,

1998). Pöppel here argues that in the course of reading we can speak about the ―collection‖ of

ourselves in two senses. On the one hand, we concentrate on an inner process – generated by

the book – while we form with the help of our imagination our own imaginary world of images

and thoughts (Mit Fantasie eine eigne Vorstellungswelt aufbauen). On the one hand, we collect

information, we structure these, and thus is built in us a continually expanding world of

thought, in which we move with familiarity. (formen wir eine sich immer ausdehnende

gedankliche Landschaft in der wir uns wissend bewegen können). 34

―Speech is a universal trait among humans, whereas visual language not; it follows that visual

language should be easier to learn if directly harnessed to an ability everyone start with –

speech‖ (Donald 1991, 298). 35

István Hajnal: ―Literacy and development‖ (―Írásbeliség és fejlődés‖). In Replika, no 30.

27

Literacy is not an automatic consequence of orality. While spoken language

is the joint characteristic of all human societies, writing was developed by barely

10% of human cultures. The learning of speech is assisted and controlled by

innate abilities, however, during the acquisition of writing and reading skills we

can only rely on our general learning ability.

Parallel to the displacement of the emphasis from auditive to visual modality,

as a result of the invention of graphic representation, a change could be detected

in the functioning of humans‘ cognitive information processing systems. As a

result of this, however – as opposed to the previous two transformations –

neither the volume nor the anatomical macrostructure of the brain changed,

although, a modification could be traced in the organization of certain newer

parts of the cortex (primarily the tertiary cortical areas). It is important to note

that this modification is ontogenetic – that is, it happens in the course of the

development of the individual. As Tomasello puts it: ―in ontogenetic time

human children absorb all that their cultures have to offer developing unique

modes of perspective-based cognitive representation in the process. (Tomasello,

1999). The cortical controlling areas of the abilities of writing and reading form

the acquired, biologically non-ingrained part of cognitive architecture

(secondary cognitive architecture), that is, the micro structure of the most plastic

cortical areas of the human brain shows culturally variable, different patterns.

This means that during ontogenesis, humans‘ cultural environment does not only

fill up the developing brain with contents, but it also forms the brain‘s

information processing structures.

In modern societies, visual symbols have become the determining

representational form changing both the functioning of these societies and the

thinking of people. Besides narrative thinking, analytical, paradigmatic, and

logical-scientific thinking made its appearance, and in the dominant partial

systems of the most developed modern societies a theory-driven thinking

became prevalent and official. The effect of literacy on human thought has been

analyzed by several researchers including the best-known sociologists belonging

to the Toronto School, Marshall McLuhan, Walter J. Ong, Eric A. Havelock, and

others.36

The topic has also been treated by Hungarian scholars, among others by

István Hajnal, to whom references were made by several scholars of the Toronto

School.37

Gábor Szécsi, one of the current Hungarian researchers of the topic

sums up the essence of the changes in the following way: ―The language of

36

―Several such traits of thinking and expression which we have taken for granted in literature,

philosophy, science, as well as in the oral discourse of the literate, are not directly innate

characteristics of human existence as such, but came to being due to those possibilities which

were made approachable for human consciousness by the technology of writing‖ (Walter J.

Ong: Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. London, 1982, Methuen.) 37

István Hajnal: Írásbeliség és fejlődés (Literacy and Development). In Replika, number 30.

28

literacy altered the structure of consciousness, opening up new perspectives for

abstract, conceptual thinking and for the reflective mind able to recognize

complex semiotic relations.‖38

The spreading of external, symbolic storage

devices created a demand for organized, formal education, because learning very

complex symbol handling abilities requires a long and meticulous learning

process.39

From its beginnings, formal education came under the control of

external symbol storage devices.40

The curriculum became the decisive device of

control, which reflects, beside socially significant consciousness contents and

value, ―the structure of socially programmed thinking abilities.‖41

We know from the writings of Harold Innis (1951), Mashall McLuhan (1962,

1964)42

and other representatives of media theory that independent from the

contents they mediate, communication devices have a long term formative effect

on the societies that use them: they alter humans‘ sense of reality, thinking, and

value system. These changes appear in their physical environment, as well as in

the organization of their lives and work, and the method of operation of society

as a whole. However, for a long time literacy belonged to a narrow elite, while

most of the population continued to live in the oral world. The society-wide

effect of the possibilities inherent in theoretical culture became decisive after the

invention of the printing press: the new information technology changed

Western society.

Marshall McLuhan said the following in an interview, ―If the phonetic

alphabet fell like a bombshell on tribal man, the printing press hit him

like a 100-megaton H-bomb. The printing press was the ultimate

extension of phonetic literacy: Books could be reproduced in infinite

38

Gábor Szécsi, ―Nyelv és filozófiai gondolkodás az írásbeliség hajnalán‖ (―Language and

Philosophical Thinking at the Dawn of Literacy‖). In Kristóf Nyíri, Gábor Palló (eds.), Túl az

iskolafilozófián. A 21. század bölcseleti élménye (Beyond School Philosophy: The philosophical

experience of the 21st century). Budapest, 2005, Áron Kiadó. 39

―At this point in human history, standardized formal education of children was needed for the

first time, primarily to master the increasing load on visual-symbolic memory. In fact, formal

education was invented mostly to facilitate use of the ESS‖ (Donald 1991, 320). 40

Kristóf Nyíri argues, ―With the development of literacy, the demand arises to establish the

institutions of formal education. As Dewey claims, schools are established ‗when social

traditions are so complex that a part of social memory is committed to writing, and is mediated

through written symbols‘.‖ (op cit, 9). Kristóf Nyíri: ―Virtuális pedagógia – a 21. század

tanulási környezete‖ (―Virtual Pedagogy: the Learning Environment of the 21st century‖). [In

Kőrösiné Mikis Márta (ed.): Iskola – Informatika – Innováció (School – Information –

Innovation). Budapest, 2003, OKI, 9.] 41

Donald 1991/2001, 298.

42 Marshall McLuhan, The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man, Toronto, 1962,

University of Toronto Press; Assessing Media: The Extensions of Man, McGraw-Hill, 1964,

New York.

29

numbers; universal literacy was at last fully possible, if gradually

realized; and books became portable individual possessions. Type, the

prototype of all machines, ensured the primacy of the visual bias and

finally sealed the doom of tribal man. The new medium of linear,

uniform, repeatable type reproduced information in unlimited quantities

and at hitherto-impossible speeds, thus assuring the eye a position of

total predominance in man's sensorium. As a drastic extension of man, it

shaped and transformed his entire environment, psychic and social, and

was directly responsible for the rise of such disparate phenomena as

nationalism, the Reformation, the assembly line and its offspring, the

Industrial Revolution, the whole concept of causality, Cartesian and

Newtonian concepts of the universe, perspective in art, narrative

chronology in literature and a psychological mode of introspection or

inner direction that greatly intensified the tendencies toward

individualism and specialization engendered 2000 years before by

phonetic literacy……Movable type was archetype and prototype for all

subsequent industrial development.‖43

The later representatives of the so called media theory – partly

McLuhan‘s disciples – have enumerated convincing arguments,

thorough analyses to support this conception.44

One of McLuhan‘s

students, Elisabeth Eisenstein offers a thorough analysis of the role of

the printing press in the development of modern Europe in one of her

fundamental works (The Printing Press as an Agent of Change:

Communication and Cultural Transformation in Early-modern Europe).

She illustrates through several examples how the printing press

transformed the methods of collecting, storing, finding, analyzing,

discovering, and spreading information. In her opinion, one of the main

causes of three of the great intellectual currents of the modern age – the

Reformation, late Renaissance, and the scientific revolution – was the

invention and dissemination of the printing press.

The modern school also bears the imprint of a Europe transformed as a result

of the printing press. The school of mass education is the achievement of the

―typographical man,‖ and it bears the reflection of the ―Gutenberg galaxy.‖45

The basic structure of our educational system developed in the 15th and 16

th

centuries: the printed book is the medium and communication device that shaped

43

In The Playboy Interview: Marshall McLuhan, 1969. 44

In her monumental work, Elisabeth Eisenstein points to printing as the main force to trigger the

development of modern Europe (Eisenstein, E., The Printing Press as an Agent of Change:

Communication and Cultural Transformation in Early-Modern Europe 1-2 vols. Cambridge

University Press, 1979). 45

These are expressions coined by McLuhan. They first appeared in the title of his 1962 book, The

Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man.

30

and which still determines its operation.46

In the furnishing and operational

method of the school, we can detect the signs of a wide-spread literacy,

increased by the printing press: linearity, order, and distinction. ―Modern

classrooms are built with chairs bolted to the floors as letters on a page. The new

physical setting generally discourage informal oral communication even among

those in the same space.‖47

Classrooms are separate, well-defined units, in which

children can act separated into peer groups. It is at the school that the

information system shaped during the centuries following the printing press

becomes manifest, a system that is built on an information access determined

and delimited by social roles and situations. In this new information system the

information world and communication system of children is significantly distinct

from those of adults.48

Childhood as a special stage of life and the particular,

separate information world of school are mutually conditions of one another. At

school, ―Information flow within the classroom is also primarily linear and

unidirectional, from one teacher to the rows of students.‖49

The school and adults

control the knowledge content and the acquisition of the abilities (reading,

writing, arithmetic) necessary for their learning. The conservative nature of

school up to the present day has been due to the basic social need that the

distribution of labor of modern societies means specialization and it requires

appropriate qualifications. ―School […] is the channel of mobility and its role is

to separate the population according to their place in the distribution of labor.‖50

46

In his decisive work, determining the pedagogy of the modern age, Comenius uses the metaphor

of printing in order to explain the functions of the new school and to describe the role of new

didactics: ―Let us stay with the similarity taken from the printing trade, and let us explain at

greater length through a comparison, what the precise structure of this new method is, in order

to make it stand out that it is almost in the same manner that we inculcate the sciences in the

mind as we fill up sheets of paper with writing […] this new method of didactics can be called

with a sophism – and referring to the typographical term – didachography […] The pupils are

the sheets of paper, whose soul we need to imprint with scientific formulae. Letters are study

books and the other devices made with this goal in mind, so that with their help the learning

material may get imprinted in the mind with easy work. The printing ink is the teacher‘s word,

which transmits s the conceived things from books to the pupil‘s mind. The news press is

school discipline, which prepares and drives everyone to imbibe knowledge.‖ Comenius,

Didactica Magna. Pécs, 1992, Seneca Kiadó, 277. 47

Meyrowitz, Joshua, ―Taking McLuhan and ‗Medium Theory‘ Seriously: Technological Change

and the Evolution of Education‖ in A Technology and the Future of Schooling (Chicago,

Illinois, 1996, NSSE, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago). p. 93. 48

Children‘s special socialization, distinct from that of the world of adults, the distinction between

the worlds of children and adults – as was shown by the author – is a historic development, and

was shaped in the centuries of the printing press. Postman, N., The Disappearance of

Childhood: Redefining the Value of School, N.Y. 1994, Vintage Books. 49

Meyrowitz, J., op cit, 94. 50

Mariann Buda, ―Minőség és szelekció‖ (―Quality and Selection‖). Educatio, 1999/4.

31

As a result of the appearance of the book in the learning environment,

literacy, together with the adherent cognitive habits, was gradually incorporated

in the intimate, direct teaching-learning culture of orality. A peculiar symbiosis

developed between the ―two cultures‖ of learning.51

However, the new medium

did not basically change the role of the teacher; a balance was formed between

orality and print, which is expressed by the didactic triangle of traditional

learning. In the traditional learning environment developed during centuries,

both written text and personal, oral information transmission have a role.52

Comenius posits: ―Thus, everything that those silent teachers, books offer the

children is in itself in fact silent, opaque, imperfect, but as soon as the teacher‘s

word is added to this […] everything will come to life, and will be deeply

imprinted in the mind, so that they finally understand what they learn.‖53

The printing press generalized the enhancement of human cognition and

action organization through external symbolic storage systems.54

The book – as a

mobile information storage, which can be personally used and possessed – made

it possible to have access to vast fields of knowledge independently from

teachers and schools. An individual, separate, introspective form of knowledge

appeared, facilitating the construction of a varied personal knowledge in an

autonomous, self-controlled, and personally paced manner. We cannot

overestimate the significance of this change. With the appearance of external

symbol storage devices – and with the exponential growth of the information

stored in them – a new dimension of the source of the differences between

people took shape. It further broadened the spectrum of human abilities, and

strengthened polarization.55

This differentiation has greatly accelerated in our

51

―Orality stresses group learning, cooperation, and a sense of social responsibility […] Print

stresses individualized learning, competition, and personal autonomy. Over four centuries,

teachers, while emphasizing print, have allowed orality its place in the classroom, and have

therefore achieved a kind of pedagogical peace between these two forms of learning, so that

what is valuable in each can be maximized‖ (Postman, N., Technopoly: The Surrender of

Culture to Technology. New York, Vintage Books, 16). 52

―knowledge of the type of knowing that is transmitted in a special dialectic. Vertical

transmission happens through masters, however, masters teach the mental access to impersonal

things, independent from them (for example to holy books, and today, to study books).‖ In

Csaba Pléh, ―Tudástípusok és a bölcsészettudományok helyzete: a tudáslétrehozás és a

tudásfenntartás problémája‖ (―Knowledge Types and the Situation of the Humanities: the

Problem of the Development and Sustenance of Knowledge‖) in Világosság. 2001. vol. 42, no

7-9, 11-30. 53

Comenius, op cit, 278. 54

―the individuation of human has greatly increased with the growth of the ESS […] it holds a

much larger reservoir of alternatives to choose from‖ (Donald 1991, 356). 55

Humans are also polarized concerning the ability of assessing the symbolic environment.

Castells calls attention to this as well, when he writes, ―The world of multimedia will be

populated by two fundamentally different populations: those who enter in an active interaction

32

days, with the explosive expansion of the array of newer devices, suitable for

symbol processing and relaying.56

As a result of the possibility of transmitting knowledge not built on one‘s

own experiences, emphasis in education was placed on the transmission of

explicit, declarative knowledge – on the first section of the dichotomy of

―knowing what‖ and ―knowing how‖ defined by Ryle (1999). One of the reasons

for this, according to Csaba Pléh, is that ―the meta-representation that makes

possible conscious access can primarily be formed to explicit processes, that is,

they operate in such a way that they make knowledge explicit and indicative. It

is much easier to base an organized educational system on the explicit,

declarative, verbal, lexical side, and with this, on the world of meta-

knowledge.57

Beyond the prevalence of content knowledge we can observe the

opinion that education and knowledge are static systems, and they can be

methodically built up and accumulated from small parts. This traditional

educational model is caricatured by Papert in the metaphor ―the gothic cathedral

model of education.‖ According to the model, the knowledge system necessary

for the evolution of cultivation is built up of minute atoms of knowledge, from

which a cultivated person has to possess, say, 40 000 pieces. A child with

ordinary abilities is able to learn, say, 30 such pieces per day. One can calculate

how much time is necessary for the incorporation of all atoms – and

hierarchically organized schools follow a precise plan day after day in the

controlled incorporation of the required knowledge – similar to the building up

of the cathedral stone by stone, brick by brick (Papert, 1993).

The basic philosophy of traditional education – which considers childhood as

a phenomenal world separate from that of adults – regards the child as raw

material. It is the school where thusly defined, special beings become ready-

made and filled up with information. The modern mass school intends also to

teach the basic cognitive technology of symbol processing, this, however,

with the media and those who are controlled by the media‖ (Castells, M., A hálózati társadalom

kialakulása. [The Development of Network Society], Budapest, 2005, Gondolat – Infonia, 492). 56

―Individuals in possession of reading, writing, and other visographic skills thus become

somewhat like computers with networking capabilities; they are equipped to interface, to plug

into whatever network becomes available. And once plugged in, their skills are determined both

by the network and their biological inheritance. Humans without such skills are isolated from

the external memory system, somewhat like a computer, that lacks the input/output devices

needed to link up with a network. Network codes are collectively held by specified groups of

people; those who possess the code, share a common set of representations and the knowledge

encoded therein‖ (Donald 1991, 311). 57

Csaba Pléh, ―Knowledge at the University: Abilities and Masses, Elites and Cultivations

(Questions of the University from the point of view of the Organization of Knowledge‖)

URL: http://www.cogsci.bme.hu/csaba/cikkek_magyar.htm

33

happens ―only‖ to ensure the appropriate functioning of the channels through

which the information thought necessary for the preparation of children is fed.

Dominant is the human image58

of the ―tabula rasa,‖ of Nürnberger Trichter59

and the Standard Social Science Model.

The structure of the traditional school was further ossified by the inertia of

mediocrity – since the undisputed respect for the teacher due to the position

occupied by him or her in the system constitutes a comfortable position for the

pedagogue. The mechanical repetition of the ready-made curriculum, the well-

known texts, and formulae do not require an intensive, responsible creative work

and effort. It is not surprising that almost since its inception, modern mass

education elicited critique. Among these critical views, the most important for us

are especially those, which are aimed at breaking the tyranny of instruction

based on texts. A classic example is provided in the introduction of Comenius‘s

work entitled Orbis sensualium pictus: ―This thusly edited booklet, I hope, will

be of use: firstly, for soothing minds, and so that they do not consider school as

torture but as delight. Because it is obvious that children (not only from their

infancy) delight in pictures, they gladly behold thus visual things with their eyes.

The person who makes scary things disappear from the garden of wisdom will

have accomplished a great deed.‖60

At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20

th century, the

voices critiquing the accepted practice of education became louder. While new

alternative pedagogic ideas appeared (progressive pedagogy, reform pedagogy,

the school of action, etc.), no wide-spread modifications took place, and the

traditional basic school texture changed but little. Even in the schools of the

Anglo-Saxon world, tradition is the norm according to which the frames and

norms of classroom activity change. One has to ponder the causes of the

apparently unmovable resistance of traditional education.

58

The contents of the human mind are free social constructs (what is organized and content-filled

in the head of humans stems from culture), social sciences are independent, and have no

evolutionary or psychological anchoring. The evolutionary developed structure of the mind

consists of a few mechanisms that have a general aim and are independent of content. 59

Das geflügelte Wort ―Nürenberger Trichter‖ geht auf den Titel eines Poetiklehrbuchs des

Begründers des Pegnesischen Blumenordens und Nürnberger Dichters Georg Philipp

Harsdörffer (1607-1658) zurück, das unten dem Titel Poetischer Trichter. Die Teutsche Dicht-

und Reimkunst, ohne Behuf der lateinischen Sprache, in VI Stunden einzugieβen zurück[2]

1647 in Nürnberg erschien. Auf Grund der Verbreitung des Werks wurde der Ausdruck

―Nürnberger Trichter‖ ist die übertragene Redewendung etwas eintrichtern oder etwas

eingetrichtert bekommen zurückzuführen, d.h. ―jemandem etwas mühsam beibringen‖ (18. Jh.):

eigentlich etwa: ―wie durch einen Trichter Wissen in jemanden hineinschütten.‖ Das

Tätigkeitswort ―eintrichtern‖ erscheint in seiner eigentlichen konkreten Bedeutung ―Flüssigkeit

durch einen Trichter enifüllen‖ schon im 16. Jahrhundert (Wikipedia, 207). 60

Comemius, Orbis sensualium pictus. 1675.

34

1.1.5. Electronic media and the world of networks

Theoretical cultural formation created modern humans (Homo

typographicus), and shaped modern society. The cultural formation determined

by printed external symbol storage devices was inventively called Gutenberg

galaxy by McLuhan. It was also McLuhan who formulated the supposition that

the developing new information technology, the world of electronic media –

which he called Marconi- and Edison-constellations – will basically transform

the traditional information world based on the printing press, and through this

the whole society. It is such a challenge – McLuhan warned – which needs to be

faced by the Gutenberg galaxy.

Whether this transformation will result in a completely new information

world is unknowable today. Neither can we tell with certainty whether our

cognitive architecture and the organizational mode of our representations will

again undergo deep changes, nor whether our cognitive habits will be

significantly altered. Although there is an abundance of relevant scholarly

positions (Nyíri 2003, Mérő 2004, Castells 2004, etc.), we have been living in a

―postmodern electronic culture‖ for too short a time to make any reliable

judgments or predictions. In his oft-quoted book (Donald 1991/2001), Merlin

Donald does not go beyond his theoretical formations. He ascertains that our

present cognitive architecture is a ―hybrid mind‖ developed as a result of

changes, in whose functioning we can detect the manifestations of mythic,

mimetic, and episodic layers underneath the dominant theoretical one. Donald

suggests that the story is not concluded here: the novel combination of

theoretical architecture with electronic media, computer networks, will again

transform the cognitive make-up, but we will be unable to fathom the extent of

the change for a while. ―The globalization of electronic media provides

cognitive scientists with a great future challenge: to track and describe, in useful

ways, what is happening to the individual human mind. The architecture of the

mind has evolved rapidly when viewed against the background of earlier

evolution, and the rate of change seems to be accelerating rather than

diminishing.‖ (Donald 1991, 359-360).

Undoubtedly, humans‘ cultural ecological niche, the cognitive habitus, is

again undergoing a transformation. The open question is the impact of this

transformation as compared to earlier transformations. What we can ascertain

today is that the technological components of the information environment have

acquired two new elements, and the dynamics of change is strong. One of the

novelties is the ―externalization‖ of certain elements of the operational

―computational‖ activity of the brain: the mechanization of algorithmizable brain

work. Beyond the mere storage of exograms, the new artifacts, computers, are

35

such external symbolic storage devices, which are characterized by the ability of

―exocomputation.‖61

According to Bertalanffy‘s formulation, the designers of the first

computers discovered a type of ―symbolic magic,‖ the ―magic of

algorithm.‖ ―The algorithm […] is a thinking machine, which performs

operations through the appropriate connection of symbols. In this way, it

produces results, which could be reached with difficulty or not at all.

[…] each computer is the materialization of an algorithm […], what it

does is nothing other but the connection of symbols according to a

certain system […] The essence of the algorithm is that we have, as a

given, a certain set of symbols, a ―vocabulary,‖ and certain related rules

of the game, that is, grammar. If both have been selected appropriately,

then the symbols can be considered as the substitutes of things, and we

can calculate with them as if they were the things themselves […].‖62

The ever-increasing performance of computers, the development of more and

more complex algorithms (software), as well as the development of refined input

and output devices have made it possible that today a model of almost every

element of reality can be transmitted into the machine in a digitized form, as

well as being stored, modified, and re-transformed into the form corresponding

to its original nature. A fully automated, high-level mechanical problem solving

appears accessible, which in the case of future electronic or chemically-based

systems may exceed the performance of the human brain. Some think that it will

be possible to make human-like machines that will exceed human intelligence;

some even believe that the human mind – as a software – will be transferrable to

computers. Today we cannot yet know the direction that research aimed at the

manufacture of ―artificial intelligence‖ will take, nor where the boundaries lie –

or whether there are such boundaries – which could bar ambitious developments.

The other new element of the information world challenging the Gutenberg

galaxy is the elaboration and radical development of telecommunication

technologies. The process starting with the electric telegraph led in a historically

short time to the primary mass-opinion forming medium of present societies, the

omnipresent television.

In the middle of the 19th

century, an information revolution was triggered

by the discovery and use for information management of electric and

61

At the very least, the basic ESS loop has been supplemented by a faster, more efficient memory

device that has externalized some of the search-and-scan operations used by biological

memory. The computer extends human cognitive operations into new realms; computers can

carry out operations that were not possible within the confines of the old hybrid arrangement.‖

(Donald 1991358). 62

Bertalanffy, Ludwig von: […] Ám az emberről semmit sem tudunk (Robots, Men, and Minds).

Budapest, 1991, Közgazdasági és Jogi Könyvkiadó, 39-40.

36

electromagnetic phenomena, as well as optical imaging and chemical

image capture. This time too – just like with the appearance of speech

and writing – information transmission between people was freed from

further limitations. The development of speech made it possible that the

partners participating in communication exit the discrete space-time

framework of information exchange, and conjure up for each other

things that are distant in space and time, or that are imaginary. The flow

of speech, however, is a one-time, transitory, dynamic phenomenon

similar to the processes of the brain, with the single difference that – as

an extrasomatic projection of those – speech makes the thought-about

and communicable brain contents perceptible for those present. When

our forefathers discovered that the one-time, dynamic speech flow can

be statically fixed through linearly organized visual signs, a new spatial

and temporal channel appeared in history: writing.

In writing, the ―transient‖ signifier of verbal communication is perceived

coded through appropriately formed physical substance particles, and

can in principle remain unchanged in this state until the end of time. The

fact that it is possible to fix and evoke in a later space-time

consciousness contents and information borne out of communication

meant such an enormous change in human cultural evolution that –

during the few centuries of modernity‘s scientific, technical, and

industrial revolution – it basically changed the entire human society.

Then, again, in the 19th

century, there took place another series of

discoveries, which expanded the tool kit of human information exchange

with never dreamed of possibilities. The inventors of the century were

trying to find out how the happenings of one space-time could be evoked

or represented directly, in their original form, in another space-time.

Instead of offering a description of reality, the goal is to mediate effects:

the intent of capturing and mediating is directed at speech instead of

writing, and vision itself instead of etching or painting. Electricity and

electromagnetic waves have proven an ideal ―medium‖ for the

realization of these intentions, and the new dream was perfectly realized

in barely a hundred years.

The integration of mechanical information processing and telecommunication

has led to the establishment of the World Wide Web, which today as a leading

medium integrates the partial systems of mass media and informatics into a

unified information and regulation system (Berners-Lee 1989). A new order of

functioning and organization, the network, is under construction. It is beyond

simple coincidence that the first thorough sociological summary of the

information age bears the title of Network Society (Castells 2005).

37

To characterize the communication unity of the modern world, McLuhan

introduced the metaphor of the ―global village‖ in the 1960s.63

The visionary

fantasy of the Canadian media philosopher was inspired by the speedy

dissemination of television and global satellite communication systems under

construction at the time. McLuhan also noted that our perception of space and

time and the content of our concepts formed about these basic entities will also

change in the world of new, global communication.64

As a result of the

informatics revolution, today we live in the world of a world-wide electronic

communication projected by McLuhan.

The World Wide Web potentially extends to each inhabitant of the world the

possibility of global communication. Following the village concept we can call

on anybody any time, we can talk with anyone, and drop into anywhere. We can

make a purchase anywhere, and in principle we can work for any employer, and

may avail of the work of anyone without having to leave our home. We can

connect according to our interests, needs, and personal preferences to

communities whose members may live anywhere spread around the earth. We

can participate in virtual games, communal problem solving, and research along

with content and software development. In addition, due to the characteristics of

internet communication, our anonymity is already given in these relations, we

can reveal ourselves as desired but we can also assume various roles and avatars

– without the risks always inherent in personal meetings.

The leading medium of our attention directed to the world from our localities

is still television, which is built on a fundamentally passive reception; the view

of the world that we ―look into‖ is still (in 2008) constructed by mass media as it

was in McLuhan‘s time.65

This television centered cultural galaxy came to

existence in the second half of the 20th century.

66 However, today‘s television

has changed a lot compared to the traditional system of standardized mass

media: the number of channels has multiplied, the supply is multilayered beyond

measure, the audience has become segmented and diversified.67

This goes hand

in hand with the declining social integration role of the media sphere while the

63

―As electrically contracted, the globe is no more than a village. Electric speed at bringing all

social and political functions together in a sudden implosion has heightened human awareness

of responsibility to an intense degree.‖ In Assessing Media. New York, 1964, Mentor, 5. 64

―Time has ceased, ‗space‘ has vanished. We now live in a global village… a simultaneous

happening…‖ In The Medium is the Message. New York, 1967, Bantam 63. 65

―Virtual culture for masses of people is still passive television viewing after an exhausting day.‖

In Castells, M.: A hálózati társadalom kialakulása. Budapest, 2005, Gondolat – Infonia, 595. 66

Wittily, Castells refers to the system of mass communication devices as McLuhan galaxy ―in

honor of the thinker who discovered and showed to us the existence of this system as a special

mode of cognitive expression‖ (Castells, op cit, 444). 67

The present and the past of television can be summed up in the keywords of decentralization,

diversification, and ready-made-ness‖ (Castells, op cit 448).

38

development of joint consciousness contents, necessary for social cooperation,

will be increasingly less certain.

Parallel to the mass-media based public sphere of planetary society we can

note the development of a networked public sphere as well, whose users and

operators are characterized by a more active participation in the affairs of the

community and display a stronger sense of belonging than passive mass-media

consumers do.

The networked public sphere is continually expanding, newer and newer

formal variants appear. Blog sphere has appeared, communal video portals are

operating, Wikipedia systems are dynamically developing, steadily newer

internet-based cooperation networks (commons-based peer production networks)

are being formed, there is a spread in the development of peer-production based

practice of the intellectual common domain – most of all free softwares with an

open source code – and a P2P (peer-to-peer) file exchange. The newest

development (2010) is the quick spreading of so called community pages

(Twitter, Facebook, etc.). The electronic, virtual public sphere of today‘s

planetary society includes both the elements of mass media (McLuhan galaxy)

and of networked public sphere (internet-constellation). We can observe the

development – from the coexistence and occasional fight of the old and the new

– of an information and communication system more varied than any previous

ones, which leaves a flexible, open space for understanding, creativity, but also

for destructive drives.

The new electronic media world has dealt a staggering blow to the bases of

the modus operandi of mass education developed through centuries. The

regulated dosing of information works haltingly, the traditional system of

vertical knowledge transmission is in a crisis. The quickly changing network

society demands a cognitive and social system of skills that diverges from the

earlier ones. The invasion of the new and continually changing information and

communicative device world poses a serious challenge to every level of

education. The profession is looking world-wide for adequate answers to the

challenge, and the possibility of renewal. Now at the beginning of the 21st

century, we cannot yet see the result of these attempts.

1.1.6. Symbolic environment and cognitive habitus at the beginning of

the 21st century

When we examine the developing new cognitive habitus through a systems

view, first we should determine to what extent is new what is new, that is, in

what its novelty consists compared to earlier cultural formations. The

representational surface of classical theoretical culture is the book page, which,

concerning its appearance, has been a standard, unchanged ―communication

39

interface‖ for more than half a millennium. This ―external memory field‖ can be

considered a special artifact generating the thinking habits of modern man,

which is the most compact framing of the cognitive habitus of modern human

culture. How much our cognitive environment has changed can best be

demonstrated by comparing the classic book page to another emblematic

surface, the television screen, which is progressively becoming more

characteristic of our age. A computer screen connected to a network can also be

considered as an external symbolic storage system (ESS), however, this new

ESS has undergone multiple changes compared to the book page due to the

informatics revolution of the past century. Nothing illustrates better the change

of the external symbolic environment and, with it, the cognitive habitus than this

―metamorphosis‖ of the ESS.

The most important steps of this change are as follows:

1. The external symbol storage is transformed into an operating machine.

In the case of energy transmission, the state of the system of properly

fitting and mutually reflective elements (materialized symbols) is

modified according to determined algorithms – signal processing,

operation takes place. The defining actual state of the processes and the

results of the operations are signaled by the current visual patterning of

the screen. This display connected to the operations forms the basis of

further stages of the metamorphosis.

2. The part or the whole of the ESS (screen surface) functions as a

window through which we gain insight into real and/or virtual worlds.

There are more and more opportunities for influencing the operation of

these worlds through the screen, and to enter these worlds as actors.

3. The surface of the external symbolic storage is at the same time a

virtual control panel through which – with the help of icons and roll-up-

and-down menus – commands can be sent to the processing machine

(graphic user surface).

4. The ESS means an entry port into a principally unlimited symbolic

universe; it calls up and displays its elements on demand and organizes

them into ever newer patterning, as well as stores them with the help of

the algorithms of multimedia and hypertext information processing.

5. The ESS forms the input and output surface of communication

channels through which varied synchronously and asynchronously

organized systems of audiovisual communication can be operated – on a

planetary level.

In the new cognitive habitus – compared to the previous one – a protean,

dynamic information world becomes manifest. The modification of the symbolic

environment is literally ―spectacular;‖ the transformation of humans‘ cultural

ecological niche is indisputable. From the perspective of our analysis, this

change poses three mutually connected important questions:

40

1. Does the new ESS, the networked interactive information system –

similar to literacy – reorganize our representational systems, does it

rewrite our thinking habits, or has it perhaps already altered us?

2. How do the new changes connect to the system sketched out by

Donald and how do they fit in?

3. What pedagogical consequences can the newer changes of the

cognitive habitus have?

The first question – as we have stated earlier – cannot yet be answered

unambiguously. Csaba Pléh (2001) poses the question: ―concerning networked

information carriers, the basic question is, whether – beyond the mere metaphor

– their formation will start a new representational and architecture-developing

revolution. As many analyses have pointed out, one of the principal questions

here is whether the linear, sequential, centered organization of thinking – which

would have been connected to writing – changes as a result of hypertext

organization and the immersive power of images.‖68

In the opinion of several

well-known researchers, the digital medium does not basically offer anything

new – at least not to the extent that was perceivable in the case of earlier

transformations. This was the opinion of Walter Ong, McLuhan‘s disciple, who

wrote that digital technology simply continues and strengthens what was started

by handwriting and the technology of the printing press: the separation of the

word from the living present.69

The response given to the second question is a summary of what has been

said up to now, on the basis of which we can compare the characteristics of

today‘s electronic, ―cognitive habitus‖ with the cognitive environments

characteristic of earlier stages of cultural evolution. Donald‘s cultural formations

in their original form (1991/2001) can be summed up as follows:

68

Csaba Pléh, ―A kognitív architectura módosulásai és a mai információtechnológia‖ [―The

Modifications of Cognitive Architecture and Today‘s Information Technology‖]. In Mobil

információs társadalom [Mobile Information Society]. Ed. Kristóf Nyíri. Budapest, 2001, MTA

Filozófiai Kutatóintézete. 69

Ong, W.J., Orality and Literacy. London-New York, 1983, Methuen

41

Culture Species, epoch Memory type Transmission

EPISODIC Primates,

5 million years

Episodic events None

MIMETIC Homo erectus,

1,5 million

years

Body

representation

Social enactment

Enactment, imitation

MYTHIC Homo sapiens,

100-50

thousand years

Linguistic,

semantics

Myths, narrative

knowledge and

transmission

MODERN Modern

humans,

5 thousand

years

External storage,

Hierarchical store

External, fixed

knowledge, external

authority

1st Table. Donald’s conception of the change of representational systems and cultures,

after Csaba Pléh (2001), modified

Csaba Pléh – complementing Donald‘s ideas with new information

processing forms – summed up the possible system of relations of consecutive

cultural formations:

Culture types Epoch Knowledge

organization,

communication

Transmission

Episodic Primates, 5

million years

events none

Mimetic Homo erectus,

1,5 million

years

Represented

through the body,

gesturing

Enactment, mimesis

Mythic Homo sapiens,

150 years

Linguistic

representation

Transmission of

narratives by language

Modern Writing, 10

thousand years

Internal and

external memory

distribution

Writing-reading, fixed

symbolic stores

Gutenberg Printing press,

500 years

Mass meme

propagation

Impersonal, textual

authority

Networks Past 20 years Distributed in

networks

Fast electronic webs

2nd

Table. Great cultural changes as changes of cognitive architectures in human

evolution and cultural development. Csaba Pléh (2004)

It is, however, questionable whether it is justified to consider today‘s

networked information world beginning with the appearance of the printing

press as a separate cultural formation, overlapping with the Donaldian epochs.

42

Derived from the original, Donaldian logic of the division, the developmental

phase following Gutenberg‘s innovation is an integral part of theoretical culture,

a simple enhancement of the possibilities inherent in literacy. Today ―network

culture‖ is simply a plastic entity, in its early, formative state. We do not know

where it leads and what shape it will take. As we have stated above – compared

to theoretic culture – we can detect two characteristic novelties: exocomputation

and electronic telecommunication. Just as the transformation from mimetic to

theoretic culture brought about – as the expansion and opposition of internal

biological memory – the appearance of external memory stores (engram vs.

exogram), so is the new epoch distinguished from the previous one through the

opposite of inner biological computation, to wit, an external mechanical

operation. The other novelty is the appearance of new spatial channels of

communication, which made possible the relationship between far away agents.

It is an open question whether these characteristics will lead to the development

of an independent cultural formation in the Donaldian sense. Due to this

uncertainty, we sum up the present situation in such a manner that we

complement Donald‘s formations with the dawning world of ―network culture,‖

illustrating its protean character:

Culture Epoch Knowledge

organization

Transmission

Episodic Primates, 5

million years

Episodic, event

representation

none

Mimetic Homo erectus,

1,5 million years

Modeling

represented

through the body

Acting out, miming

Mythic Homo sapiens,

100-50 thousand

years

Linguistic,

semantic

Myths, narrative

knowledge

Modern Modern humans,

5 thousand years

External storage,

fixed knowledge

External, fixed

knowledge

Network? Homo

interneticus?

Networked data

bases

Electronic

communication

3rd

Table. Great cultural changes as the changes of cognitive architecture

As a result of certain evolutionary transitions humans‘ world always

changed, because the world looks different on the various representational levels

– that is, the human of the mimetic, mythic, and theoretical culture lived in a

different world, non-existent and unimaginable for the humans of the preceding

epochs. These virtual worlds – whose epistemological status is subject to

philosophical differences of opinion – cannot by any means be considered as the

precise imaging of reality. Already the starting point of the cognitive

development of humans, the psychic construct called episodic culture, is only a

43

model, a world constructed by neuron networks. If we want to estimate the

significance of the changes under way, we must examine what constitutes the

novelty of mind structures characteristic of the various formations, as well as

their difference from previous ones. Fortunately, we can attribute adequate

parameters to the first two transformations, in the form of the relative change of

size of the brain, the encephalization quotient (EQ).70

The volume of the skull

and the EQ of the humans of mimetic culture significantly exceed the

corresponding measures of earlier pre-humans (Australopithecus species, Homo

habilis). This is one of the reasons why we can speak of a new species, Homo

erectus.71

With the human of mythic culture, Homo sapiens, a newer species

appears, with an even bigger brain, on the stage of evolution. Since then, no

demonstrable change has taken place: Homo sapiens is a being that biologically

corresponds to us.72

Therefore, it can be suggested that concerning the working

of the human brain, the first two transitions could have been of the greatest

consequence.

Examining the first transition, we can surmise that the typical human psyche

– as a world apart, ―light years away‖ from the similar functioning of primates –

could have evolved in mimetic culture.73

Mutual intentionality, mind theory,

constructive skill, communication going beyond signaling function, joint goal

70

The encephalization quotient is the proportional number expressing the difference between the

brain size of a species extrapolated on the basis of other species belonging to the same

typological category, and the real brain size. The EQ of today‘s humans is 6,9, which means

that their brain is this much bigger than that of mammals of the same body weight. 71

―The erectus […] moved out of the humanoid range‖ (Donald 1991/2001, 98).

72 ―The succession from ape to humans involved two particularly large changes of the EQ… The

first occurred with the emergence of Homo erectus, who reached an EQ double the average of

the great apes and roughly five times the mammalian average. The second major change

occurred with Homo sapiens, whose increased cranial capacity is roughly three times that of

great apes, and seven times the mammalian average. … this suggests there were very major

cognitive changes in human‘s line about 2 million and 200 000 years ago‖ (Donald 1991,100). 73

Several researchers have emphasized the importance of the transition that resulted in the

appearance of the typically human psyche. According to sociologist A. Kroeber, ―The

appearance of the social sphere […] is not a link in a process, not a step on the road, but the

leap-like appearance of a completely new level… it is similar to the appearance of life in the

universe […] from now on, two separate worlds exist instead of one.‖ Quoted by S. Pinker,

The Blank Slate. 2003, Penguin Books. According to Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, “ it is not

likely that we will at any time be able to pin down the exact moment when humans became

aware of their power to be masters of their intellectual ability. […] Nor can the remains of an

inner reflective consciousness be excavated from the ground of early settlements […] the epoch

of being conscious was not heralded by drums but arrived in silence […] However, we need to

mention the evolution of this ability among the most significant events that have happened on

our globe. ― In Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, A fejlődés útjai – A harmadik évezred psychológiája

[The Paths of Development – The Psychology of the Third Millennium]. Budapest, 2007,

Nyitott Könyvműhely, 105.

44

intentions, pedagogy, etc. – all of these uniquely human phenomena could have

evolved in this epoch. All these basically changed early humans‘ mode of

understanding the world. According to the Donaldian theory of our cognitive

evolution, at this point we are ―symbol using networked creatures.‖74

Mimetic

culture is essential in the development of today‘s cognitive habitus, ―mimesis

forms the core of an ancient root-culture that is distinctly human. No matter how

evolved our oral linguistic culture came to being, and no matter how

sophisticated the rich varieties of symbolic material surrounding us, mimetic

scenarios still form the expressive heart of human social interchange.‖ (Donald

1991, 189).

The novelty appearing during the second transition, Homo sapiens‘s speech

communication, repeatedly reshapes human reality. In the system of cognitive

abilities, an especially effective representational and thinking communication

tool made its appearance, which was based on symbol use. The highest

representational level of the human mind freed itself, through the construction

and use of symbols, of the bind of the senses, ―gained complete freedom in the

transformation between single representations‖ (Csányi 2006b). A new level of

virtual reality appears with the human mind ―labeling‖ and constructing reality

with the help of language. Humans (also) see reality as language and the goals,

practices, value judgments, and norms of previous generations are woven

through the psychic model of reality by means of language. The concentration

and transmission of social cognition, social semantics, ―cognitive resources,‖ as

well as goal-oriented active teaching behavior75

bring to life a new social reality

through the possibilities offered by language.

The third transition did not develop a genetically fixed new brain structure.

―Homo typographicus‖ is simply a cultural human alternative: on this level,

technological innovation is a rewriting of internal representations outside the

body, and their externalization in a material form with the help of a new class of

symbols. The objectivated symbol world that Popper called 3rd

World greatly

extended the possibilities of humankind; a peculiar symbiosis came to being

between our psyche and external memory devices. In our opinion, the world

view that appears on this level, does not constitute a basically new modeling of

the world; rather, what is at stake is that the inherent possibilities of the two

previous transitions come to fruition with the help of the new media of symbol

use.76

What earlier humans were only able to project to the world through their

74

Donald 1991/2001, 329. 75

―One of the most significant dimensions of human culture is therefore the way in which adults

actively instruct youngsters..‖ In Tomasello, op cit, 81.. 76

A good example of this integrating and expanding effect is reading, ―modern novels … can

indirectly evoke a kind of multimedia effect in the brain, […] when reading a sequentially

45

―biological hardware,‖ is now incredibly expanding, accelerating, and

multiplying with the use of increasingly complex external hardware systems,

―external cognitive pillars.‖77

This process is at work in the development and

systematization of mechanic information processing and telecommunication

technology, the latest novelty. Undoubtedly, human symbolic environment has

been completely reshaped by digital, electronic information processing,

hypertext, multi-media, and global information networks. All of this, however,

leaves unchanged that cognitive architecture, which forms the basis of our

psychic abilities, and which evolved during the first two transitions.

The third question – concerning the pedagogic consequences of these

changes – we will attempt to answer in the following chapters of the book. As

concluding thoughts of this chapter, we will state that, given the theory of

cultural evolution sketched here, in the process of teaching and learning at the

beginning of the 21st century we will have to consider both the complexity of the

cognitive habitus and the multi-channel character of representational inputs. The

substantive factor of learning, the human brain, is a hybrid formation, which

includes representational systems built upon one another.78

The development of

its primary form went through several evolutionary steps, and its evolution is to

a great extent due to the series of interactions that take place – through social

mediation, and joint attentive scenes – between the developing child and the

world of symbols and tools that concentrates historically accumulated

experience. Complexity and hybridity refers not only to the human mind but also

to the cognitive habitus. ―All forms of human representation, from our archaic,

episodic experiential base, through mimesis and speech, to our most recent

visiographic skills, are now refinable and expandable by means of electronic

devices‖ (Donald 1991, 355-356). If we want to face the challenges of our age, it

is meaningful to rethink our knowledge about the learning environments and

reevaluate our experience concerning their organization and operation also from

the dual aspect of cognitive evolution and the new electronic media world.

stung-out series of visual symbols, the reader‘s brain tracks the story mimetically … to

construct a mimetic scenario.‖ Donald, 1991/2001, 320-321. 77

Donald 1991/2001, 329. 78

―Our modern minds are hybridizations, highly plastic combinations of all the previous elements

in human cognitive evolution […] Each style of representation acquired along the way has been

retained, in an increasingly larger circle of representational thought. The result is, quite literary,

a system of parallel representational channels of mind that can process the world concurrently‖

(Donald, 1991, 356-357).

46

1.2. Learning Environment

After centuries of a teacher- teaching material- and school-centered

conception of learning, today we are considering the whole impact system of the

environment as the input- and control elements of the process. The concept

―learning environment‖ has become a central category in the discourse about the

functioning and needed outstanding

transformation of schools.79

The emphasis on the concept and its manifest

role in the interpretation of the learning process can be traced back to several

factors.

The significance of the complex effect system of the environment in the

learning process is equally emphasized by the constructivist view of

learning, the widely known research of Piaget and Vigotsky, as well as

different trends of progressive pedagogy, selective learning theory and

so on (Piaget 1970: Vigotsky 1973; Cziko 1995; Maynard Smith and

Szathmáry 1997; Mandl 1995-1999). Among pedagogues, the idea

becomes emphatic that learning does not mean the transfer of ready-

made knowledge systems, but, rather, it proceeds through interactive

actions with the environment. Newer research concerning childhood

learning and the development of brain activity and neuronal network in

children also points toward the complex view of environmental effects

(Alison at al. 2001; Tomasello 2002, 2005; Gergely-Csibra 2007). That

previous knowledge has an important role concerning the success of the

learning process also points to the importance of environment-dependent

learners‘ micro-worlds (Papert 1980, Nahalka 2002). Considering the

condition system of learning as a whole, that is, holistically, is justified

by the individual differences shown in different intelligence types,

cognitive preferences and learning styles (Mandl 1999, Gardner 1983,

2006). The increasing awareness and acknowledgement of informal and

implicit forms of knowledge as well as the examination of such effects in

knowledge acquisition which points beyond linguistic symbolism,

equally refer to the significance of the whole of the environment in

which learning takes place (Donald 2001; Piaget 1970; Nyíri 2002).

Again, the idea has resurfaced that participants in education are not only

exposed to planned, conscious, and intentional processes (those that

79

In the index of a widely-used didactical textbook, this concept figures sixteen times, in a varied

context: ―On a given base of knowledge, the necessary experience and learning environment

can be organized,‖ (182); ―the mediated content and a complexly understood learning

environment will determine jointly and unanimously the constructions developing in students‖

(169); ―The key of the development of self-regulating teaching is the effective learning

environment‖ (234). ―The unintentional effects of complex learning environments‖ (187, etc.).

In Iván Falus (ed.), Didaktika – Elméleti alapok a tanítás tanulásához [Didactics: Theoretical

Foundations for the Learning of Teaching]. Bp., 2006, Nemzeti Tankönyvkiadó.

47

primarily support effective cognition), but we also need to take into

account unintentional and unnoticed effects of personality development

(Illich 1970; Szabó L. Tamás 1985; Nagy 2000, 2001). The theory of

adaptive learning (Aptitude Treatment Interaction) also departs from the

necessity of continuously fitting together the ―external‖ learning offer of

the environment and the internal conditions of learning (Leutner 1995).80

The emergence of the concept of the learning environment in 20th century

pedagogy can be tied to early behaviorism, and can be derived from J.B.

Watson‘s extremely environmentally biased program.81

The semantic field of the

expression has since been modified, reevaluated, and, getting rid of the binds

from the behaviorist dogma, has turned into one of the key concepts of education

theory and practical pedagogy. Today, it is universally accepted that it is the

entirety of the environment that influences the success and efficiency of

learning.

The current interpretation of the concept of learning environment is

obviously system oriented and holistic. The cognitive – and evolutionary

psychological, and human ethological interpretation of teaching and learning

underlines the ―natural‖ and ―naturally given‖ character of learning

environments, and considers the environmental effect system as the key factor of

human cultural transmission. According to the definition formulated in the

previous chapter, the learning environment is the physical, biological, and

cultural effect system, in which, from which and through which learning

happens. This broadly defined understanding of the concept is included in the

socially- and economically biased political announcement of the program of

lifelong learning (permanent learning), and the expansion of learning to all life

worlds. On the current level of social development, thinking about learning and

the effective learning practice of the majority of society leaves behind the

traditional age limits, and exceeds the institutional frames of formal education. It

is because of this objective trend that the inducement of lifelong learning has

become one of the most important strategic programs of modern information- or

knowledge-based societies.

80

One of the basic theses of ATI (Aptitude Treatment Interaction) is that teaching, environmental

situations, and the conditions supplied by the personal characteristics of the pupil will enter into

a complex interaction. 81

―As Watson has claimed, it is enough to provide the stimulus environment needed for learning

(for the development of S-R relations), and learning will proceed optimally. Learning

environment has since become one of the basic concepts of instructional theory.‖ István

Nahalka, A tanulás (Learning). In Iván Falus (ed.), Didaktika (Elmélei alapok a tanítás

tanulásához) [Didactics: Theoretical Bases for the Learning of Teaching]. Budapest, 2006

Nemzeti Tankönyvkiadó.

48

The concept of learning environment is defined by education theory and

practical pedagogy in a narrower sense, by focusing on active, goal-oriented

teaching and learning. This understanding departs from the realization that the

success of learning is influenced by a number of environmental factors.

Organized teaching and learning happens in the context of different factors,

which can be influenced and shaped to differing extent. Societal and cultural

framework constitute the historically given and slowly changing elements of

learning. The method of teaching, the utilized technical devices, media, aid

materials, programs, the furnishing of the room, the number and composition of

the group, etc., are the manageable and selectable factors.

The detailed analysis and re-analysis of the concept of the learning

environment is necessary because by the beginning of the 21st century, the

symbolic and object environment surrounding humans has changed to such an

extent that it may have far reaching consequences concerning the future system

of conditions and possibilities of learning. The aim of this study is to attempt to

delineate the characteristic features of this transformation.

1.2.1. The basic forms of the organization of learning environments

The arrangement and operation of the learning environment can take place in

different forms. The way a learning environment is organized depends on the

conception of knowledge and learning of the developers, the dominant education

philosophical views, and the ideas referring to the goals and possibilities of

education. All this is socially imbedded and culture dependent. What makes

easier the examination of the differences between ideas occurring during the

organization of the learning environment is the formation – as an ideal construct

– of ―pure‖ models, ideal types. According to a strongly simplified and polarized

model, we can speak about traditional and constructivist arrangement of the

learning environments. These concepts signify different ontological bases and

biases, diverse education philosophical views and didactic practice, as well as

various pedagogic paradigms.

According to the traditional, objectivist interpretation of the possibility and

process of cognition, the acquired knowledge can in principle submit a precise

mapping of the given reality. The content of such knowledge can be taken apart,

it can be shared and transmitted, as it is not dependent and attached either to a

person or to a context.82

The external world and its laws are mapped in some

82

The assessing of reality of objectivism contains the basic epistemological tenets of the past two

and a half centuries, as well as the ideas concerning scientific cognition and the essence of

knowledge that can be derived from Greek philosophers. The traditional assessing of the mode

of knowledge acquisition of the world considers the cognizant as an external observant who

images the world and who does not interfere with the observed processes. (This is what Rorty

49

form in the brain. According to the objectivist epistemology, information enters

the brain through senses and this information puts into shape the ―mirror image‖

of the outside world. This interpretation of the constitution of reality as a

bottom-up construction pointing from outside to inside is eminently usable in

everyday life, although the latest results of neurobiology and cognitive research

question its validity on several points. Upon this ―naïve rationalist‖ cognitive

position is built an education philosophy and didactics, in which the inductivist

model of knowledge organization is based on the primacy of experience and the

respective teaching is based on instructions. The way how objectivist pedagogy

looks at the learning process promotes the idea that the student quasi assimilates,

receives, takes in the ready-made knowledge material.83

According to the reality conception of constructivism, external reality is

inaccessible for us directly. Our internal ―image of the world‖ is built in such a

way that the brain – through the utilization of the effects of the outside world

accessible for us – constantly forms hypotheses, preconceptions about reality,

and it tests this constructed, mental reference system with the help of

information collected from the external world. The external stimuli do not

unanimously determine what we perceive from the world. The effectiveness of

the perception of reality and of thinking is manifest in that during receiving

information, we confirm whether or not the ―virtual reality‖ that we represent or

model in our mind corresponds to the external world. As opposed to the

objectivist notion, this inside out, top-down constructive model of cognition

asserts that during the formation of the cortical representation of reality the brain

fulfils a generating and constructive rather than representational function. Thus,

according to this view, thinking, learning, and knowledge acquisition is an

idiosyncratic, personal creation, and not the mapping of a previously given

reality. Knowledge is always the result of the thinking mind, and it is

constructed on the basis of already existing representations; these form the

calls ‗our glassy essence‘ in 1981.) It is this ―eye‖ to the world that the observant is reduced to

– implicitly and metaphorically – by Western epistemology based on the Greek tradition.

(Márta Fehér, ―Tudományról és tudományfilozófiáról az ezredfordulón‖ [On Science and the

Philosophy of Science at the Turn of the Millennium]. In Magyar Tudomány, 2002/3). 83

―According to these ideas, the learning human is to a certain extent exposed to its environment

in the course of learning, its cognitive systems are not active (while other activities play a role

in certain assessments). The source of knowledge can be a text that has been processed by

others during an information processing procedure, and which has existed as an interpretation

while appearing in the explanation of the teacher or in a book or on the monitor. Or, the point

of departure of the cognitive process can be what is to be known, that is, the object,

phenomenon, system, relationship, reference present in objective reality. Knowledge needs to

be mediated to the learner, and this medium can be of several kinds. It can be language (the

hearing of the teacher‘s word, the reading out of the written text), it can be a stimulus

connected to the object (phenomenon, etc.) to be known, but it can also be the individual action

of the learning person (Nahalka 2002, 4).

50

interpretive system that functions as the frame of newer explanations. Learning

constitutes the transformation of earlier knowledge through conceptual

modifications and conceptual changes. A variant of the constructivist

understanding of learning is the selective learning theory (Cziko 1995, 200: Pléh

2008), according to which several behavioral and understanding patterns are

generated, from which the environment picks out the most adaptive variants.

Thus, constructivist pedagogy always takes into consideration the inner

conditions, earlier experiences, prior knowledge, already existing models of

reality, and the creativity of the mind as determining from the point of view of

the success of the learning process.84

In sum, we can say that in the course of the epistemological analysis of

learning, from the point of view of two theoretical positions, we have detected

three main differences for pedagogical practice. For the inductivist-empiricist

tradition, learning is the collection of knowledge from an external source, while

the constructivist view understands learning as the learner‘s inner construction.

According to the traditional view, it is the logic of induction that prevails during

the individual learning path, and a cumulative, extensive knowledge building is

under way. The deductive logic of constructivism suggests that in the learning

process a given, prior body of knowledge is elaborated and fine tuned. Finally,

the two viewpoints differ significantly with respect to the ontological status of

the acquired knowledge: in the system of the objectivist epistemology,

scientifically controlled knowledge describes reality, while in the constructivist

view, one can only judge the adaptive measure of knowledge, and this adaptivity

is subjective and relative (situation and age dependent). From this it follows that

depending on the theoretical position we favor in our interpretation of reality,

our vision concerning the optimal learning environment will also be different.

1.2.2. Traditional learning environment

84

―According to this view, learning is not projected to the head of the student from some source

and through some mediation, but rather, it is created, or constructed in the head of the student.

To be more precise, the constructive process, or learning, is the transformation, restructuring of

the already existing and always existing knowledge, which represents a whole of knowledge in

the head of every person, and which describes the world as a model. The brain picks up

nothing, it rather transforms. In this transformation, prior knowledge plays a decisive role,

through which experience is understood, and ―within‖ which information elaborating processes

operate. The learning individual does not receive the external signals with an exposed, passive

mind, but, rather he or she forms them into sensible experience, he or she ―handles‖ them, and

the processing apparatus is transformed, it gains a new structure – depending on the content

that it possesses, as well as its elaboration, its structure. In the meanwhile, also the opposite of

the information corresponding to an external signal can be constructed in the processing

system, because this system possesses an active assessing and does not simply provide a

storage of the incoming signal‖ (Nahalka 2002, 4).

51

The basic characteristics of learning environment organization pertaining to

an objectivist epistemology are shown in the traditional practice of education.

The traditional learning environment aims at the transfer of a ready-made

knowledge system (system transfer).85

The teacher is the active knowledge-

delivery agent, the didactic leader, while the student receives the information,

passively and receptively. The learning material often appears as an isolated

unit, extracted from the complex of real life situations and relations of the

history of science. ―Knowledge transmission‖ is a systematic, step-by-step,

linear process, the principal medium is the written textbook. The process is

externally controlled and often burdened by fear-motivation. Evaluat-

ion/assessment takes place separately and mostly at the end of the learning

process, Fear from failure is often the cause of frustration in the student. The

traditional educational system is institution- and teacher-centered, based

generally on respect, and on the primacy of instruction. During the teaching-

learning process it is supposed that what happens is the transfer of ready-made

knowledge material; the teacher is the mediator and the student is the receiving

party. The arrangement of the learning environment corresponds to this pattern

(Mandl 1995, 1999, Komenczi 1997).

The basic position of traditional education is the view that the teacher

transmits contents that can be objectified, that learning is an information

processing procedure that can be well circumscribed, which follows exact rules,

and which, thus, can be successfully steered and controlled. Its goal is that, as a

result of knowledge transmission, students possess the same knowledge material

in similar form.86

While this teaching method as a rule requires adaptation and

85

Background philosophy is the instrumentalist-technicist assessment of knowledge and

knowledge transmission, according to which knowledge gives us information about the given

reality, it is perfectly divisible and shareable, and it is not connected either to a person or to a

context. The knowledge content that is considered as the copy of reality is organized into

subjects, and within them, it is divided into well-defined small units, and it is waiting for its

transmission as a ready system (―Wissentransport,‖ Mandl 1995). 86

The ossification of the tradition is well expressed in the lecture of a Swedish participant of a

Budapest conference, ―It was created as an exercise, where one old man or woman, usually a

man, was sitting down and telling some younger people what he knows. And he was talking

and talking and talking. And actually, like history, when this concept was created, when it

started to work as a basic idea of how you make a school, it was an idea that was created in a

time when texts were rarely seen, where people could not remember what could be remembered

on the mechanical issues. So, therefore, we were talking and taking, and talking. When you

look at the modern school it has a long inheritance here. In schools there are people called

teachers who talk and talk and talk. For hours. Meanwhile, young people are still expected in

modern times to sit down and listen to all the knowledge that the old ones have in their heads.

And the old knowledge happens to jump out of the heads into the younger heads. And thereby

we have disseminated knowledge.‖ Mats Ekholm, The Director of the Swedish National Board

of Education, Managing Education for Lifelong Learning. OECD/Hungary. Seminar 6-7,

December 2001, Budapest.

52

conformism, obedient adaptation may check the development of independence,

and may hinder the student‘s creativity and development. Another practical

problem of traditional education is that the developed knowledge is often

difficult to mobilize, and has little value regarding transfer and employability

(―träges Wissen‖ Mandl 1995).

The defining method of traditional education is frontal teaching, which has

unquestionable advantages – although it is usually mentioned pejoratively

nowadays. Heading a whole class, a good teacher is able to apply the Socratic

dialogue, the questioning, deductive method.87

In class led by charismatic

teachers, an intimate community of teachers and students can be formed. This is

the phenomenon that László Németh (Hungarian writer) called metaphorically

―the glass bell of the class.‖88

The ―double stage‖ that takes shape during the

classes – by offering an opportunity for a ―side activity‖ – presents some

autonomy, a freedom of choice to the students (for relaxation, observation,

meditation), which is quite a value given the usual 6-7 hour teaching days.

Another indisputable positivity of frontal work is that it educates for the

following of group norm and self-discipline, and it can have a positive effect in

the forming of a learner community. From the viewpoint of organizing and

financing education, this kind of school-work has the great advantage of being

cheap and well- manageable. At the same time it is a fact that this work form can

tolerate a lack of professionalism and apparent activity, and can be applied

without prior preparation. Lacking a feed-back, it offers the illusion of having

taught the prescribed material, and the responsibility of the failure of teaching

can be attributed to the students.

In the history of pedagogy, up to the middle of the 20th century, we can detect

the development of didactic trends following a basically objectivist

epistemology. Drawing on Aebli (1951), István Nahalka (2002) differentiates

three characteristic epochs:

87

Miklós Kürty refers to the efficiency of the questioning, dialogic method in one of his lectures,

―Another wonderful thing was the teaching method of the Special high school: an uninterrupted

series of questions and answers … the teacher started to speak but shortly afterwards mingled

with us, walked here and there, asked X what he thought of this, then asked Y what she thought

of that, then this question was followed by the next one…. Miklós Kürty, ―Egy élet kultúrában‖

[―A life in culture‖], Előadás az ELTE Angol tanszékén [Lecture at the English Department of

ELTE], Fizikai szemle, 1999/2. 88

László Németh considered the school as an atelier where ―it is not external handcuffs but some

kind of an intellectual substrate, the learning material, that connects those inside. There are

thirty or forty people sitting under the class‘s glass bell, the teacher, the student, and what is

pulled inside […], a tiny, underlined particle of human achievements and knowledge, a minute

part of beauty.‖ In László Német, ―Az iskoláról‖ [On School].

53

The pedagogy of

books and words,

simple knowledge

transmission

The pedagogy

of illustration

The pedagogy

of action

Epoch

Until the end of the

Middle Ages

17th

-19th

centuries

20th

century

The source of

knowledge

Pre-processed

knowledge,

pedagogue, books

Objective reality Objective reality

The mediator of

knowledge

Language Stimuli Action

Special

realizations

Medieval universities Comenius‘s

pedagogy

Reform

pedagogy

movements

4.Table. Didactic paradigms. Source: Nahalka 2002

In ancient times and in the largest part of the Middle Ages, the ruling

conception was that learning means the dissemination and acquisition of

knowledge, wisdom. The student comes to contact not with the real

world but with the knowledge mediating the real world; he or she learns

texts transmitted by word of mouth or through reading, generally word

by word, in such a manner that he or she should be able to evoke them in

an unchanged form (―memoriter,‖ i.e. learning by heart). Therefore, they

paid great attention to the development of memory, and they formulated

effective technologies of storing and locating memory traces

(mnemotechnology).89

The ―second didactics‖90

was born on the basis of

empirical epistemology in the 17th

century. According to the idea based

on the inductive logic of empiricism, the bases of learning are

constituted by the facts of reality and the respective deductable relations.

These are mirrored by the mind while the particular conclusions are

drawn via induction. The development of the paradigm of sensualist

pedagogy built on direct reality sensing can mainly be tied to the name

of Comenius, and a good description can be found in his works.

Comenius and his followers put illustration in the center of their

pedagogical methodology.91

The ―third didactics‖ was formed at the turn

89

―Within this learning paradigm, deductive processes play the leading part. The points of

departure of learning are well-shaped dogmatic systems, for example Greek philosophical

works, Roman law, and the Bible. The aim of learning is that students acquire the texts

belonging to these dogmatic systems, the logic of rhetoric, rigid intellectual and linguistic

forms.‖ István Nahalka, ―A tanulás‖ [―Learning‖]. In Iván Falus (ed.), op cit. 90

The ―three didactics‖ division is the characteristic of the didactic system of the Swiss pedagogue

Hans Aebli (1951). 91

―Here illustration is not only a method but also the basic principle of gaining knowledge. […]

its use is to make possible the meeting for the student with the real world (and not only with a

54

of the 19th

and 20th

centuries. The designers of the intellectual toolkit and

pedagogic practice of the so called reform or progressive pedagogy

represented the view that the basic condition of successful learning is the

activity of the learning child. They considered as primary the child‘s

independent activity – including experimental work – and individual,

exploratory learning.92

In the ―pedagogy of knowledge transmission‖ the primary mediator of

knowledge is language; learning and teaching are text-centered. What is

considered to be objective reality is included in linguistic and other symbols

(e.g., numbers), the mediator of knowledge contents and the communication tool

for knowledge acquisition is the primary or secondary linguistic code. In the

―pedagogy of illustration,‖ the emphasis is placed on the direct presentation of

the objective reality with iconic knowledge mediation in the foreground. The

―pedagogy of action‖ compels the student to acquire knowledge that is

practically useful, pragmatic, and procedural. This kind of knowledge

development is based on personal activity and cooperation.93

The ―pedagogy of

action‖ (certain variants are called ―reform pedagogy‖ or ―progressive

pedagogy‖) exceeds on certain points the above described, simplified model of

the traditional learning environment and points forward to the direction of

complementary, constructivist, and problem-centered forms.

From the middle of the 20th century system-oriented, scientific-technical

forms became dominant in the interpretation of learning and consequently in the

organization of learning environments.94

Following the example of ―scientific

management‖ the first manifestation of the ―technology of education― was

programmed instruction founded on the intellectual basis of behaviorism.95

This

mediated system of knowledge already processed by others). […] the teacher‘s task is to show

the world in the richest and fullest possible way in a didactically sound manner adhering to

certain rules, for example the demand of gradualness.‖ István Nahalka, ―A tanulás‖ in Iván

Falus (ed.) op cit. 92

―From an epistemological point of view, the third didactics is a change in that in the process of

the development of knowledge and abilities it does not consider as primary the mediating

mechanisms of the senses, but, rather the activity of the child, his or her activity of influencing

and transforming the environment‖ István Nahalka, A tanulás. In Iván Falus (ed.) op cit. 93

―the source of knowledge is becoming objective reality (pre-processed knowledge, objective

reality), the mediator of knowledge is increasingly a medium that is close to the learning

person, his or her psyche, a medium that requires an increasingly active participation (language,

stimuli, action)‖ Nahalka 2002, 3. 94

The scientific examination of the process of learning started with the methods of associative

psychology. As a further development, the learning theory and pedagogic practice of

behaviorism was formed, based on the research material of Pavlovian classical conditioning

and Skinnerian operative conditioning. 95

Rooted in the ground of logical positivism, behaviorism attempted to exclude the self-ruled

assessing of subjective, inner processes from the assessing of learning; it rejected the use of

55

educational model departs from the idea that the basic concept of learning is

operant conditioning. The learning material has to be divided into basic units,

from which programs can be generated in an appropriate interactive order, while

built-in confirmation possibilities, programs that are suitable for the teaching of

the most varied knowledge and competence must be made available. With the

help of special devices (teaching machines), these programs will make possible

new, more effective learning, and will be suitable for a widespread

dissemination of the necessary knowledge. B. F. Skinner, the best known and

most influential theoretician of programmed instruction described his ideas in

detail in The Technology of Teaching (1973)96

Principles Practical realization

We can judge the success of learning

from the behavior of the student.

The setting up of goals with respect to

the student‘s change of behavior

Behavior is determined by the

antecedents that precede it.

At the beginning of the learning

process, using cues to guide students to

the desired behavior

The durability of the change of

behavior depends on the consequences

that follow it.

Selecting consequences that would

reinforce the desired behavior

5. Table. The principles and practices of the learning conception of behaviorism

However, it soon becomes obvious that the simplified stimulus-response

model of the behaviorist learning conception cannot offer a suitable explanation

for real, complex learning processes. They could not long ignore the obvious

fact that in learning a great role is played by directly non-observable inner

structures and processes. It became a general view that the evaluation and

understanding of learning cannot lead to a result without the examination of the

internal mental representations of the external world – and the logical structure

and complex dynamics of the thusly created internal models. The step ahead was

the interpretation of learning as information processing. According to the

cognitive model, the human brain is an information processing mechanism –

mental mind models, and its examinations were directed towards the observable stimuli of the

external world, as well as the definition of the relationships between the equally observable

responses directed to the world. According to behaviorism, learning is nothing other than the

conditioned modification of behavior at the prompting of corresponding external stimuli. 96

The entire process of the acquisition of knowledge needs to be broken down to small steps, and

the confirmation needs to be dependent on the fulfillment of the various steps. If we reduce the

consecutive steps to a minimum, the frequency of the confirmation can be increased to a

maximum, at the same time, the aversive consequences of a mistake are reduced to a

minimum.‖ Skinner, B.F., A Tanítás technológiája [The Technology of Teaching], Budapest,

1973, Gondolat, 26.

56

similar to the computer – and in order to understand learning, we need to first

grasp the partial processes of this information processing.97

Principles Practical realization

Knowledge is organized in memory. The presentation of information

organized in a system.

The efficiency of learning is

influenced by the existing knowledge

of the student

The connection of new information to

existing knowledge.

The partial processes of learning are

attention, information processing,

encoding and retrieval.

The use of a variety of techniques to

guide and support the learning process

(questions for attention focusing,

highlighting, expositions, analogies,

imagery, etc.)

Table 6. The principles and practice of the cognitivist learning conception

The modern trends of educational methodology are based on a cognitive

model that considers learning as internal information processing.98

Theoreticians

and practitioners worked out a multitude of detailed instructional methods

(Instructional design, ID), especially in the United States and the Anglo-Saxon

countries. During the application of the various ID models, following the exact

definition of instructional goals, they rationally plan and organize the activities

necessary for achieving the goals, and the partial processes of learning and

teaching. These models and practices aid the teacher in the selection of the

educational strategies and educational methods appropriate for the given

situation and task (Reigeluth 1983, 1999). The best-known ID models are among

others Mastery Learning (Bloom 1976), Cumulative Learning (Gagné 1962), and

Elaboration Theory (Reigeluth 1999).99

During the 20th century, significant

97

The computer model of the functioning of the brain used in computer sciences (the computer

metaphor, in cases computer analogy) is eminently usable within certain limits for evaluating

learning as well. The limits of the model are aphoristically formulated by Mihály

Csíkszentmihályi, ―We always think as a computer, when we think as a computer.‖ Mihály

Csíkszentmihályi, op cit. 98

This is why Mandl and Rotheimer calls these cognitivist, objectivist trends a learning

environment organizing practice with a cognitivist tinge (the original of the expression is, ―Die

kognitivistisch gefärbte Auffassung‖). Mandl, H. – Reinmann-Rotheimer, G., Unterrichten und

Lernumgebungen gestalten in Krapp A.,/Weidemann B. (Hrsg.), Pädagogische Psychologie.

Weinheim, 2001, Verlagsgruppe Beltz, Psychologie Verlags Union. 99

The detailed exposition of the various models can be found in: Reigeluth, C.M. (ed.),

Instructional-Design Theories and Models, Volume II. Mahwah, 1999, Erlbaum. Bloom, B. S.,

Human Characteristics and School Learning. McGraw Hill, 1967, New York; Gagné, R.M.

The Conditions of Learning and Theory of Instruction. New York, 1985, Holt, Rinehart –

Winston.

57

changes have taken place compared to cloister schools, the Prussian instructional

model, and frontal pedagogy. With the pedagogy of action appears the ―logic of

child development‖ and the student-centered model, while the various trends of

cognitive pedagogy emphasize the study of inner mental processes and

individual differences; what is foregrounded is motivation and student activity.

However – despite their occasional constructivist traits – modern cognitivist

instruction methodologies remain within the paradigm of objectivist-empiricist

epistemology.100

1.2.3. Constructivist learning environment

The main lines of a learning environment arrangement following a

constructivist epistemology are derived from the interpretation of learning as an

active, creative mental procedure. This idea arises from the supposition that

knowledge is not an image of reality reflected by an inner mirror nor is it an

objective-rationalist representation of reality, rather it is an inner model

construction. The student does not receive knowledge as a ready-made system,

he or she does not build it up from information received through the senses, but

he or she creates it through active ―construction.‖ (Jonassen 1999: Nahalka

1999, 2002). According to this, one needs to design a learning environment,

which provides for a wide space for the self-directed activity of the student.101

In

a well operating constructivist learning environment, the student‘s inner

cognitive and emotional world is continually active. This is a natural

consequence of the educational philosophy of the ―new learning;‖ the roles have

been changed: the student is the protagonist in the process, the teacher‘s

supporting activity is tailored to his or her needs.

The learning conception of constructivism is built upon the following

predispositions:

1. Already at birth, humans possess the predispositions necessary for

assessing the environment and for the control of the adequate activities

100

―We have come a long way from behaviorism, however, the cognitive process is still viewed

through objectivist lenses. This means that what is determinant is still the outside-in flow and

accumulation of knowledge even if the expressions ―the internal representation of the outside

world,‖ and ―the manipulation of symbols‖ at times cover over this epistemological

determination.‖ (Nahalka 1999, 131). 101

This, however, does not mean that we are talking of a new version of the methods collectively

known as ―the pedagogy of activity.‖ Self-directed activity here primarily refers to the

creativity of the inner world, in the sense that, as Papert has put it in his already cited book, ―if

you feel … that you can achieve a better ―minds-on‖ relationship with ideas without ―hands

on‖ support, by imagining what is happening rather than by doing and seeing it.‖ In Papert,

1996, p. 111.

58

that happen within. These genetically coded expectations directed to the

environment constitute a part of the human cognitive architecture. 102

2. In the course of ontogenesis the interaction of inherited

predispositions and the environment (in an iterative, interactive manner)

result in the development of adaptive models directed at the external

environment (reality). In the course of operating these models, humans

simulate reality, think, evaluate, and act in a predictive manner.103

3. Learning is the continuous change, enrichment, modification,

transformation of already working ―world models,‖ ―naïve theories‖ in

the process of continuous interactions with the outside world.104

It follows from the above that a new paradigm is manifest in pedagogic

thinking and practice – one that opposes the traditional objectivist view. The key

elements of the paradigm shift are: the primacy of construction as opposed to

instruction; placing the learning human and the processes in his or her psyche in

the center; instead of controlling and delimiting learning, in addition to the

promotion of motivation, expert‘s performance and scaffolding. The

constructivist teacher consciously intends to familiarize himself or herself with

the prior knowledge of the student, and helps the student build up an

increasingly more adaptive system of knowledge on the basis of his or her prior

knowledge. In the meanwhile, the inner representational system of the student is

gradually restructured. In certain cases this restructuring is so large that

following this the student will see the world with new eyes. In such cases, the

102

The ―conservative,‖ more rigid part of cognitive architecture was formed during biological

evolution as a result of natural selection. Humans‘ genetically determined nervous system

constants are the frame conditions of the organization and operation of the human brain, also

the parameters of its system states belong here, which can be considered as culturally

invariant. We can call them anthropological universals (antropologische Universalien), as well

as anthropological constants (antropologische Konstante) (Pöppel 1999). 103

The more changeable and flexible part of the cognitive architecture constitute the culturally

given ―scaffolding‖ of cognition (Pléh 2001). This is the imprint of a life world characteristic

of a certain age, which is built into the individual cognitive system by the cultural

environment. We may say that during the organization of individual brains the individual

―wiring‖ of the brains develop as a result of a secondary, non-natural selection, mostly due to

small childhood activity and environmental effects (Donald 2001: Grenfield 1998). It is into

this structure that those largely non-conscious, automatically operating knowledge parts,

inclinations, values, and skills are integrated, which we call universal human background

knowledge, or microworlds. 104

Drawing on Nahalka 1999, 139.

59

frames for interpretation are changed (reframing happens), and we speak of a

―conceptual change.‖105

Principles Practical realization

Learning happens while we solve

problems

The learning material needs to be

processed in the form of realistic,

relevant problems

Learning is effective in a cooperative

way, though interaction with others

The arrangement of team work

An essential part of learning is the

observation of experts and the

imitation of patterns

Modeling and guiding within the

context of mutual problem solving

7. Table. The principles and practice of the constructivist conception of learning

The constructivist arrangement of the learning environment is looking for

methods through which school learning can be made more applicable, more

practical and transferable. For example, approaching a given problem in several

contexts and from several perspectives we can increase the possibility that the

acquired knowledge will be flexible enough to be also employable among

changing conditions.

One of the most significant differences between constructivist and traditional

learning environments is the transformation of the role of the environment. In

learning environments built on the primacy of instruction the prevalent idea is

that the source of knowledge is the outside world: in the course of learning it is

reality itself that is represented directly (induction) or indirectly (through

language). The teacher and the textbook are ―relay stations,‖ which transmit

objective knowledge of the world into the head of the student. Thus, the

environment plays the role of knowledge mediator here and if the knowledge is

imperfect, then the source of the fault is to be sought in the mediating chain –

typically the receiver, that is, the student. If, however, we proceed from the idea

that the source of knowledge is not the environment, but the constructive activity

of the mind, then the role of the environment is not the knowledge transmission,

but the testing of the knowledge that developed in the mind. As we cannot tell

beforehand whether the knowledge constructed in the mind is adequate or not,

error, the generation of erroneous knowledge is a natural part and parcel of the

learning process. Here we are not only talking about tolerance towards error, but

the realization that we learn through error, that is, making mistakes is a

necessary and indispensible condition of the development of knowledge.

105

Figure psychology calls this phenomenon recognizing learning: the learner solves the problem

through the restructuring of the problem situation, that is, it is not the situation but its

assessment that changes.

60

Because the number of the possible erroneous constructions is necessarily larger

than that of adequate and adaptive variants, some kind of a selection is needed,

and learning environments need to facilitate this selection. One of the

characteristic features of well-designed constructivist learning environments is

the friendly behavior in relation to errors and mistakes (a fitting German

expression would be ―Fehlerfreundlichkeit‖).

Concerning the design of constructivist learning environments, several

models have been made (e.g., Jonassen et al, 1998, Hanaffin et al, 1997, Mayer

1999 etc.). In recent years a number of well documented pedagogical

experimental programs have been realized, a part of which can be evaluated as

established practice. (Anchored instruction [Cognition and Technology Group at

Vanderbilt {CTGV}, 1993]; Cognitive apprenticeship model [Collins et

al.1989], International learning environment [Scardamalai and Bereiter 1095],

Learning Through Collaborative Visualisation (CoVis) [Pea et al, 1998] etc.)106

One of the obstacles in the propagation of constructivist pedagogic methods

is that they are very time-consuming and their preparation requires a lot of

energy from the teacher. What also makes difficult the spread of constructivist

learning arrangement is that teachers‘ – and teacher trainees‘ – philosophical

view, their conception and attitude toward science and learning, and their

pedagogical inclination are closer to the apparently natural traditional,

instructional methods. Nor does it aid the spread of the method that

constructivist methods that have not been properly thought through and have

been applied inadequately – for example ―exploratory learning – may pose

difficulties to the students that they are unable to handle. We may also need to

take into account that the physical and intellectual infrastructure inherited by the

school of modern mass education makes it hard to arrange learning

environments where teachers would aim at consciously and consequently

applying the basic principles of constructivist pedagogy. 107

1.2.4. Complementary learning environment

In the course of the daily practice of education, both the traditional,

objectivist approach, based on an inductive logic, and the ―new‖ constructivist

106

Their detailed description can be found, for example, in Mandl, H. – Reinmann-Rotheimer, G.,

Unterrichten und Lernumgebungen gestalten in Krapp A. Weidemann B. (Hrsg), op cit, as well

as Reigeluth (ed), op cit. 107

―In the course of the development of a constructivist learning environment, the new

pedagogical ideas will face firmly rooted organizational and process characteristics, which put

up a significant resistance against changes. This resistance is not simply a disturbing factor,

but is a part of the developmental process, whose management we need to be prepared for…‖

Mandl, H. – Reinmann – Rotheimer, G., Implementation konstructiviscer Lernumgebungen –

revolutionär Wandel oder evolutionär Veränderung? Forschungsbericht Nr 100, 1998, 17.

61

methods have their validity.108

The success of the different methods depends on

the goal and content of education, on the preparedness of the students, on their

learning preferences, and in general, the system of instructional conditions.

Concerning the efficiency of learning, at times the objectivist, system

transmitting learning environment organization is the most favorable, and at

times it is the constructivist, situational learning environment organization that is

best.109

The teacher has to find the balance between the direct, instructive and

indirect, supporting forms of education; the teacher needs to decide when it is

necessary to take over, take back the control of the learning process, and when it

is more efficient to withdraw to the background. The teacher also has to judge

whether it is appropriate to operate the learning environment in the knowledge-

system-transmission mode or in a manner that foments explicit student

knowledge construction. In order to optimize the learning process, it is desirable

to develop a learning environment where both the system-transmitting,

instructional and the constructive teaching and learning are possible. For

example, the traditional system-transmitting educational method can be used if

we wish to transmit well-delineated, discrete knowledge contents. If the aim is

not the transmission of knowledge, but rather the dissemination of skills,

attitudes or the development of the students‘ problem solving ability, then we

need to provide a constructivist, situational environment. The consciously

constructivist approach appears to be the most purposeful also when we wish to

facilitate a paradigm shift, offer a new perspective, a novel conceptual

framework, different from the previous one. In these cases we also may need to

give a push to the stranded individual learning process with instruction, verbal

adjustment and assistance.110

Based on the above, it is purposeful to implement

learning environments where there is a pragmatic, integrative approach to the

108

One of the leading theoreticians of constructivist pedagogy writes about this as follows, ―I

believe that objectivism and constructivism offer different perspectives on the learning

process; I prefer thinking of them as complementary design tools (some of the best

environments use combinations of methods) to be applied in different contexts.‖ Jonassen

1999, 217). 109

Professor Mandl (1999) calls this model the integrative model of the organization of learning

environments. The basis of the new model is a ―limited, knowledge based constructivist‖

learning conception. What it means is that although learning is the result of personal

construction, it can only be successful if it happens on the basis of an appropriate knowledge

base. The acquisition of the knowledge material needed for this is not possible without

appropriate instruction. The postulates of this pragmatic position can be described as follows:

learning is an active, self-controlled, constructive, situation- and context-dependent social

process. 110

―…in many cases the teacher‘s explanation that is wise, well designed, and complemented

through illustrations implies greater possibilities than any other solution. This is first and

foremost true in those cases when a significant shift needs to take place in the students‘

thinking (a conceptual change), and in this learning what helps most is an external logic or

system‖ (Nahalka 1999, 123).

62

practice of education, which considers the different organizational forms of the

condition system of learning as mutually complementary and not mutually

exclusive. In this case, we can speak of complementary, pragmatic learning

environments, the integrative model for the practice of learning. If we arrange

the learning environment in this way, then we consciously choose from the rich

methodological toolkit of the various learning conceptions in order to best suit

the character of the concrete task at hand. In this case, we rely usually on the

three basic didactical modes, whose theoretical positions – compared with one

another – can be summarized as follows:

1. In the focus of behaviorism we find the explanation of stimulus-

response, input-output relations. According to the behaviorist doctrine

the brain is a passive black box, into which knowledge is inscribed.

During learning, feed-backs need to be designed in such a way that they

confirm the desired outputs. The object of learning is constituted by

factual knowledge and the acquisition of appropriate behaviors. The

method of teaching is the presentation of contents, and the presentation

of patterns while the teacher is fulfilling an instructor function.

2. Cognitivism considers the brain as an information processing

apparatus, which is why its interest is aimed at the modeling and

understanding of processes that go on within the brain. Learning means

the processing of thoroughly didactically designed learning materials and

the presentation of problem situations. The object and content of

learning is developing competences, skills and abilities through practice

and the transmission of procedural knowledge. The method of learning is

the facilitation of the solution of didactically processed problems. The

teacher observes and helps, and has the role of a tutor.

3. According to the learning model of constructivism, the brain itself

constitutes the information necessary for the forming of inner models. In

the meanwhile, its relationship with the outside world is not objective

mapping but ―co-ordination.‖ The learning is the individual construction

of models and finding solutions. The object and content of learning, and

the understanding of complex situations connote participation in the

solution of real problems. Learning happens on the basis of laboratory

work, via project work, and through interpersonal collaboration. The

teacher is a cooperative learning partner, a coach.

Let us have an overview of the characteristics of the three theoretical

perspectives.

63

Behaviorist

conception

Objectivist

conception

Constructivist

conception

What is

learning?

Behavioral

change

Change in long-

term memory

Change in the

interpreting of

experiences

What is

included in

the learning

process?

Environmental

effect + behavior

+ confirmation

Attention

+ processing

/encoding

+ storage/retrieval

Understanding +

dialogue +

cooperative problem

solving

What is the

primary role

of the

teacher?

The arrangement

of environmental

effects

Information

arrangement for

mental processes

Pattern presentation

and

scaffolding/coaching

How does the

teacher fulfill

this role?

The teacher

defines goals.

Offers

instructions,

patterns, action

plans. Provides

timely

reinforcement.

The teacher

- organizes new

information

- connects new

information to

existing

knowledge –

offers a varied and

multilayered

support for

optimizing mental

processes.

Provide opportunities

to solve realistic and

relevant problems.

Provide group

learning activities.

Model and guide the

knowledge

construction within

the context of

collective problem

solving

What is the

role of the

student?

To follow

instruction/

respond to cues

To arrange the

information in a

system

Discovery,

understanding,

exploration

8. Table. The characteristics of the three dominant theoretical perspectives111

On a deeper level, the complementariness of the learning paradigms is valid

in the sense Niels Bohr used the term.112

According to Bohr‘s complementary

111

Tables 5-8 were based on the tables printed in the volume Instructional Technology for

Teaching and Learning. (Timothy J. Newby, James Lehman, James Russell, and Donald A.

Stepich, Instructional Technology for Teaching and Learning: Designing Instruction,

Integrating Computers, and Using Media. Prentice Hall, Inc, Pearson Education, Upper Saddle

River, New Jersey, 2000.) 112

Light or the electron can be examined experimentally and can be described as a physical field,

that is, as wave-like and as corpuscular. Although these models are opposing one another, they

constitute a very different approach to the examined phenomenon, however, we need both for

a complete description. (It is usually said – not with complete exactitude – that light or the

electron has a ―double nature.‖) In the course of the elaboration of the toolkit of quantum

mechanics, which is suitable for the description of the subatomic micro world, humankind first

came across the strange case that the physical world could not be described with one

64

theory although the physical world is unified, the suitable description of certain

elementary particles requires different models which involve each other in a

complementary relationship. It is the same with learning, which is an objective

process, independent from theories, but whose understanding – and effective

support – requires several complementary paradigms. The students do not learn

according to various theories, it is only the control and support of learning, as

well as the design of the learning environment that depends on the learning

conceptions that can be described through various epistemological theories.113

The learning human enters the learning process with learning predispositions

that are determined genetically, culturally, and by his or her personal life story.

The individual, personal line of cognitive development means the construction

of personal inner models directed to the environment. The ―cultural line‖ of

cognitive development (Tomasello 1999) is the adoption of knowledge and

knowledge system acquired by others, through imitation, individual learning,

teaching, and joint knowledge construction. The various learning forms are

seldom manifest in a pure form in humans, in general, they are present as

complex effect systems in the learning environment. Each form is pervaded by

―humans’ most complex, most overarching, most determining quality,their

constructive ability, which is manifest in every area of their life‖ (Csányi,

1999,). At the same time, our innate teaching-learning ability (human pedagogy,

Csibra-Gergely, 2007) predestines us for the development of behavioral patterns

corresponding to traditional knowledge transmission. The two processes

(transmission and personal construction) do not mutually exclude, rather

mutually complement, one another.114

The teacher‘s subjective experience is that

he or she transmits, hands over, an objective knowledge system, while the

student feels that he or she receives and learns a ready-made objective

knowledge system. In the meanwhile the mind constructs, its structure changes,

and inner representations go through continual changes. Teaching and learning

are natural, species-specific behavioral traits of humans, and in the course of the

design and control of the process – according to our specified goals – we can

build upon each dominant learning concept developed in the 20th century.

unambiguous model. These have far reaching consequences concerning the character and

possibilities of human cognition, consequences which were first formulated in the theory of

complementariness. The theory is tied to the name of the Danish atom physician Niels Bohr,

who often quoted the Latin adage in order to explain the essence of this unusual train of

thought: ―Contraria non contradictionaria, sed complementaria sunt‖ (Opposites do not

contradict but complement one another). 113

Undoubtedly, the inductivist-empiricist-objectivist interpretation is the obvious, the natural

one. 114

This understanding is supported by a comment of the otherwise very radical S. Papert, ―So my

position here recognizes the reality of both kind of learning – constructivist and instructionist –

and concentrates on the balance between them.‖ In: Papert 1996, p. 46.

65

1.2.5. Problem-centered learning environment

The great number of computers, internet communication, the hypermedia

system of the World Wide Web, computer networks, educational data bases,

intelligent educational programs, as well as softwares supporting education

organization all offer qualitatively new possibilities for the transformation of the

teaching and learning environment. The new developments are challenges for

the traditional organizational forms and methods of education; this is why many

think it natural that the learning environment of information society is

constructivist. Others believe that the complementary, pragmatic mode of

learning-environment design better suits the school‘s realistic possibilities,

humans‘ natural abilities, and the expectations of society. For many authors, this

can be best achieved in such a way that we organize the learning process around

problems (e.g., Mandl 1995; Jonassen 1999; Reigeluth 1999; Nelson 1999).115

According to the pedagogical-psychological basic concept of problem-

centered or problem based learning, learning is a personal knowledge

construction based on the individual solution of problems, whose success

supposes that the student is active, interested, motivated, as well as that

he or she has at his or her disposal an appropriate knowledge base

together with appropriate pedagogic instructions and learning support.

Problems advance the learning process if they are real, authentic or can

be brought in contact with real situations, events, and processes (they are

relevant and up-to-date). In this case, they pique the interest of students,

make them a participant in the learning process. Problem-centered

learning is a directly or indirectly social process, which is inseparable

from the socio-cultural framing conditions of the times. The

development of problem-centered learning environments is at the same

time the acceptance of the new culture of teaching and learning, which

requires a conceptual change in each interested party. At the development of problem-centered learning environments, one should

take into account the following criteria:

115

―If we try to apply the new media without the appropriate pedagogical conception, the danger

exists that the innovational possibilities in our use will not be employed properly in teaching

and learning. Modern information and communication technologies can only bring about the

increasingly called-for changes in education if during their use we develop problem-centered

learning environments.‖ ―One of the most important preconditions of the changing of learning

would be a change in the heads of those involved. Teachers and students have to be ready to

give up their ingrained convictions concerning teaching and learning, and to accept their

changed roles: less control and direct influence on the one hand, more personal responsibility

and initiative on the other.‖ Mandl, H. – Gräsel, C. – Hesse, J., Problemorientiertes Lernen. In

Computer + Unterricht: Problemorientiertes Lernen, Sonderdruck SEMIK, Helft 44, 2001, 1.

Jahrg., 6.

66

1. The learning material needs to be formed in such a way that it should

present the relevant problems of the given field in authentic situations,

close to reality. The discussion of current questions, the plugging in of

personal experience will pique the interest and strengthen learning

motivation. The learning environment will correspond maximally to this

condition if it brings the student face to face with a real situation that

requires actual problem solving. Such a situation, however, occurs only

rarely, and cannot always be produced. To provide the condition of

relevance, the appropriately texted narrative presentation of the given

topic can also be suitable.

2. While arranging the learning process, we need to attempt to present

the problems in different contexts and from as many perspectives as

possible. This is how we can make most effective the flexible,

widespread usefulness of acquired knowledge. The learning environment

responds to this condition maximally if we provide for the possibility of

trying out the learning material in various authentic problem situations.

Lacking this, the minimal condition is to make a reference to the

possible areas of application of what has been learned. The principle of

multiple contexts and diverging perspectives will be successful in the

framework of an interdisciplinary project teaching as well.

3. In the course of the development of the learning environment, we

must make sure that it inspires and makes possible the various forms of

collective learning, group problem solving, as well as the cooperation

between experienced problem solvers and beginners. If this condition

cannot be fulfilled, we should still include group work on occasion.

4. The individual and group learning of the students must be started with

an unambiguous charting out of the task. We must pay attention to the

learning process and – if need be – we need to provide for the necessary

support. The possibility of continuous feedback needs to be integrated

into the learning process.

5. We need to assign priority to the development of such competences

necessary for individual learning, as cooperative learning with peers,

along with familiarity with and skilled use of electronic information and

communication devices.

In today‘s school, problem-centeredness does not only mean that we present

the learning material in the learning environment in a motivating manner, or that

we provide a possibility for the application of what has been learned. In the

cognitive habitus of modern media society, a deeper level of problem-

centeredness is almost coded, which is closely connected to the changes of the

function of the school and the role of the teacher. Today the school‘s function is

no longer to convey information considered important about the wider world.

Nor is it the teacher‘s main role to be the communication channel, the ―relay‖ of

67

a given study material (a set of data containing important information ).116

Children live in a constant media and information overload. Finding one‘s way

among information, the ability to critically evaluate programs, the development

of a broadly understood media competence – all this constitutes one of the

greatest challenges for schools and teachers in the information society.

The old and new forms of mass-communication, informatics,

telecommunication and the convergence of media technology generate

for modern humans a complex, omnipresent, and constantly manifest

iconic and symbolic environment, in which it is more and more difficult

to find one‘s way. Media competence means the ability to navigate in the

information overload. This is a ―new type of cultural tool knowledge,‖

whose part is a broadly-understood ―social scientific‖ cultivation,

aesthetic schooling, and the ability of value recognition. Here belong the

knowledge, abilities, leanings, which firstly are directed towards the

cultural communication that uphold social cohesion (and shape its

thinking). Media competence is a complex set of abilities, which

includes the knowledge of the characteristics of certain technical media,

and of the creation, presentation, and judgment of contents beyond their

use. By the highest level of media competence we mean the inclination

towards innovation, creativity, and the ability to recognize and create

quality.

Another group of real problems is constituted by those cognitive competence

deficits, which can be discovered in the case of certain students (József Nagy

2000, 2001). One of the basic tasks of school is to decrease these, and to

enhance underdeveloped abilities. A further problem is posed by the personal

and collective competence deficits, as well as psychic injuries. Our postmodern,

globalizing, information society poses such a challenge to individual life styles,

which is very difficult to counter through efficient teaching programs. Schools

need at least to try to elaborate and implement such programs.

A precondition of the development of a sustainable information society

is that the majority of its citizens should be characterized by a stable

moral value system and a sense of responsibility indispensable for social

solidarity. To a much larger extent than in earlier historical ages – and

for a larger proportion of the population – we need qualities that get built

116

This is how a Swedish researcher illustrated the problem of the conservative teaching method

resistant to change: ―When the first information revolution came, when Guttenberg presented

some smart ways to print books, you could have come over to another way of dealing with

schools. You could have helped people to read, which we have been doing all the time in

school, and they could take part in the collective memory that is put into books and find their

way to these memories in another way than listening to a teacher. But the teacher went on and

talked and talked all over into the 20th century.‖ Mr. Mats Ekholm, Director of the Swedish

National Board of Education, Managing Education for Lifelong Learning, op cit.

68

into the basic structure of the personality, such as tolerance, empathy, the

ability to cooperate, innovative ability, the urge to take risks, the ability

of self-steering, value-carrying and value-oriented personal autonomy.

The development of these characteristics is not possible simply through

the teaching and learning of specified knowledge contents. There are no

simple, direct algorithms leading to the development of characteristics

manifest in this system of abilities; they sometimes are formed as the

byproducts of certain activities. In this field, what is determinant is the

unintentional and non-conscious, implicit learning. The organizers,

developers, and operators of the most varied learning environments need

to keep in mind that in the development of this ability critical for a

knowledge society an important part is assigned for the hidden agenda of

the learning environment. In the effect system of the ―hidden

curriculum,‖ an important role is given to the different forms of setting

and following examples.

In sum, we can say that the problem-centered learning environment is a

possible form of complementary learning environment organization, which – in

an optimal case – unifies the best traits of traditional, objectivist, and

constructivist views: the indelible positivity of instructional learning is

connected with the advantages of the constructivist approach. The problem-

centered learning environment – as we see it – includes the constructivist –style

learning arrangement, but only as an element of a multilayered pedagogical set

of methods. Besides, in such learning environments we consciously concentrate

on real problems, which are present on the stages of organized learning – almost

independently from the learning material – and as given due to the students‘

microworlds‖ and the ―hyperworld‖ of the media sphere. We must keep all this

in mind when we speak of competence-centered development and problem-

centered learning environment. All these constitute a serious challenge to the

problem-centered learning environments of the 21st century.

69

2. NEW CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS S FOR TEACHING

AND LEARNING

At the beginning of the 21st century there is a lingering sense of crisis in the

field of education, but also a hope and trust put in the new methods and tools. In

general, we confirm the truthfulness of the diagnosis that ―the abyss is increasing

between the quick development of technological civilization and the intellectual

potential of the population of the world‖ (Nagy 2000). There exist numerous

signs that show that from the industrial society inherited structure and work

culture of the school are not able to live up to the expectations and demands of a

knowledge based global competitive economy and the increasingly complex,

quickly changing information society. Obviously, the realistic situation is not

this homogeneous. There are countries where we can see successful

modernization, or where hopeful processes were started, and there are others

where the fact of a deepening crisis is documented by alarming sets of data.117

In

the latter cases, there is an especially strong need for the renewal of the whole

educational system.

In this chapter we will sketch out several ideas aimed at the necessary and

desired changes. We will discuss those changes, which take place in the

interpreting of the social position of learning and of the concept itself. We will

delineate the expectations and hopes that were formulated with respect to the

conditions of an up-to-date education and efficient learning environments. We

will show future scenarios, trends, and experimental projects of educational

development that seem to be the best-founded, and whose chances of realization

appear the most possible today. We will explain the relationships between

teacher and technology, as well as between conventional and virtual learning

environments.

2.1. A new understanding of teaching

While in earlier historical epochs, lifelong learning was characteristic only

for a narrow section of society; today everyone needs to renew his or her

knowledge continually. Even in the greater part of the 20th century most people

considered their studies to be finished at the age of 14-23, and the rest of their

lives was defined by the duality of work and the private sphere. At the beginning

of the 21st century however, this bipolar life style becomes three-pronged by the

realization of the necessity of a lifelong conscious learning. The incorporation of

the practice of continuous learning in people‘s lives changes also the role of

117

The data of the PISA survey unanimously show the differences.

70

communal education. If we cannot acquire knowledge that is valid for the whole

life within the school system, then we need to concentrate the resources of

childhood formal education on furthering the development of leanings and

abilities that will make possible successful learning later in life. The creation of

the conditions of lifelong learning has become a political priority in developed

societies throughout the world.. For example, in the European Union, at the turn

of the century, one of the most important goals was the realization of an image

of the future that includes the idea of a learning society.

In the last year of the 20th

century, the European Commission formulated

its suggestions for the implementation of lifelong learning in a

publication called A Memorandum on Lifelong Learning (European

Commission, 2000b). In the document, they reformulated the already

defined goals of the vision of a learning society based on the experience

gathered during the last decade of the 20th

century, and the learning-

based information social strategy projected to the coming decade. With

the formulation of the Memorandum, the Commission wishes, on the one

hand, to assist the countries with the development and implementation of

their own programs, and, on the other hand, it hopes to promote a

discussion of European dimensions. This was moved forward by the

thesis-like formulation of the individual goals, their break-up into partial

tasks, and the posing of specified questions following the discussion of

the different theses. The document was discussed on a plenum in the

Union (both on the level of the Union and of individual nations), and

based on the experience of the debate, of collected opinions,

supplementations, and suggestions, by the end of 2001 a new European

program of lifelong learning was formulated to take effect in the first

decade of the 21st century.

The new strategic document was titled ―Making a European Area of

Lifelong Learning a Reality‖ (European Commission, 2001b). It is clear

from the document that lifelong learning is not simply a new dimension,

new form or new level of education, but it is a general steering principle

according to which we have to implement a complete transformation of

the systems of education, vocational training, and learning. Its basic goal

is to provide for each European citizen suitable learning opportunities –

in every stage of life. This creates the need for a new view for

educational politics. Views, suggestions, and opinions have been built

into this new strategic document. Subsequently, the definition of lifelong

learning has been modified too, which was formulated in the original

disputed Memorandum as follows: ―all purposeful learning activity

undertaken on an ongoing basis with the aim of improving knowledge,

skills, and competence.‖ (We have underlined the parts that were later

left out.) It was during the discussion of the Memorandum that it first

became clear that there is a contradiction between the accepted texting of

the definition of lifelong learning and the insertion of the informal mode

71

of knowledge in the learning process. Informal learning often happens

unintentionally, non-purposefully and always in an unorganized manner.

Therefore, if we consider informal knowledge as an important, integral

part of lifelong learning, then informal knowledge needs to be included

in the definition of lifelong learning as well. Considering this, the

definition was modified as follows, ―all learning activity undertaken

throughout life with the aim of improving knowledge, skills, and

competence, within a personal, civic, social and/or employment-related

perspective.‖ (We have underlined the supplementary parts that were

included later.)

In order to be able to integrate lifelong learning in the life world of adults, we

need to develop a natural, smoothly connecting system of the different learning

activities and varied learning environments. The reevaluation of the dimensions

of knowledge and the awareness of the basic forms of learning activities

constitutes the conceptual framework within which we should think about

teaching and learning at the beginning of the 21st century.

2.1.1. The dimensions of learning

At the beginning of the 21st century, lifelong learning – besides being a

personal necessity – program and need for the societies.118

is augmented and

supplemented with the dimension of ―lifewide learning.‖ The re-evaluation and

expansion of the concept of learning can be well illustrated in a two-dimensional

framework, arranged along a coordinate axis where the ―dimensions‖ of learning

are marked with the lifelong learning and lifewide learning phrases.119

118

The use of the expression of lifelong learning became widespread in the 1970s within research

circles of international organizations together with the concepts of recurrent education and

education permanente. In those years, its meaning signified the program of the improvement of

the quality of life and of society. At the turn of the 1980s and 90s, in the understanding of the

concept, certain elements of the economic notion of human capital were stressed, and the

expression – carrying a narrower, more pragmatic meaning – became the steadily recurring

element of political programs aimed at the measuring of structural unemployment. Its current

comprehensive strategic meaning was formed in the second half of the 1990s, and as a

―semantic magnet,‖ it became one of the leading concepts of the programs of economic and

social development of the European Union. 119

―Lifewide learning,‖ translated into Hungarian, stresses a new dimension of learning, and can

be understood as a learning that reaches over the entire width of life and stretches over its full

expanse; it is a new dimension of learning. While lifelong learning places the process of

learning along the time dimension, lifewide learning foregrounds the horizontal nature of

learning, which covers every area of life and life situation.

72

Informal learningFormal education

**

34

12

LIFE LONG

LIFE WIDE

Non formal learning

The dimensions of the learning prozess

Random/implicit/incidental learning

Figure 1. The dimensions of lifelong learning120

In the fields determined through the two axes we have arranged along the

vertical axis the various consecutive learning phases of the life cycles of the

individual. This is the vertical dimension of lifelong learning. The horizontal

axis signifies those various contexts, places, and situations, in which learning

can happen. This is the horizontal dimension of lifelong learning. This

conceptual model of lifelong learning shows in a unified frame the temporal

stretching of learning and the three basic learning forms. Field number 2

includes what we call education in a school system. In field number 3, we can

see that part of non-formal education that can be summed up as adult education.

The first and the fourth quadrants mean the less rigid and less formal informal

learning in childhood and adulthood. The conventional understanding of

learning – and the earlier educational politics – is concentrated primarily on the

second and to a lesser degree on the third fields; it takes no notice of the other

two, and it considered the several phases – as shown in the table – as separate

entities.

The new, integrative and holistic view of learning takes into account every

learning form and activity; it considers learning as a unified process, in which

the separate dimensions, phases, and forms of activity constitute organically

connecting components, which build on one another. The concepts of ―lifelong‖

120

A modified version of the figure that appeared in the publication called Lifelong Learning and

Lifewide Learning (National Agency for Education, Stockholm, 2000).

73

and ―lifewide‖ refer to the fact that in the information society learning steps out

of the framework of the traditional education system – expanding both in

horizontal and vertical direction. As a result, neither school nor society remains

as it used to be. The monopoly of formal educational systems decreases, and the

role and significance of knowledge acquired in an informal context increases.

The stress is moved from the school‘s subject-centered, content transferring

function to the development of individual learning abilities. The information and

communication infrastructure of electronic learning environments is at the same

time a basic structural condition of lifelong learning, which today makes

possible the realization of the unified continuum of learning.

Informal learningFormal education

*

34

12

Non formal learning

LIFE LONG

LIFE WIDE

The new dimensions of the learning prozess

Random/implicit/incidental learning

Figure 2. The integrated understanding of the dimensions of learning

2.1.2. The forms of learning

The new conception of lifelong learning includes the elements of learning

expanding to every age, every learning scene and mode; it goes beyond the

narrow definition of learning, and it takes into account non conscious,

accidental, occasional, random and by-product learning as well. This extended

understanding of learning differentiates between four forms of learning activity:

74

Random/implicit/incidental learning

Nonformal

training

Formalteaching

Informal learning

Environment, media and communikation

Family, socially, self-directed

The forms of the learning process

Figure 3. Forms of learning121

communication

Formal learning122

happens within the frames of the conventional education

system in institutions developed for this aim, in a well-defined timetable, with

pre-determined learning contents, and controlled conditions of entry, exit, and of

proceeding within the system. The various phases of formal learning are

concluded by officially recognized certificates that prove participation and the

fulfillment of requirements. The control of learning is external, participation is

mandatory, it is warranted by law.

Non-formal education happens outside the main stream of the education

system, and does not always end with a certificate proving participation. It can

take the following forms:: trainings, specialized courses, instruction organized

by civil organizations, parties, artistic and sports organizations. Learning is

externally controlled but is voluntary.

Informal learning is part and parcel of everyday life, and it occurs on every

stage of the individual‘s life. Those who learn in this way often do not notice

that they are learning, that they have acquired a knowledge or competence.

121

Based on the figure published in the UNESCO‘s Manual for statistics on non-formal education

(1996) and the Report of the Eurostat Task Force on Measuring Lifelong Learning (European

Commission, 2001). 122

The terms found in documents of the European Union and UNESCO are: formal-learning, non-

formal learning, and informal learning.

75

Learning is self-directed, it is self-induced in the form of motivation, interest,

and necessity.

Non-conscious or implicit learning is a system characteristic that follows

humans‘ entire life: we are constantly formed by environmental effects without

us noticing it, without being aware of it. Control is external and hidden. The

knowledge component called tacit knowledge is in close contact with non-

conscious learning, ―unconscious cognition.‖123

The concept of learning has implied primarily formal and non-formal

learning for most people, and the same notion was formed in common thinking,

in public administration, and in the labor market The new, augmented

understanding of learning calls attention to the fact that useful – and often

enjoyable – learning happens in various life situations, as, for example, in the

family, in free time, during social life, and work. It is especially important to

build on informal learning in electronic learning environments, since this most

ancient and natural form of learning contains enormous resources, which can be

the agents of the renewal of teaching and learning.124

Beyond this, we need to

take account of implicit, non-conscious learning, of which – as we noted above –

we are not aware, but which ―is able to deeply influence human behavior, its

emotional, weighing, judging, and action aspect.‖125

Tacit knowledge, implicit

measuring and judgment preparation, heuristic thinking, and intuition play an

important role in learning, in innovative thinking, and creative intellectual

achievements.

The fact has been duly noted that in the above table of learning forms (used

in documents of the European Union and UNESCO), there is a mixture of

organizational and learning psychological categories. A further inconsistency is

the doubling of the opposite of ―formal‖ into non-formal and informal. We

believe that another categorization, one according to the consciousness level of

learning (shown on Table 4), may contribute to the clarification of things. This

differentiation is important for us because in electronic learning environments

we have good opportunities for decreasing the proportion of a not always

efficient conscious learning, which requires strong psychic effort. Here we also

123

It is Mihály Polányi‘s merit to have called the attention of thinkers and experimental

psychologists of the last third of the 20th century to the significance of this hidden factor. ―We

can know more than we can tell.‖ This tenet of Polányi‘s has become an adage. The source of

the quote is György Ádám‘s lecture, ―A tudattalan reneszánsza‖ [―The renaissance of the

unconscious‖], which was published in the volume entitled Agy és tudat [Brain and

Consciousness]. (Agy és tudat. Ed. Vízi E. Szilveszter – Althrichter Ferenc – Nyíri Kristóf –

Pléh Csaba, Books in Print, Budapest, 2002) 124

There have been several attempts worldwide to identify, evaluate, calculate, and acknowledge

the competences acquired during non-formal and informal learning (Mihály 2000). 125

György Ádám, ―A tudattalan reneszánsza‖ [―The Renaissance of the Unconscious‖]. In Magyar

Tudomány 2001/10.

76

have good opportunities for assisting not through direct learning but through

contents, advising, and support, the acquisition of necessary knowledge through

the use of informal, implicit forms of learning.

Random/implicit/incidental learning

Content

Advising

Tools

Conscious learning

Teaching

The forms of the learning process

Figure 4. Forms of learning126

We need to appreciate that ―lifelong learning‖ – together with ―knowledge-

based society‖ and other frequently used expressions – has become an emptied-

out slogan of worldwide political discourse.127

The not too consistent

categorizations of learning forms is primarily used in documents of the European

Union, OECD, UNESCO, and in documents summing up the educational

strategy ideas of different countries. Despite this, we have found that both

schemas are worth seriously analyzing and thinking through, because they can

be important conceptual tools in the course of the understanding of electronic

learning environments.

126

Based on the table published in UNESCO‘S Manual for Statistics on non-formal education

(1996) and the publication of the European Commission, Report of the Eurostat Task Force on

Measuring Lifelong Learning (2001). 127

―Lifelong learning … has become a slogan, which is used by every education policy maker

according to his or her own taste‖ (Kozma 2006, 128).

77

2.2. The new normative elements of the organization of the

learning environment

At the beginning of the 21st century, we can observe a strong tendency

towards an inter-, multi-, and transdisciplinary definition of pedagogy.

Anthropology, neurobiology, human-ethology, cognitive science, psychology,

sociology – just to mention a few sciences – and some other scientific fields

have accumulated a vast amount of pedagogically relevant knowledge

material.128

This knowledge material has begun to be integrated in the daily

pedagogical practice. Several researchers claim that the consequent application

of the new knowledge – strengthening the earlier progressive pedagogical

attempts – will bring about changes that will result in a new pedagogical

paradigm (József Nagy 2000; Gábor Halász 2005; Reigeluth 1999; Banathy

1991, etc.). Naturally, all this has an effect on ideas concerning the optimal

learning environment. As we have declared in chapter 2, the various ideas

referring to the learning environment can be formulated differently from various

epistemological and education philosophy perspectives. We have also seen that

these ideas are in a complementary relationship with one another rather than in a

mutually exclusive one. Whichever epistemological and education philosophical

position we should occupy, the new knowledge concerning teaching, learning,

and, in general, human cognition, as well as the demands of modern information

societies constitute an indispensible orientation framework when we design

learning environments today. The elements of this framework can be organized

around the answers to – or, rather, attempts to answer – two basic questions. The

first question is directed to those points of orientation, which –- on the basis of

our new knowledge of learning and the nature of knowledge – may offer us

reliable help in the course of the design of new learning environments. The other

question is directed to the goals: are there any normative goal positions,

generally accepted as progressive, which can be formulated in terms of

preferential directions of movement, desirable transformations, and trends, and

which we cannot leave out of consideration during our designing activity?

2.2.1. The focal points of the design of up-to-date learning environments

During the past decades, a large amount of information was collected

concerning successful learning and the formation of performative knowledge.

128

At the turn of the millennium, there were several summaries that described the new results.

During the making of our treatise we have drawn on primarily the following works: How

People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School. (J.D. Bransford – A.L. Brown – R. R.

Cocking (eds), Washington D.C. National Academy Press, 1999; Understanding the Brain –

Towards a New Learning Science, OECD, 2002. József Nagy, XXI. század és nevelés [The 21st

Century and Education]. Budapest, Osiris Kiadó, 2000.

78

These have supported some well-known suppositions concerning what to keep in

mind in the course of the design of learning environments.129

1. The learning environment should be learner-centered.

The learning human understands the ―course material‖ and systematizes the

new information on the basis of his or her prior knowledge, skills, attitudes,

ideas and beliefs. Therefore, for successful teaching, the teacher must diagnose

the student‘s prior conceptual framework and cultural background.130

The

teacher must strive to get to know the cognitive habitus where the student

belongs, with special respect to the dominant system of values, the symbol

world, and language usage of the family and peer group.131

2. The learning environment should be knowledge-centered

In the development of effective knowledge, a determining role is given to the

thoughtful selection of the content elements of the course material, as well as to

the careful determination of learning goals, and the standards of acquisition and

performance demands. The development of well-performing, well-organized

knowledge requires ―in depth‖ teaching, that is, it carries the basic demand that

we should teach certain subjects and areas of cultivation with the fewest possible

elements of the course material but those should be maximally integrated,

clearly, consistently, and logically organized. Meeting this condition is

unimaginable without the critical analysis, revision, and restructuring of present

day curricula and course materials – whose natural consequence is the

significant reduction of content elements.132

3. The learning environment should be evaluation-centered

The condition of successful and effective learning is a continuous feed-back,

which makes possible for the student the steady control of the usefulness of

129

The classification of the system of criteria was done on the basis of the following source: J.D.

Bransford – A. L. Brown – R, R, Cocking (eds.), How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience,

and School. Washington D.C., 1999. National Academy Press, URL:

http://www.nap.edu/books/0309070368/html 130

The teacher needs to strive to get to know the cognitive habitus to which the student belongs,

with special respect to the language used in the mesoworld of the family and the peer group. 131

―If teaching is conceived as constructing a bridge between the course material and the student,

learning-centered teachers keep a constant eye on both ends of the bridge.‖ In op cit 127. 132

―We have to rethink the role of explicit knowledge in human culture. How great a knowledge

do we need to transfer directly to the user as a self-operating lexicon?‖ In Csaba Pléh, ―Új

kommunikáció – új gondolkodás?‖ [―New communication, new thinking?‖] Iskolakultúra

2001/3. ―In those areas where the skills themselves refer to propositional operations, it

becomes clear that there are no emptily grinding cognitive mills: in order to develop the most

basic types of higher ranking skills … we need to have certain encyclopedic knowledge to be

placed in our heads, but in the operation of the skills, the depth of the canon needs to be

reevaluated.‖ In Csaba Pléh, ―Tudástípusok és a bölcsészettudományok helyzete‖

[―Knowledge types and the situation of the humanities‖]. Világosság 2001/7-9.

79

knowledge, and for the teacher, the correction of wrong directions in learning.

The insertion of feed-back possibilities in the teaching and learning process must

happen in such a way that it should be in harmony with learning objectives, and

that it should facilitate understanding and the development of relevant, useable

knowledge. The emphasis must shift from the summative evaluation of the

conventional educational system to a formative evaluation.

4. The learning environment should be community-centered

The typically human cognition is basically a collective process.133

Humans‘

cultural ecological niche, the cognitive habitus, is the result of a ―vertical

sociogenesis‖ (Tomasello, 1999). This means that the – primarily cognitive –-

resources at the disposal of personal development are accumulated as a result of

the social knowledge construction of consecutive generations. School learning

environment is a predominant scene of cultural transfer, where the ―horizontal

sociogenesis‖ with fellow students needs to become an integral part of

learning.134 In the great majority of today‘s schools, the dominant mode is a

―vertical knowledge transfer,‖ while horizontal knowledge, acquired from peers,

is secondary.135 This is also why it is inevitable that the ability of planning,

organizing, and leading collective learning (project-based learning, cooperative

learning, learning collectives) should be one of the key elements of the tool kit

of today‘s well-trained pedagogue.

The information and communication technology at disposal in electronic,

virtual learning environments – as we are going to see in the coming chapters –

is able to support in a multifaceted and effective manner the prevalence of the

above criteria. This is, however, only a possibility, which is not automatically

133

―Cognitive humans do not acquire knowledge as lonely Robinson Crusoes, and are not born to

the world in total possession of their cognitive abilities (as Quine‘s epistemological naturalism

supposes). Rather, being born in a human collective, humans will acquire cognitive abilities as

members of the collective and parts of its activity, and will become suitable to follow the

accepted cognitive processes at their disposal. The two-thousand-year-old basic tenet of

epistemological individualism is shunned in favor of the tenet of epistemological collectivism.

According to Bloor and Barnes (Bloor 1991, 1983, Bloor and Barnes 1984), sociological,

collective factors are present in the cognitive content of knowledge, and they play a

constructive, constitutive rather than a distorting, destructive role. In other words, humans‘

collective nature makes possible a typically human cognition, and in this way this makes it

historically and socially determined and changing‖ (Márta Fehér, ―Tudományról és

tudományfilozófiáról az ezredfordulón‖ [Of Science and the Philosophy of Science at the Turn

of the Millennium‖]. In Magyar Tudomány. 2002/3). 134

At school there is primarily a secondary knowledge production. As opposed to primary

knowledge production, secondary knowledge production is the mode of reproduction of the

acquisition and reproduction of prior, ready knowledge. 135

It would be necessary to give a larger role to that form of vertical knowledge transfer in which,

in the course of joint attentive scenes (Tomasello 1999, 105), novice-expert interactions take

place, which form the student‘s view.

80

fulfilled. For the optimal use of the learning support potential of the new

electronic tool system, one needs high level methodological knowledge.

2.2.2. The trends of transforming learning environments

The progressive norms of objectives, and apparently optimal trends of

learning environments (that fit the requirements of the age) are often formulated

in the form of binary oppositions – concentrating on the focal points of desired

transformation. These can be deducted – among others – from the (supposed)

differences between information society and industrial society. An example of

the demonstration of trends leading to information society, and the display of

characteristic features of the new social formation and its organizations is the

table of Charles Reigeluth (1999).136

Industrial society Information society

Standardization Customization

Bureaucratic organization Team-based organization

Centralized control Autonomy with accountability

Adversarial relationships Cooperative relationships

Autocratic decision-making Shared decision-making

Compliance Initiative

Conformity Diversity

One-way communications Networking

Compartmentalization Holism

Parts oriented Process oriented

Planned obsolescence Total quality

CEO or boss as ―king‖ Customer as ―king‖

Table 9. Key markers of the industrial-age and information-age organizations

Many have sketched out the transformation of the trends of learning

environments in the past decade. For example the study of Banathy (1993) 137

and Hanaffin et al. (1999)138

contain noteworthy trend descriptions. In the row

of ideas concerning the necessary and positive transformations, we can fit in our

136

Source: Reigeluth, C. 1999, 17. 137

The binary opposition: Industrial Age vs. Current Era. Banathy, B., ―Systems Design: A

Creative Response to the Current Educational Predicament.‖ In Reigeluth – Banathy – Olson

(eds.), Comprehensive Systems Design: A New Educational Technology, 1993. 138

The binary opposition: Directed Learning Environments…vs. Open-Ended Learning

Environment… Hanaffin et al., ―Open Learning Environments: Foundations, Methods, and

Models.‖ In Reigeluth (ed.), 1999, 115-140.

81

own model, which is based on a complementary understanding of the learning

environment. The model‘s point of departure is that the trends of transforming

the learning environment can be articulated in such a way that we formulate in

binary oppositions the characteristic features of both the conventional, intuitive

and constructivist learning environment organizations:

Conventional learning environment Progressive learning environment

The teaching of facts, rules, ready

solutions

The formation of skills, competences,

attitudes

The transfer of closed, ready

knowledge

The formation of the ability and skill of

lifelong learning

The source of knowledge is the

school, the teacher, and the course

material

The integration of knowledge elements

acquired from several sources and

perspectives

The dominance of the teacher‘s

instruction during the acquisition of

knowledge

The student constructs his or her

knowledge in a complex, inspiring

learning environment

Set curriculum, rigid class schedule Project-based learning in a free time

frame

Learning is an exhausting work Learning is an interesting enterprise

Classroom teaching Learning in library and outside of the

classroom

Teaching within the frame of the

class

Teaching in smaller groups

Teaching in homogeneous peer

groups

Learning in heterogeneous peer groups

In-school learning groups Virtual learning groups between schools

(CSCL)139

Adaptation and conformism Creativity, criticism, innovation

The following of external rules The formation of internal rules

Conforming to the teacher Conforming to standards

Closed, mono-medial learning

environment

Open, hyper-medial learning

environment

Table 11. The binary oppositions of a complementary learning environment

While making the table, we attempted to choose the essential parameters of

the learning environment in the form of binary oppositions that can be markedly

differentiated.140

The statements figuring in the table are considered as mutually

139

The CSCL acronym means Computer Supported Collaborative Learning. 140

Our table has since been frequently used, especially in educational strategic materials, in an

unchanged or modified form. (E.g., in 2004 at the National Education Scientific Conference, in

the keynote address of the Minister of Education, the term ―constructivist pedagogy‖ was used

82

complementary rather than mutually exclusive. (According to the above

described complementary learning environment model, conventional and

progressive approaches need to be used jointly and proportionately with the

discrete goal and circumstances of learning.) Research done based on the model

(see later), has confirmed that the pedagogic practice of the learning

environment of Hungary‘s schools is dominantly conventional, therefore it is

programmatically desirable to make a move toward a more progressive direction

on every level of education. We illustrate trends in process that reflect our hopes

and expectations, which mean dislocations, changes of proportion in the

relationships of education and learning, instruction and construction, knowledge

transfer and skill development, adaptation and creativity, etc.141

In the realization

of desired dislocations, the important role of information and communication

technology is obvious, which partly facilitates, partly induces these dislocations.

The realization of certain progressive elements is unimaginable without the

means of electronic information- and communication technology.

2.3. The transformation of the learning environment: virtual

campus and blended learning?

The need to develop electronic learning environments appears equally on the

levels of basic education, higher education and adult education. In this

subchapter, we will analyze some characteristic examples of learning

environment transformation experiments of higher education institutions.

The conventional ―on campus‖ mode of teaching was first unraveled by

varied forms of correspondence and distance learning courses, this, however,

brought little change in the basic philosophy and methods of teaching. Now – it

appears – the online courses and web-based educational materials that started out

as computer supported distance learning will not remain ineffectual concerning

instead of ―frontal pedagogy.‖ The minister used this approach in a strongly simplified manner

and through the binary opposition of industrial society vs. knowledge-based society. 141

I first published the table in my essay entitled ―Online‖ (1997). Several people critiqued then

that in this essay – and later in ―Offline‖ (1999) – I used the binary opposition of industrial

society vs. information society in the header of the table (and following others, e.g., Reigeluth

1999). I accepted the argument that if I use the denominations of industrial society and

information society with respect to learning environments, then the table expresses the

supposition that what we need is not a transformation but a radical change, and that the

suggestion is that in every case, we need to achieve the conditions formulated in the second

half of the binary opposition, which, of course, is not possible, and nor is it desirable. This is

why I switched over to the use of the present denominations. The expression ―progressive‖

associates to the collective term of ―progressive pedagogy‖ that marked the trends of

pedagogical innovation at the beginning of the 20th century. Its binary opposition is not

constituted by the terms regressive retrograde, backward, rather, by the tool and method kit of

conventional pedagogy.

83

the ―mainstream‖ forms of on campus teaching and learning developed through

centuries. According to certain authors, the introduction and generalization of

the use of the new technology will revolutionize, turn upside down and

fundamentally reshape the modus operandi of higher education.

In Europe, in the highest political forums the attempts at enhancing

transformation are manifest in the form of declarations and suggestions on a

community level.142

As a justification for the necessity of the changes to be

implemented they mention – among others – the broadening of the access to

courses of higher education, the exciting, novel experimental possibilities

offered by the new technology, bringing the technology up-to-date and raising

the level of the quality of education, the cooperation between institutions of

higher education, and, in general, the strengthening of the virtual dimension of

the common European Higher Education Area. Among the explanations we find

the necessity to adapt to the changing educational market, new business models,

and global competition. In European Union documents, we can find expressions,

referring to the character, the directions, and the content of the transformation,

such as the development of ―transnational European virtual campuses,‖ the

formation of the ―e-learning dimension‖ of higher education, the development of

―virtual mobility‖ and dual-mode curricula (the latter means the joint application

of conventional and online educational methods).143

In most higher education institutions, the motivation behind the

implementation of the new technology – in the field of distance education and

other training – is the increase in student enrolment. Online courses are in

principle accessible from anywhere, thus, the action radius of the institution

considerably increases. Further, related motivation is the enhancement of the

educational profile and providing for a flexibility of access to the courses. The

attraction of the new technology and an experimental frame of mind also play a

role, which are encouraged by a number of grant possibilities. PR is also a

142

E-Learning – Designing tomorrow‘s education. Communication from the Commission. COM

(200) 318 final. Brussels, 24.5.2000.

http://eutopa.eu.int/comm/education/programmes/elearning/comen.pdf

The e-Learning action plan. –Designing tomorrow‘s education, Communication from the

Commission, COM (2001) 172 final. Brussels, 28.3.2001.

Making a European Area of Lifelong Learning a Reality. Communication from the

Commission, Brussels, 21.11.01. COM (2001) 678 final

The specific future objectives of education systems. Report from the commission, COM

(2001) 143

Proposal for a DECISION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

adopting a multi-annual programme (2004-2006) for the effective integration of Information

and Communication Technologies (ICT) in education and training systems in Europe

(eLearning Programme) (presented by the Commission), Brussels, 19.12. 2002 COM (2002)

751 final 2002/0303 (COD).

84

factor: the institutions furnished with a good informatics infrastructure may

present themselves as the pioneers of progress. The various institutions are urged

to implement informatics developments by the demand of the efficiency of

education, of bringing training up-to-date, and of quality improvement.

2.3.1. An American experimental project for the transformation of

university courses

In America, institutions of higher education consider the informatization of

learning so important that several organizations were formed, with serious

endowments, to promote the process (e.g., The Sloan Consortium, Sloan-C,144

National Center for Academic Transformation, NCAT).145

The National Center

for Academic Transformation, for example, offers professional help and

financial aid to those institutions of higher education that have decided to

radically change their teaching methods utilizing the possibilities inherent in

information and communication technology 146

As the name of the organization

shows, the basic goal is not the facilitation of the implementation of information

technological devices, but the revision of the teaching practice along with, the

complete reorganization of the conventionally developed teaching methods. As

opposed to a self-serving application of technology, absolute priority is given to

the enhancement of organizational and methodological changes that increase

efficiency. The organization‘s program clearly formulates two interrelated goals:

the decrease of the expenditure of training and the improvement of the success

of learning. Is this possible? Experience tells us that the improvement of the

quality of institutions of higher education in general goes hand in hand with the

increase of costs. Is it possible to achieve these opposing goals? The answer is

yes, according to the data published on the home page of the experimental

project and the results described in studies summarizing the experiment.147

What

makes this possible? The leaders of the program argue that frontal teaching

prominent in higher education (the conventional lecture with a speaking teacher

144

URL: http://www.sloan-c.org/index.asp The purpose of the Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) is to

help learning organizations continually improve the quality, scale, and breadth of their online

programs, according to their own distinctive missions, so that education will become a part of

everyday life, accessible and affordable for anyone, anywhere, at any time, in a wide variety of

disciplines. 145

URL: http://www.center.rpi.edu. The National Center for Academic Transformation (NCAT) is

a national, non-for-profit organization that serves as a resource for colleges and universities,

providing leadership in how effective use of information technology can improve student

learning while reducing instructional costs. 146

Twigg, C.A., ―Improving quality and reducing costs: new models for online learning.‖ In

Educase, September/October 2003. 147

http://www.thencat.org/PCR/Outcomes. htm

85

and listening students) is highly inefficient. Frontal lecture is a unidirectional,

uniform, ―push‖ method, which does not motivate active learning, and does not

provide for learning inputs that fit the actual mental preconditions of the

students. Instead, it aims at the satisfaction of a supposed average need – often

ill-prognosticated. This diagnosis carries within the medicine as well: less ―live

work‖ of the teacher (this is where we save) and much more student activity in

the course of the processing of interactive material made suitable for this aim.

According to the basic philosophy of the program, the teachers should spend less

time lecturing, and the time and intellectual energy saved here should be used to

develop elements of the course material and programs that would assist student

learning. The conventional tool of information transfer, direct teaching

instruction, should be limited to those cases when it is really indicated and

necessary: introductory and conclusive lectures, personal assistance, advising,

motivation, etc., suitable for the actual needs of the student (just in time/just in

place).

According to one of the intellectual inspirations of the program: ―Today

you‘re looking at a highly personal, human-mediated environment. The potential

to remove the human mediation in some areas and replace it with automation –

smart, computer-based, network-based systems – is tremendous. It‘s gotta

happen.‖148

One of the leaders of NCAT, Carol A. Twigg, has summed up the

essence of the program: ―Making use of new technologies to reduce the cost of

instruction calls for a fundamental shift in thinking. It requires challenging the

primary assumption of the current instructional model: that the only way to

achieve effective student learning is for faculty members to meet with groups of

students at regularly scheduled times and places. Rather than focus on how to

provide more effective and efficient teaching by faculty, colleges and

universities must focus on how to produce more effective and efficient learning

by students. Faculty are only one of many resources that are important to

learning. Once learning becomes the central focus, the important question is how

best to use all available resources—including faculty time and technology—to

achieve certain learning objectives. Instead of asking faculty to work harder,

campuses need to enable them to work smarter.‖149

Under the auspices of the NCAT program, between 2000 and 2006, more

than 60 institutions of higher education assisted the organization of a large

introductory course and the transformation of its teaching methodology. It was

discovered during the analysis of the individual projects that in the improvement

of learning results the following elements proved to be decisive:

148

Educom President Robert C. Heterick Jr. In: New York Times, 29 Jul, 1996. 149

Twigg, C.A., ―Improving Quality and Reducing Costs: Designs for Effective Learning Using

Information Technology.‖ In The Observatory on Borderless Higher Education, 9, 1 – 21,

2002.

86

− Online Learning Materials (Online Tutorials)

A part (or the whole) of the tutorial was made in the form of

interactive web pages, which are accessible online for the participants of

the courses

− Continuous possibilities of feedback and self assessment

Automated computerized tasks, tests, with interactive elements that

assist problem solving in case of incorrect answer

− Urging interactions between students

When designing the courses, they build in elements that inspire or

demand discussion on electronic forums. This helps the students feel

themselves a part of a student collective.

− Constant teacher-tutor support

The operation of a well-organized learning support system, which

facilitates continuous and enduring learning by students.

− Mastery Learning

The redesigned courses provide the students with great freedom,

however, for the purpose of the optimal acquisition of knowledge,

learning needs to be controlled and organized from the outside.

The most important cost reducing factors were as follows:

− Online Tutorials

The educational software and interactive applications assumed a part

of the teacher‘s time and work input.

− Automatic assessment

Automatic, standardized computerized assessment unburdens

teachers from this mechanical activity.

− The use of learning management systems

Up-to-date, well-designed learning management software makes

possible the follow-up of the students‘ advancement and performance,

and allows the teacher to communicate with the students on an

individual level.

− Reasonable use of resources

With the thoughtful redesign of the courses, and the development of

standard elements, teachers‘ work input can be used rationally and

parallelisms can be avoidable

− The diminishing need for classrooms

There are fewer classrooms needed for the courses, since a large part

of the presentation of the course material and teacher-student

communication happens online, in virtual spaces.

87

− The utilization of a suitable level of human resources (Staffing

Substitutions)

With the employment of differently qualified staff (teacher, assistant,

senior student, technician, etc.), we can achieve the appropriate but cost-

effective management of students‘ problems. Highly qualified teachers

will be relieved of tasks that can be performed by less highly qualified

staff.

The various institutions developed diverging proportions during the

reorganization between online web-based, interactive course material

presentation (e-learning) and the conventional didactic lecture form. One

extreme is the complete eschewing of lectures and the adoption of the e-learning

form, the other extreme is the holding of lectures in an unchanged time frame. In

the latter case, the conventional lecture form is supplemented with online, web-

based contents, CD‘s, DVD‘s, etc. The lecture may remain unchanged, or it may

be modified to a greater or lesser extent. The proportion in most experimental

cases is located between the two extremes.

E-learninges kurzus-típusok 65 amerikai egyetem

egy-egy kísérleti projektjét vizsgálva

E-learninges kurzus-típusok 65 amerikai egyetem

egy-egy kísérleti projektjét vizsgálva

0

5

10

15

20

25

E-learning változatok

A k

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nböző

vált

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ok g

yako

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2000-2003

2003-2006

KIEGÉSZÍTŐ BLENDED ÁRUHÁZ ONLINE BÜFÉ

E-LEARNING COURSE TYPES IN THE EXPERIMENTAL PROJECTS

OF 65 AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES

The frequency of the various types

Supplemental (replacement), blended, emporium, cafeteria

E-learning types

Graph 2.

88

Based on their characteristics, the so far realized projects form five well

distinguishable categories, which form characteristic models of the higher

educational realization of electronic learning environments:

1. In the case of the supplemental model, learning is assisted, beside

lectures, by technology-based out-of-class activities. In certain projects,

lectures remained in unchanged form, while in others they changed –

with respect to content and methodology.

2. In the case of the replacement (blended) model, online, interactive

learning activities replace a part of the lectures. The content and

methodology of the remaining lectures – similar to the previous model –

changes in each case or remains unchanged.

3. In the case of institutions developing the ―emporium‖ model there are

no lectures. They set up computerized source centers where the students

progress according to their own pace and when needed receive the

assistance of a teacher or tutor.

5. The fully online model places the entire learning process into a virtual

learning environment, with the application of web-based, multimedia

learning sources, and the application of software-based and tutorial

learning assisting feedbacks.

4. The ―cafeteria‖ model offers a personal learning program for each

student with wide-range, varied learning activities, which are customized

to the preconditions, goals and learning preferences of the student.

2.3.2. The development of the virtual campus character of an Australian

university

The Australian Murdoch University150

is one of those institutions of higher

education which – well aware of the potential inherent in the use of electronic

information and communication – aimed at the complete transformation of their

educational offer.151

The opening step was the modernization of the distance

educational profile of the university. First they thought that online distance

education would operate as a separate educational field, but it soon turned out

that almost all students wanted also online materials, while some of the students

who opted for the online distance education form would have liked to participate

in lectures on occasion. As the existing administrative structure was not suitable

150

Murdoch University, URL: http://www.murdoch.edu.au/tech/lectopia 151

The case study of the transformation of the university is accessible at: Phillips, R. A. –

Cummings, R. – –Lowe, K, –- Jonas-Dwyer, D., ―Rethinking Flexible Learning in a

Distributed Learning Environment: A University-Wide Initiative.‖ In EMI, Distributed

Learning, Volume 41, N. 3, September 2004.

89

for the satisfaction of the varied student demands, the university decided on the

implementation of radical change. The transformation was coordinated by a

board called to life for this particular goal, entitled Flexible Learning

Implementation Committee. They discontinued the conventional courses and put

the students in two categories: off-campus and on-campus students. The key

components of the new flexible model are as follows:

− They developed a single set of resources to support learning, which was

accessible for the students in several ways

− They made accessible for all students all printed and electronic, online

material

− All students can access conventional lectures

− The assessment of the performance of on campus and off campus

students is done on the basis of unified criteria.

An important element of the transformation was a curriculum reform and the

reworking and revision of the existing learning materials and study aids. Instead

of the push-delivery152

of target-group specific learning materials for full-time

students and correspondence courses, the material became a coherent object

package, which the students could access in various ways (pull delivery). The

most significant change from a technological point of view is that all lectures

were made accessible on video and sound form, and they provided for a wide-

range information technological support both for the students and the teachers.

An especially successful element of the transformation was the presentation of

lectures in the form of streaming media (Lectopia, earlier: eLecture-system),

which was used by a much higher proportion of the students than projected. At

the same time, the number of students participating at lectures did not decrease.

They managed to shave off costs by not having to send the lectures on tapes to

off-campus students. Although this program – as opposed to American model

experiments – did not explicitly target the change of the methods of teaching, the

new system prompted several teachers to do this. By 2007, 90 percent of the

university‘s offer followed the new, service-centered, flexible access form,

which is called ―Distributed Learning Environment.‖

2.3.3. Virtual seminar in Germany

In German higher education one of the most thoroughly studied online

educational forms is the virtual seminar. This variant of electronic learning

environments differs from the presented American model experiments in that it

is highly work intensive, it requires an increased amount of time investment

from the teachers, and as such it results not in saving but in the increase of

152

―Moving from a delivery model of education to an access model of education, within the

existing institutional paradigms of face-to-face and external learning.‖ In op.cit. 202.

90

costs.153

This educational form does not allow for larger enrollment and it

requires an increased time investment both from the teachers and the students.

At the same time it is beneficial for both parties.

For teachers, this online educational form serves as a laboratory of modern

teaching culture, where they can test new, problem-centered, constructivist

teaching methods. In a virtual learning environment, the design and steering of

cooperative learning requires serious preparation and continuous attention.

While in a classroom environment it is easy to correct by means of

improvisation careless preparation and the uncertainty resulting from ambiguous

instructions, the same thing can result in a chaos in an online setting. The teacher

is forced to carry out consistent planning with great attention to detail along with

the elaboration of a viable, measurable, unambiguous, and clearly defined

system of requirements. The development of tasks that are motivating, which are

highly interactive, and which include intelligent student cooperation requires an

increased time investment and creativity. The student‘s learning is not a black

box for the teacher, because the communication reflecting the learning process

can be followed with the help of learning management software. The teacher can

interfere, he or she can help understanding because the possibility of continuous

feedback is provided. The teacher can facilitate communication between the

students, she or he can help the development of creative thoughts, can correct

errors, and can call attention to new facts, different points of view in case of one-

sided, superficial formulations. Thus online seminar – with an expert teacher –-

may offer the students learning experience that has been unknown so far. The

student of the virtual environment can experience that someone continuously

follows his or her work, is interested in her or his advancement, helps him or her

to surmount difficulties, and in certain cases reflects upon his or her thoughts,

and congratulates on his or her success. In the case of a well-organized

cooperative learning environment, the students reflect on each other‘s written

down thoughts, and a vivid and constructive exchange of ideas may develop

between them. The virtual seminar is an excellent tool to develop learning

communities as well.154

153

One of the experts of the theme expresses this in the title of one of her writings, ―Sparen oder

Bilden mit e-Learning?,‖ that is, do we want to teach or to save with the use of the new

technology? In: Prof. Dr. Gabi Reinmann-Rotheimer, ―Sparen oder bilden mit e-Learning?‖

URL: http://www.leggewie.de/edemocracy/elearning/sparen.shtml 154

German experiences show that it is expedient to insert phases of presence in the course of the

organization of virtual seminars. This can be a project initiating conversation before the start-

up of online activity, and/or a joint evaluation at the conclusion of the project. If it is possible,

it is expedient to include both. Reinmann-Rotheimer, G. – Mandl, H., Virtualle Seminare in

Hochschule und Weiterbildung. 2001, Verlag Hans Huber.

91

2.3.4. The promises of the virtual campus

The above examples unanimously prove the unwavering manifestation of the

trend that Kristóf Nyíri formulated in his study of 2003 (Virtuális pedagógia – A

21. század tanulási környezete) [Virtual Pedagogy: The Learning Environment

of the 21st century]: ―The triumphant march of the Internet makes it inevitable

that computer-mediated communication – especially at the level of higher

education – should gradually enter the area of teaching and learning.‖ It is not by

accident that we chose the three examples. The presented American and

Australian projects – beside their experimental nature and professed need for

radical transformation – are jointly characterized by a well thought-through

calculation of expense-benefit, and the central role of budgetary and financing

questions in the course of the transformation. However, in several respects they

represent completely divergent views concerning the motivations of the

transformation. On the home page of the American project, the prohibition sign

mounted on the image of the lecture hall is emblematic: it refers to the furthering

of methodological goals that are opposed to the conventional lecture form. As

opposed to this, one of the key elements of the Australian university is the

expansion of electronic access to frontal lectures! Diverging from both, the

German virtual seminar model experiments are not only targeting another aspect

of virtuality, but in their experiments cost-benefit calculations stay in the

background – which may be partly attributable to the European higher

educational model financed mainly from the state budget.

An important message of the examples presenting transformation types is that

the development of the virtual dimension of universities happens in a pluralistic

manner and does not happen on the basis of one model. Information technology

changes fast – besides the fact that because of its protean nature it can be used

for almost anything. More important than this is the realization that the literature

refers to as the social construction of technology (SCOT). Emergent

technologies are very flexible, their spread, role, significance primarily depends

on the receptivity of society (interpretive flexibility). 155

From an educational

point of view (too), at present (2008), the Internet, together with its spreading,

varied services, is in the phase of interpretive flexibility. We cannot know what

their role will be in a few years‘ time, and nor what new applications will

reshape the ephemeral world of networks.

The above quoted fragment of Nyíri‘s study continues with the following

sentence: ―It is not at all clear, however, what the real promise of virtual

155

Bijker, Wiebe E. – Pinch, Trevor, J., ―The Social Construction of Facts and Artifacts: Or How

the Sociology of Science and the Sociology of Technology Might Benefit of Each Other.‖ In

Bijker, Wiebe E., Hughes – Thomas P. – Pich, Trevor J. (Eds.), The Social Construction of

Technological Systems. Cambridge, Mass., 1984, MIT Press.

92

education is.‖ We think that the promises – as opposed to the actually manifest

future – can be well circumscribed. For pragmatic, practical thinking, the

implementation of information and communication technology holds out the

promise of success and efficiency. Given the increase in the demand for

participating in higher education and the limited nature of the resources, this is

the most important aspect of the informatization of education for educational

policies, and anything else can only be understood within this system of

relations. For experimenting, curious humans, interested in novelties, however,

getting to know and using the newest products of electronic information and

communication technology is in itself motivating, and this urge is today an

important source of pedagogical innovation. Whether we approach the new

technology from the point of view of the desire for efficiency or that of

pedagogical creativity built on tool use, it is not idle to try to understand in a

broader context the relationship between the teacher‘s profession and

information technology – in the present and projected for the future.

2.4. Teacher and technology

There are many new, partially unimaginable possibilities of teaching,

learning, and communication between the teaching and learning person that

cannot be realized without information technology, which constitute very

attractive perspectives for the further development of the teaching profession.

The strengthening of the virtual dimension of learning environments, however,

hides certain risks. If we think through what the EDUCOM president said,

(footnote 37), we cannot not help noticing that the removal of the human

mediation from the learning process implies the – partial or total – removal of

our own teaching activity. To this we can add that our work becomes more

transparent and traceable with the conscious, carefully thought-through didactic

planning, the exact definition and elaboration of presentational, instructional,

feedback and control goals and acquisition criteria and standards, and by making

all this explicit and accessible to all. All this can result in the narrowing down of

our autonomy, the controllability of our activity, the rationalization of our

performance and the regulation of our work – according to externally determined

norms. We can not only be regulated at will but will also be disposable and

expendable. In the course of our interpretation of electronic learning

environments – in order to formulate a realistic image of the situation – we

need to examine how well founded these concerns and worries are, if this is at

all possible today.

93

2.4.1. The role of the teacher in the electronic classroom

One of the best known and most referenced critics of the virtualization of

higher education is history professor David Noble, whose opinion is summed up

also by the choice of the title of his writings, e.g., ―Digital Diploma Mills: the

Automation of Higher Education,‖156

―Technology and the Commodification of

Higher Education.‖157

The title of another author is telling too: ―Fredrick Taylor

Comes to College: Breaking Faculty Jobs Into Discrete Tasks.‖158

The message of Professor Noble can be summed up in brief as follows:

the virtualization of universities, the forced introduction of online

programs of the distance education type is only the surface beyond

which we can observe the commodification of higher education and its

transformation into companies of production aiming at profit making.

Technological fetishism surrounding Internet based distance education,

the revolutionary aura of breaking with antiquated traditions, and fear

from being left behind rule and narrow down our thinking about the

future of education, and delimit the potency of an unbiased critical view.

We can observe the disintegration and fragmentation of a basically

holistic, personal and interpersonal, process-like teaching and learning

activity. The course materials are transformed into discrete objects, ones

that can be extracted from their original context and can be put together

in a different way; they become independent from the teachers who have

developed and taught them. Education appears as a commodity;

universities produce and sell educational goods. The emphasis is placed

from intellectual activity to intellectual capital and the copyright of

intellectual products. The transformation of education into a marketplace

brings with it the turning of teachers into work force, who, following the

methods of ―scientific management,‖ are forced to perform more

effective work; their activity is restructured with the help of technology,

their autonomy and their right to control and possess their own work

diminishes. If teaching is limited to online activities, the possibility of

administrative control will be considerably widened, and every aspect of

the profession will become transparent. Parallel to the diminishing of the

teacher‘s autonomy, the teacher‘s working hours will increase because of

their constant availability and unlimited access to them. If teachers make

their knowledge explicit in the form of online courses, then the ready

course material will be separable from the teacher, and will be teachable

156

Noble, David F., ―Digital Diploma Mills: The Automation of Higher Education.‖ In First

Monday – peer reviewed journal on the Internet. URL:

http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue3_1/noble/ 157

Noble, David F. ―Technology and the Commodification of Higher Education.‖ Monthly

Review Volume 53, Number 10, URL: http://www.monthlyreview.org/0302noble.htm 158

Yates, M.D., ―Frederick Taylor Comes to College: Breaking Faculty Jobs Into Discrete Tasks.‖

URL: http://www.zmag.org/zmag/articles/mar99yates.htm (2007-01-16)

94

(and marketable) through cheaper workforce and as automated software

application.159

A more general aspect of the problems formulated by Professor Noble and

others is the question of the relationship of humans and technology, and that of

the teacher and the information technological tool system. Talking about this

relationship, it is useful to go back to the birth of the idea of personal computer

use, and to depart from J.C.R. Licklider‘s ―man-computer symbiosis‖ metaphor.

In his classical study of 1960 entitled ―Man-Computer Symbiosis,‖ Licklider

sketched out a program and future scenario concerning the development of

humans‘ problem solving skills, in which the positive characteristics of

computers and humans, organized into a proper system, result in a synergy

effect.160

He thought that humans‘ future computer use – which he plastically

called ―man-computer symbiosis‖ – can be such a form of the many human-

machine relationships which is unprecedented in human history.

―Computing machines can do readily, well, and rapidly many things that are

difficult or impossible for us, and we can do readily and well, though not

rapidly, many things that are difficult or impossible for computers. That suggests

that a symbiotic cooperation, if successful in integrating the positive

characteristics of men and computers, would be of great value.‖161 Analyzing

the role of humans and the machine, Licklider points out that it will be the

―privilege‖ of the human factor of the relationship to chart out goals, to set out

criteria, to formulate hypotheses, to pose questions, to evaluate processes, and to

159

―Once faculty put their course material online, moreover, the knowledge and course design still

embodied in that material is taken out of their possession, transferred to the machinery and

placed in the hands of the administration. The administration is now in the position to hire less

skilled, and hence cheaper, workers to deliver the technologically prepackaged course. It also

allows the administration, which claims ownership of this commodity, to peddle the course

elsewhere without the original designer‘s involvement or even knowledge, much less financial

interest. The buyers of the prepackaged commodity, meanwhile, other academic institutions,

are able thereby to contract out, and hence outsource, the work of their own employees and

thus reduce their reliance upon their in-house teaching staff. […] Most important, once the

faculty converts its courses to courseware, their services are in the long run no longer required.

They become redundant, and when they leave, their work remains behind.‖ Noble, D.F.,

―Digital Diploma Mills: The Automation of Higher Education, op. cit. 160

Licklider, J.C.R., ―Man-Computer Symbiosis‖. In IRE Transactions on Human Factors in

Electronics, Volume HFE-1, 4-11, March, 1960. URL: http://memex.org/licklider.html 161

The difference between the human brain and the computer is well illustrated by among others

Donald A. Norman‘s short essay, which was based on a talk prepared for the conference

organized to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the American ACM

(Association for Computing), a conference that was dedicated to the topic of the future of

computer development. (Normanm D., ―Why It‘s Good That Computers Don‘t Work Like the

Brain.‖ In Denning, P.J. – Metcalfe, R.M, Beyond Calculation – the Newt Fifty Years of

Computing, New York, 1997, Copernicus an Imprint of Springer Verlag.

95

make decisions. 162

The machine partner of the cooperation, the information

processing equipment of the future, will be able to ―convert hypotheses into

testable models and then test the models against data (which the human operator

may designate roughly and identify as relevant when the computer presents them

for his approval). The equipment will answer questions. It will simulate the

mechanisms and models, carry out the procedures, and display the results to the

operator. It will transform data, plot graphs ("cutting the cake" in whatever way

the human operator specifies, or in several alternative ways if the human

operator is not sure what he wants). The equipment will interpolate, extrapolate,

and transform. It will convert static equations or logical statements into dynamic

models so the human operator can examine their behavior. In general, it will

carry out the routine, clerical operations that fill the intervals between decisions.

In addition, the computer will serve as a statistical-inference, decision-theory, or

game-theory machine to make elementary evaluations of suggested courses of

action whenever there is adequate basis to support a formal statistical analysis.

Finally, it will do as much diagnosis, pattern-matching, and relevance-

recognizing as it profitably can, but it will accept a clearly secondary status in

those areas.‖ 163

When Licklider wrote his study, this form of human-computer cooperation

still belonged to the realm of fantasy.164

However, today‘s human-computer

relationship follows the mode that Licklider dreamed of. An important element

of Licklider‘s metaphor is the realization that the basic difference between

humans and computers can be fitted together into a high-performance

complementary system.165

162

„Men will set the goals and supply the motivations, of course, at least in the early years. They

will formulate hypotheses. They will ask questions. They will think of mechanisms,

procedures, and models. They will remember that such-and-such a person did some possibly

relevant work on a topic of interest back in 1947, or at any rate shortly after World War II, and

they will have an idea in what journals it might have been published. In general, they will

make approximate and fallible, but leading, contributions, and they will define criteria and

serve as evaluators, judging the contributions of the equipment and guiding the general line of

thought. ….In addition, men will handle the very-low-probability situations when such

situations do actually arise. (In current man-machine systems, that is one of the human

operator's most important functions. The sum of the probabilities of very-low-probability

alternatives is often much too large to neglect. ) Men will fill in the gaps, either in the problem

solution or in the computer program, when the computer has no mode or routine that is

applicable in a particular circumstance.‖ Op cit. 7. 163

Op cit. 7. 164

―The data-processing equipment tacitly postulated in the preceding section is not available. The

computer programs have not been written. There are in fact several hurdles that stand between

the nonsymbiotic present and the anticipated symbiotic future.‖ Op cit, 8. 165

The ―man-computer symbiosis‖ metaphor was later used by János Kemény in his seminal essay

on the future of computer use. (Kemeny, John G., Man and the Computer. New York, 1972.)

However, we wish to note that the expression ―symbiosis‖ is in both cases a poetic metaphor,

96

In her book In the Age of the Smart Machine (1988), Shoshana Zuboff

analyzed in a broader context the relationship of humans and machine and

human labor vs. automated mechanic labor. She evokes that scientific analysis,

rationalization, and automation of human work started at the end of the 19th

century. The idea of ―scientific management‖ connected to the name of

Frederick Taylor was based on the analysis of work processes and the rational

reorganization of work performance. Zuboff has recognized that the general

principle behind the rationalization of work processes was the removal of

knowledge thus far connected to people, and the textualization of this knowledge

in an explicit, exact form, independent of people. Then the series of operations

necessary for the quick and efficient performance of the given work type could

easily be taught to unskilled laborers as well, or it could be automated when

designing suitable mechanical equipment. Beside physical, practical and

procedural knowledge (hands-on experience), also goal-oriented minds-on

activities can be described in such an objectified form, and then can be

automated by computers. There are more and more activities previously thought

of as exclusively human that are transposed from the area of personal, partially

instinctual, implicit, tacit knowledge and hidden interpersonal interactions to the

area of those activities that are explicit, divisible, that can be written down and

can be made algorithmic and, last but not least, automated. A few essential,

characteristic features of the human work that requires creative problem solving,

perspectival and behavioral pattern mediation, and intensive interpersonal

communication can not (yet) be made algorithmic and digitized today.166

High level teaching activity is especially characterized by problem solving,

the setting of personal example and the high level of communication. These

skills resist ―removal,‖ the transfer to unskilled labor, automation, and placement

into expert systems. Truly valuable knowledge is not a ready product, which can

be written down in an explicit form, multiplied, received and transferred at will –

writes Doug Brent, a professor of the Department of Culture and Commu-

nication of the University of Calgary.

We do not simply receive, transfer and find knowledge, but, rather, we create

it through active inner mental activity – very often supported by intensive

interpersonal communication. ―All knowledge, or at any rate all knowledge

worth having, is constructed, not just found. It follows that neither the textbook,

the videotape, nor even the multi–media CD or Web page, is likely to subsume

since unlike a real symbiosis, here we speak of the unidirectional asymmetric relationship of

two separate entities. The biological system, the human being, uses the mechanical system –

whose operation is analogous in several respects with certain functions of the human brain – to

achieve his or her goals. 166

The skills that belong here were called by Zuboff as ―upper-end management skills‖.

97

completely the act of constructing knowledge in a dialogic social environment,

whether face to face or electronically mediated.‖167

High level teaching is a live ―interpersonal‖ activity that has so far resisted

―textualization‖ and will never become algorithmic. This, however, does not

mean that it has no interface with technology. One of the basic functions of

electronic info communication technology is that it mediates an increasingly

more abstract symbol flow – with unprecedented efficiency– to the teacher. The

teacher absorbs this, makes sense of it, puts it in a system, and then uses it in her

or his lectures, classroom and virtual seminars, and interpersonal relationships.

The technology is also able to judge when it is expedient to project the symbol

flow directly to the students – without the mediation of the teacher. Some

teaching activities can be usefully algorithmized and automated, while others

cannot. It is not an accident that the very well prepared and thought through

American experiment was aimed at the basic, introductory courses of the

different disciplines. It is also noteworthy that most universities chose the

solution that wields together online and conventional learning.

The slogans of Carol Twigg and Gabi Reinmann-Rotheimer (Improving

Quality and Reducing Costs vs. Sparen oder Bilden mit e-Learning?) are not

mutually exclusive, but complementary. As the American experiment has

proved, there are training phases whose redesign makes possible both the

elevation of the level of education and the decrease of costs, while German

experience shows that to achieve a quality increase a continual addition of

resources is needed. The above quoted Professor Noble claims in one of his

writings that quality education requires significant and continuous investment.168

Concerning a significant investment, that is indeed indispensible. But the results

of the large scale American project described by Carol Twigg show that certain

courses can indeed be restructured by a one-time, larger investment in such a

way that significant savings can be realized afterwards – and the quality of the

education also increases. Almost all disciplines have elements that do not require

live human interaction.

In this category belong, among others, the acquisition of basic knowledge

and lower level knowledge of the tool using type. If an educational system really

167

Doug Brent, ―Teaching as Performance in the Electronic Classroom.‖ In First Monday – peer

reviewed journal on the Internet. URL: http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue10_4/brent/ 168

―Quality education is labor-intensive… any effort to offer quality in education must therefore

presuppose a substantial and sustained investment in educational labor, whatever the medium

of instruction. The requirements of commodity production, however, undermine the labor-

intensive foundation of quality education (and with it, quality products people will willingly

pay for). Pedagogic promise and economic efficiency are thus a contradiction.‖ David F.

Noble, ―Technology and the Commodification of Higher Education‖ op. cit.

98

strives for an effective operation based on a cost-benefit analysis, then it can

discover significant resources in this field.

2.4.2 The relationship between conventional and online learning

Thinking about the role of technology, and the relationship between

technology and the teacher, leads us to one of the central questions, which

occupies those interested in the future of education: what will be the relationship

between an education based on information technological equipment and

application and the conventional educational system? According to certain ideas,

the future will bring e-learning in electronic learning environments.169

Others

consider conventional classroom teaching and learning as an unchanged basic

form.170

This latter view is strengthened by the so far successful resistance and

continued existence of conventional education – despite predictions, hopes, and

expectations to the contrary.171

We need to pose the question whether it is sufficient to explain this

persistence through sticking to tradition, the unmovable inertia of the mainframe

of education, and the strength of the educational establishment? It appears that

we need to take into account causes that are deeper down in the bases of human

learning. More generally, learning is woven out of two threads of human

cognition and knowledge acquisition: from the individual and social forms of

cognition.172

The basic forms of human socio-cultural learning are imitation-

based learning, learning by mimicking, teaching-based learning, and cooperative

learning (Tomasello et al, 1993). The last two always assume ―joint attentive

scenes.‖ The dominant partner for the student of these joint attentive scenes is

the teacher, while its obvious scene is the classroom. Lately we have consciously

169

Some characteristics of the views belonging to this category as discussed on pages 95-99. 170

In this respect, Kristóf Nyíri quotes a former president of Harvard University, ―However,

continuous, direct human relationship is indispensible for the essence of serious

teaching/learning, and this will always be so. In the end, nothing can effectively substitute for

a live, face-to-face exchange of ideas. And although the Internet makes possible the significant

spatial, temporal, and qualitative expansion of certain forms of interaction, electronic

communication will always lack the basic elements of true dialogue. (Rudenstine, 1997). 171

In his above quoted study, Professor Brent claims, ―But with the printing press now over 500

years old, there has to be more at work than tradition or self-serving. People see the classroom

– and not the book or the videotape – as the center of learning for the same reason that they

stand in the rain for hours to buy tickets to a concert when they could purchase a

technologically better performance on CD for much less money.‖ ―Teaching as Performance in

the Electronic Classroom.‖ In First Monday – peer reviewed journal on the Internet. URL:

http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue10_4/brent. The experiences of Professor Brent are

supported by the example of the earlier discussed Australian university, where they took great

pains to make the lectures available for everyone. 172

Tomasello – based on Vigotsky – speaks about the individual and cultural line of cognitive

development. Tomasello 1999/2002, 60.

99

attempted to fit into the learning process joint attentive scenes with peers, but

this too mostly happens in the conventional teaching scene.173

As we have

explained in the first chapter during the discussion of the human ethological,

evolutionary psychological bases of human learning, form the time of their birth,

humans are ―programmed‖ for teaching and learning. In their book on the early

period of human development, Gropnik, Meltzoff, and Kuhl (1999/2001) discuss

this: ―A great role is given to other people in the development of the brain. Even

the brain of a bird is specially attuned to learning from other birds, especially

from those who bring it up… a significant part of the human brain performs the

processing of speech and the recognition of faces: from this it is obvious how

important the information coming from our species is for us‖ (205). Kristóf

Nyíri stresses another aspect of the phenomenon when he writes that ―the

broadband of personal communication is incomparably larger than any virtual

channel.‖174

To support this, he quotes Dewey‘s thought (1927/1984):

―Community … in its ‗deepest and richest meaning‘ always has to be based on

‗personal communication and commuting‘; the ‗sounding, flying words of

speech‘ have such an essential effect that is ‗lacking from the fixed and frozen

words of writing‘.‖175

The basically vertical nature of cultural transfer carries within the personal

character, the interpersonal context. Vertical transfer happens through masters,

and the row of masters includes the kindergarten teacher, the elementary school

teacher, the Ph.D. adviser, and respected educators of the field. The ideal form

of learning from masters is the personal context. A specific form of joint

attentive scenes is the master-disciple relationship, when the master directs our

attention to things thus far unknown to us, or he or she indirectly facilitates that

we see things differently than before.176

In these cases, learning ―is the change of

the understanding of a situation, its essence is not performance but the

transformation of signification.‖177

The condition of the personal context, the

173

Due to the development of communication technology, joint attentive scenes will spread to

virtual, network environments as well, to a much greater degree than today. 174

Kristóf Nyíri, ―Virtuális pedagógia – a 21. század tanulási környezete [―Virtual Pedagogy: the

Learning Environment of the 21st Century].‖ In Körösiné Mikis Márta (ed.), Iskola –

Informatika – Ínnováció [School, Informatics, Innovation]. Budapest, 2003, OKI. 175

Dewey here foreshadows McLuhan‘s argumentation concerning the acoustic spaces of oral

culture when he writes, ―The connections of the ear with vital and out-going thought and

emotion are immensely closer and more varied than those of the eye. Vision is a spectator;

hearing is a participant‖ (371). 176

―Most people are not aware of how they see the world and are not open to the possibility that

they are blind to the very options that would solve their problems…. The teacher will need

special skills, not at presenting information, but at observing and shifting how students see and

bring forth their worlds.‖ Denning, P.J., ―How we will learn.‖ In Beyond Calculation: The

Next Fifty Years of Computing. New York, 1997, Springer 277. 177

Csaba Pléh, Pszichológiatörténet [The History of Psychology], Budapest, 1992, Gondolat, 169.

100

creation of direct interpersonality happens in accordance with our basic

biological determinations. In humans, there is a very strong sense of social

attraction (Csányi 1999), and the need for being together with other persons.178

Children – as well as adult learners – ―are better able to pay attention to a living

human being than to a television box, and possibly they learn more easily from

him or her.‖179

The proportion of personal and impersonal instances changes according to

life cycles. It appears obvious that the role of the less personal transference form

(e-learning on the figure) can increase with the increase of the student‘s age.

Table 5. The role of e-learning in various age groups

Today (2010) the general opinion is among decision makers and those

involved that a combination of electronic and conventional learning

environments could be the best solution for the enhancement of the success of

teaching, the broadening of learning opportunities, and the facilitation of a more

economical, rational operation of institutions. At numerous universities all over

178

―Personal contact with its psychologically considered attachments is constantly needed by us,

as from the part of primates based on attachment also in our access to external knowledge

amassed by us.‖ (―Tudástípusok és a bölcsészettudományok helyzete: a tudáslétrehozás és a

tudásfenntartás problémája.‖ [―Knowledge types and the state of the humanities: the problem

of knowledge establishment and sustenance‖] In Világosság, 2001/7-9). 179

Gopnik A. – Meltzoff N. – Kuhl K.P.: Scientist in the Crib: What Early Learning Tells Us

about the Mind

Early childhood

E-LEARNING

Primary education

Middle school education

High school education

Post-secondary education

Higher education

Adult education

PRESENCE LEARNING

101

the world – similar to the quoted Australian campus – the border is diminishing

between a new type of distance learning and conventional teaching: the

establishment of the new, distributed learning environments brings together the

best solutions of both forms.180

The expressions most frequently used to denote

the mixed form of learning in electronic learning environments (e-learning) and

conventional teaching (c-learning)181

are blended-learning, mixed-mode

learning, dual mode curricula, and, lately, distributed learning.182

This latter

concept means the varied system of effects that assist teaching – in different

scenes, in different time periods, and with the help of different interactive media.

The attuned system of direct and virtual interactions is often organized according

to the model of learning community.183

During conventional, classroom- or campus-based learning those personal

elements of student-teacher relationship can come to the fore that are

indispensable for the cognitive, social, and personal development of the students.

Personal relationship with students is also inspiring for the teacher. Learning

acquisition is ―a construction in a dialogic social environment… just as in the

case of a concert, live performance is different from play-back – no matter how

perfectly it is recorded and played back technologically. The live interaction

between the teacher and his or her ―audience‖ turns every lecture into a one-

time, unique event.184

This is the phenomenon that László Németh (a famous

Hungarian Writer) expressed through the metaphor of ―the glass bell of the

class.‖185

The school and the campus are the scenes of the joint socialization of

students, thus, for this purpose it is difficult to think of a better solution than the

conventional model.

180

See for example the thematic number of Educational Media International: Distributed Learning

, Volume 41, Number 3, September 2004. 181

The letter ―c‖ means contact, classroom, conventional. 182

The concept is also used in the world of technological standards of e-learning (e.g., Advanced

Distributed Learning Initiative), with a meaning that is different from this one. 183

The concept of learning community refers to such a learning community activity, where the

emphasis is moved from conventional information transfer and reception to horizontal

communication, the knowledge distribution, cooperation, and joint learning concentration

(learning communities mirror the types of shifts desired in educational practice, moving from

passive assimilation of information to active construction of knowledge, so that the innovation

process is consistent with its content.) In Dede, C., Creating Research Centers to Enhance the

Effective Use of Learning Technologies. (Testimony to the Research Subcommittee, Science

Committee, U.S. House of Representatives, May 10th, 2001).

http://www.house.gove/science/research/reshearings.htm 184

Brent, D., ―Teaching as Performance in the Electronic Classroom.‖ In First Monday. 185

László Németh considered the school as an atelier where ―it is not external handcuffs but some

kind of an intellectual substrate, the course material that connects those inside. There are thirty

or forty people sitting under the class‘s glass bell, the teacher, the student, and what is pulled

inside […], a tiny, underlined particle of human achievements and knowledge, a minute part of

beauty.‖ In László Német, ―Az iskoláról‖ [On School].

102

The complex tool system of electronic and information communication

technology may offer, with necessary fantasy – and a lot of work at the

beginning – an effective, multifaceted support to the realization of almost any

communal educational task, and higher educational learning program. In the

field of individual learning, of personal, individualized knowledge acquisition,

the possibilities provided by a broadly considered electronic information

universe, organized and accessible as a network, may appear boundless. The

learning management software (WebCT, Blackboard, Moodle, etc.) is ideal for

the continual follow-up of the advance of individual students, and through this it

makes possible a new kind of personal relationship between teacher and student

as well as the personally customized formative evaluation and assistance of the

learning process.186

It is a significant aspect of the relationship of e-learning and conventional

learning that those teachers who participate in the development of e-learning

programs are forced to develop an overarching, comprehensive didactical

conception in order to think through every partial element of teaching and

learning. The experiences acquired during this process, the teacher‘s

strengthening media competence, the increased ability of systematizing the

information enhancing the formation of knowledge can have a positive effect

upon conventional lectures as well.187

Today we cannot foresee the consequences of the incorporation of an

electronic-virtual dimension in the educational system, the processes of teaching

and learning. It is, however, a fact that the learning environment of higher

educational institutions is fast being virtualized, and blended learning becomes

more and more frequent.

2.5. Scenarios and trends for the future

The information technological and pedagogic possibilities, developing

programs and intentions summed up by the collective noun of electronic learning

environments have constituted – since the last quarter of the past century – the

186

―In Evaluationsstudien sprechen Studierende nach dem Seminar von ‗sanfter Kontrolle‘ and

‗heilsamem Druck zur Kontinuität beim Lernen‘, sie loben die Notwendigkeit der

kooperativen Zusammenarbeit und die active Erarbeitung neuer Inhalte; und sie äuβern sich

vor allem über eines positive: Über das Gefühl, dass jemand ‗da‘ ist, dass sich jemand für Ihre

Antworten interessiert und diese sogar regelmäβig in ausführlichen Feedbacks kommentiert.‖

Prof. Dr. Gabi Reinmann-Rotheimer, Sparen oder bilden mit e-Learning op cit. 187

―Viele originelle Ideen, die man anlässlich des e-Learning im Idealfall produziert, lassen sich

sehr wohl auch in der Präsenzlehre nutzen: el-Learning kann so auch die Vermittlungs- und

Medienkompetenz des Lehrenden und manit die Qualität der Präsenzlehre erhöhen.‖ Prof. Dr.

Gabi Reinmann-Rotheimer, op cit.

103

decisive, strategy forming strength of education.188

The strategy – per definition

– is a complex system of values, goals, directions and intentions. However, the

future – due to its and our nature – can be imagined in many different ways. In

developed information societies, one of the defining characteristics of the

dominant future image is the supposition that in the future the entire educational

and training system will go through a thorough transformation. The need for

change was formulated already in the second half of the 20th century in a number

of widely-known writings and documents.189

There is a quasi-consensus about

the understanding that the education system is ripe for change; and it is equally

widely accepted that there are technological-social forces under development

that will inevitably change it, too (Bonk 2004). The really important

information, however – here as well – is in the details. Does everything have to

change? If not, what will change and to what extent? Are all imminent changes,

or those in process, equally necessary and positive? If not, how could we assist

and accelerate the changes desirable and preferable for us and avoid or bar the

negative ones? And to what extent is new what is said to be new? Is it indeed

true that today‘s information communication technology in conjunction with

planetary globalization constitute such an irresistible society-forming force? We

are aware that these basic questions can be answered in different ways today,

and it is only very rarely possible to formulate a statement that could be

scientifically proven. And yet, when we examine electronic learning

environments, these questions are unavoidable. Considering four virtual fields of

the future as organizing categories, we need to try to formulate our own

provisory answers to these questions: what remains unchanged in the world of

instruction and learning, what will develop in a straight line, what is the

offspring of creative future that can be identified today and what belongs to the

field of waning future?

188

We know of a number of exemplary, successful programs from the decade behind us, whose

common characteristic is the development of education connected with the implementation of

informational and communicational technology. 189

We need to mention here the books by Seymour Papert (1980, 1994, 1996) from the field of

education theory, and the works of Dertouzos (1999), Gates (1995), and Gardner (2000, 2006)

from the field of prognostics and futurology, as well as numerous documents of OECD,

UNESCO, and the European Union.

104

Past + Present + FutureCreative future

Continuing future

Constant future

Waning future

Figure 6. The dimensions of the future

The ideas concerning the future of teaching and learning can be usefully

divided into three areas. The already classical American ―medium or method‖

debate (briefly described in the last chapter of part 3) exposes these three areas:

what teaching and learning media will dominate in the future (technological

aspect); what methods of teaching and learning are wide-spread (pedagogical-

methodological aspect); and what is the most important for us: how does the

medium and the method connect (the cognitive habitus of future learning

environments).

This division may appear to be productive and useful. On the one hand, the

technological views of the future and future trends can be examined through

methods which – at least in the case of the future trends – make possible exact

enough prognoses. On the other hand, in the case of pedagogical methods, the

psychological-social determination can be analyzed without the disturbing

interference of the technology. Finally, if we clearly differentiate pedagogical

and technological innovation, the relationship of the two can be understood more

objectively. It is not our aim to fathom a view of the future, prognostics and

scenarios, either concerning the technology or the method. Given the profile of

our writing, we only sketch out a general image with such a detail that we

consider as suitable to serve as an analytic aspect of electronic environments.

105

2.5.1. The future trends of information and communication technology

It is not easy to project the future development and spread of technology. The

experts of computer development and production early on made predictions that

make us smile today: ―We believe that we might be able to sell perhaps five

computers on the world market‖ (Thomas Watson, the President of IBM, 1943).

―The computers of the future will weigh less than half a ton‖ (Popular

Mechanics, 1949). ―There is no reason why anybody should wish to purchase a

computer to their homes‖ (Ken Olson, the founder and director of Digital

Equipment Corporation, 1977). In the nineteen-sixties, the personal computer

was beyond the imaginable possibilities even in professional circles. This is well

represented by a sentence, uttered in a documentary, by the director of the

Department of Education Science of the University of Aachen, ―If as a

pedagogue I could make a wish for the future, the dream, so to speak, of the

pedagogue, it would be marvelous if here, at the institute, everyone could have

their own computers.‖190

A more recent example of not recognizing the

possibilities about to emerge is the case of Bill Gates, the president of Microsoft:

he had to rework his 1994 book about the future shortly after its publication

(1995) since he failed to mention the Internet.191

Equally, the Internet is left out

of Seymour Papert‘s192

1993 book.193

It is thought provoking that this quick

(r)evolution of information technology makes even those ill at ease who

apparently design, steer, and keep in motion permanent innovation.What can be

190

The film (Computer, Menschen und Berufe) was made in 1968, and deals with the future

application of computers. 191

―We didn‘t expect that within two years the Internet would captivate the whole industry and the

public‘s imagination.‖ Gates, Bill, The Road Ahead, 1996, Penguin Books. Preface to the

second edition, x. 192

Papert has been known worldwide as a significant theorist of computers and the use of all

technology in education and instruction. His work is made extra interesting through his inter-

and transdisciplinary interest, his scientific background and his results. He is a mathematician

who worked for five years at Piaget‘s Geneva institute, Genetic Epistemological Center; he is

interested in epistemological questions too and he has paid great attention to the development

of children‘s thinking. As a member of MIT‘s famous research group of artificial intelligence,

(with others) designed the LOGO programming language aimed at children, which he has

since perfected and has recently connected with the constructional toy, LEGO, based on his

own constructivist learning theory. Although there are many others who have dealt with the

topic, Papert has made his views so resonant and convincing, his argumentation is so well

known that – pars pro toto – the review of his work can be especially suitable, to my mind, to

demonstrate the intellectual background of educational computer use. It was his 1988 book

Mindstorms (Észrengés in Hungarian) that called overall attention to the wide-range

pedagogical possibilities inherent in computer use also in Hungary. His work spans over three

decades, thus, his writings show the changes of ideas concerning the role of computers in

schools and learning. 193

Papert, The Children Machine: Rethinking School in the Age of the Computer. New York,

1993, Basic Books.

106

the cause of this notorious miscalculation of the future? One of the possible

explanations is the incalculable nature of scientific-technological innovation and

engineering designer creativity.

Technical-technological evolution – similar to the biological one – happens

through small steps, and the selection and cumulative piling up of unforeseeable

realizations, accidents plays a key role in it. Another thing that muddies the

waters is that once a discovery is made and a new tool is created, Inventors and

constructors generally overestimate the positive effects and spread of their

inventions. Often the opposite happens, when engineers overestimate the

foreseeable difficulties, and when industry leaders are too much attached to

familiar products and technologies.194

Besides, technological future is made

incalculable by what the literature calls the social construction of technology

(SCOT).195

In this respect, we can consider thought provoking the preface of the

hastily reworked version of the already mentioned Bill Gates book, in which the

author is looking for the cause of his prognostic error. ―In the spring of 1994,

Microsoft was sure that the Internet was going to be important in the future

[…]We didn‘t expect that within two years the Internet would captivate the

whole industry and the public‘s imagination […] we did not think there would

be real interest in it while broadband transmission was not completely

widespread, and while the problems of security, reliability, and comfort were not

resolved. Seemingly overnight people by the millions went onto the Internet,

demonstrating that they would endure a lot more in the way of shortcomings

than we had expected.‖196

This story excellently demonstrates that when it

comes to embracing technology, society is to a certain extent a ―black box.‖ The

various technological devices and technological procedures can be used in

various ways,197

but nor is it necessary for them to be used at all. The errors of

our prognostics concerning the future of technological development can often be

traced back to the fact that we – intuitively – extrapolate present processes

194

A good example to this is the development of the Internet. The conception of the Internet

contained several completely new and unusual technological inventions. The most

revolutionary solution was the package switch digital system instead of the analogue phone

connection based on the traditional electric circuit switch. Big companies considered this

revolutionary new technology as inoperable and undoable. The same thing happened with the

World Wide Web. Information access through hypertext and the integration of the Internet

constituted such an unusual innovation that the inventor, Tim Berners-Lee, had to personally

create a software technology, since the companies that were dealing with the development of

hypertext – to whom he offered his idea – all turned him down. Berners-Lee, T., Weaving the

Web. New York, 2000, HarperCollins 195

Pinch – Bijker, The Social Construction of Facts and Artifacts (1987; 1984) 196

Gates, Bill, The Road Ahead. 1996, Penguin Books, Preface to the second edition, x – xi. 197

For example with the help of web-based video streaming we can project simulations, case

studies, but also conventional talking heads lectures as well.

107

linearly to the future, even though they can be described as a rule through an

exponential curve. Because of these limitations of our view, we cannot foresee

what would be foreseeable. According to Ray Kurzweil,198

this explains Bill

Gates‘s quoted fiasco, which can be illustrated with the following graph:

Figure 7. The spread of the Internet graphed with an exponential and a linear function.

According to the first, the exponential function, the ―Internet explosion‖ was

foreseeable, while this comes as a surprise if we think in terms of the linear

graph.

198

American inventor and futurologist, who was decorated in 2000 with the most prestigious

prize. His books fathoming the future and written with great fantasy are national bestsellers in

the United States.

108

We often make the mistake that we do not extrapolate well the incline of the

exponential graph, or we do not notice that it has surpassed the inflexion point.

An instructive example is an element of the Delphi survey of the expensive TPP

(Technological Prognostics Program) research performed a few years ago in

Hungary.199

The experts were asked to estimate, among others, the time frame of

the prognosis in the following statement: ―Each school will be richly equipped

with multimedia learning sites, which will be in an on-line relationship with the

information network.‖ They predicted that the prognosis will come true in 2021.

This well illustrates the limitations of our imagination since such learning posts

(equipped by spatially positioned, constant, fixed machines) will not exist in

2021. The concept itself will become meaningless and obsolete (just like that of

the phone booth) because mobile multimedia alternatives will no longer depend

on a place and wiring.200

Analyzing this mistake in depth, we will find that the

experts – both those who compiled the survey and those who evaluated it – made

two mistakes. They did not take into account that – due to the continuous

decrease in size and increase in performance of electronic devices – computers

will be smaller and smaller and will be soon mobile, and that desktop computers

will soon belong to the field of waning future. That is, experts considered

waning future as constant future and they did not notice an element of the

creative future that has turned constant.

Given this, we are justified to pose the question: can we know anything with

absolute certainty concerning the future forms – even in the near future – and

their social embeddedness? In principle, no, but the prognoses of significant

sources (Dertouzos 1998, 1999: Weiser 1991, Havass 2006 and others) and the

extrapolations that can be made on the basis of trends up to now allow us to

make certain predictions:

1. The spread of the Internet will continue unchanged while – similar to

television and radio – it will become standard in basically all households,

and – similar to the mobile phone and possibly replacing it – the Internet

will be accessible through widespread personal appliances.

199

A Delphi-type survey of the Technological Prognostics Program (TPP) in the topics of

education and employment, started in 1998 in Hungary 200

Perhaps some will remember that the experts of a Delhi survey in 1982 answered the question

―When will the computer be generalized within the framework of the institutions of learning?‖

as follows: ―In 2010.‖ The answer to the question ―When will the computer be generalized

among the tools of home study?‖ was NEVER.

109

2. Steadily newer applications will appear in the forms of interactivity,

interpersonality, immersion,201

virtual and augmented reality,202

with

further forms that we cannot imagine today.

3. In the foreseeable future, the shrinking of computer size and the

augmentation of computer performance will certainly continue:

computers will be smaller and faster and their price will decrease.203

4. As a result of technological convergence, in principle anyone can

access anyone, anything, any time and from anywhere through

multifunctional appliances.

5.Computers are incorporated in the elements of the environment, and

they form an intelligent environment supplemented by micro-

electromechanical input-output devices. (A few key expressions to

sketch future trends: embedded systems, disappearing and omnipresent

computers, environmental intelligence, semantic web, web2.0,

augmented reality, agent technology, etc.)204

The technological future is open, the pace of the evolution of technological

appliances and processes is still accelerating. The exciting question is, what the

individual, society, and education will make out of this system of possibilities.

2.5.2. Pedagogical method in the future

Human psyche, the biological and psychic determinations of learning, in

general, humans‘ cognitive architecture, is a relatively stable system, which

changes slowly. Our aptitude for learning and teaching forms a part of our

genetic heritage. Based on this, in the course of cultural evolution a great deal of

social experience was accumulated concerning successful learning and teaching;

much of this can be usefully applied today.

In his human ethological textbook, Vilmos Csányi describes the

socialization of the children of natural peoples as almost idyllic (Csányi

201

The user enters and is immersed in the virtual world generated by computers, and the passive

reception of information is exchanged for (inter)active participation. 202

(Augmented Reality) is the augmentation of the real environment through computer generated

elements which facilitate the success of our activity in the given environment. 203

According to the Moore law, the capacity of the processors increases twofold every year and a

half. According to the Gilder law, the broadband of communication systems increases

threefold per year, while the Ruettgers law predicts a twofold increase in the performance of

memory chips. 204

In Hungarian a thorough analysis can be found in the studies summarizing the results of the

technology analyzing project (Információs Társadalom Technológiai Távlatai [IT3]) of

Nemzeti Hírközlési és Informatikai Tanács (NHIT). (National Council on Telecommunication

and Informatics)

110

1999, 220-221). In Joseph and His Brothers, Thomas Mann offers us a

didactics projected to Biblical times that is effective even today

(Education).205

Also, in his Orbis sensualium pictus, Comenius offers

up-to-date instructions for adequate learning. And the list could be

endless.

The invention of the centuries of the Modern age, uniformized mass

knowledge, has proven very useful as the institutionalized tool of cultural

transfer, and it contains numerous progressive elements that are eminently

applicable even today. However, the unquestionable dominance of traditional

organizational and operational forms has been relegated to the past. The

character of knowledge necessary today and the system of tools at our disposal

necessitates and makes possible a different school, different teaching and

learning. It has not been decided, nor can it be unanimously decided, how big

changes are needed. It is also an open question to what extent and at what pace

can the old-new culture of teaching and learning be ―socialized,‖ and how fast

can the practice of lifelong learning be realized.

Among the searching theoreticians, there are a few who – in the force field of

problems and possibilities – are talking about a pedagogical paradigm shift.

―There are many signs that suggest that in the present period there is a paradigm

shift in school education, whose significance and impact can be compared to

those of the development of mass education in the 19th century.‖ 206 – writes a

Hungarian professor in his study.

The writer of this book – together with others – considers the most important

element of the changes the ―customization‖ of instruction. ―If we had to sum up

in one word the essence of changes, then the most suitable word would be

customization. In many places, we witness the development and try-out of

technologies which can be expected to make possible the customization of

education, that is, that teaching in the world of institutionalized education should

adapt to the personal needs of individual students.‖207

Here we must note that we

are not talking about a basically new invention, since the ideal of customized

205

In his chapter entitled Education, Mann describes how the master, the old Eliézer, teaches the

young Joseph: ―This was a proud teaching, Joseph amused himself greatly.‖ Eliézer knew

secrets, ―which made learning a great pleasure,‖ Due to his methodological multifacetedness,

Eliézer could calm down his pupil and keep his attention unflailing. (―Listen up, […] Make

your mind lucid, sharp and glad!‖); he was able to express his satisfaction and prepare the

reception of additional knowledge with such content ―that is an ornament of the spirit, and is

excellently suitable for preparing the world of the mind for the reception of more serious and

saintly real knowledge.‖ 206

Gábor Halász, Képességfejlesztés, iskolatervezés és pedagógiai paradigmaváltás [Skill

Development, School Design, and Pedagogical Paradigm Shift]. 2005. 207

The expression coined in the English-language futurological trade literature is ―mass

customization.‖

111

learning – and to a much lesser degree, its practice – has always been present in

some form. The difference is that the technological infrastructure of cognitive

habitus is today, in principle, suitable for this ―mass customization.‖ However, a

few sentences of the quoted study appear to be an exaggeration for us: ―We are

expecting changes after which, and looking back on today‘s conditions, we will

say that it is difficult to understand how it was possible to teach in the way we

did for more than a hundred years. Where transition will be successful, that is,

the application of customized technology, adherents of the new method will

soon consider those following the usual solutions (which have been applied

since the development of mass education) in the same way as generals applying

shot guns could have considered those who fought a battle with swords and

lances.‖208

It is true that the author projecting radical change does not exclude

the validity of certain elements of the earlier paradigm and its aptitude for

preservation: ―This is exactly one of the biggest challenges: how can we

preserve those elements of mass education which can also be used in the world

of customization in such a way that they do not form an obstacle to the

inevitable paradigm shift.‖209

On the whole, however, we do not consider well-

founded the necessity of a radical renewal of pedagogical methodology.

Among theorists who wish to renew pedagogy, the idea is often voiced that

pedagogy should be one of the quasi exact applied sciences – in the sense of the

English word ―science.‖ The teachers trained according to the thus renewed

education science, and in the possession of appropriate competence, will develop

in the students the competence required by society. This understanding of

education science – and its practice – as a competence-centered recipe science

appears to us as one-sided and narrowed down. The thinking present in this

understanding is well detectable in the text of the introduction to a publication

summarizing the results of a large scale OECD research: ―Unlike architecture or

medicine, education is still in a primitive stage of development. It is an art, not a

science.‖210

The first problem with this quote is that the analogy is not right.

Pedagogy cannot be compared either to architecture or to medical science. (In

brackets I wish to note here that it is up to anyone‘s discretion how much

architecture has improved since it has become a science.) The real problem,

however, lies in the comparison with medical science, which is completely

different in nature than pedagogy. Medical science – and medical practice – in

essence deals with structures (i.e., pediatrician) that develop according to

complex yet closed, ready-made or determined sequences, with biological

machines, whose operation we know well enough. Medical practice

reestablishes, and keeps up, the original, optimal state of a conservative system.

208

Gábor Halász, op cit. 209

Gábor Halász, op cit. 210

In Understanding the Brain: Towards New Learning Science, OECD, 2002.

112

The subject matter of medical science is Popper‘s first world (material), a

continually developing science – in the science sense of the word – and there are

no obstacles either in practice or in principle to increase our knowledge beyond

any boundaries in this area.211

Unlike medical science, pedagogy is an open discipline, dealing with non-

deterministic systems, and one of its important goals is the facilitation of the

personalized, special, creative development of these systems. Its target is

Popper‘s 2nd

world (or, rather, the mutual interaction of the 2nd

and 3rd

worlds).

Pedagogy has scientific parts – also in the sense of the English word ―science‖ –

but in its entirety it cannot be a science. The difference between the two areas

can be illustrated through the aphorism of Bernd Jenzsch: ―Human evolution is a

long-lasting process. It has reached the shoulders, but we have problems with the

head.‖212

Well, this part above the shoulders is the field of pedagogy, which – in

the sense as H. Aebli formulates it – to our mind will always preserve its artistic

character: Education is a ―high art in which practice psychology can offer some

help, however, the decisive factor is that in concrete situations the teacher should

feel what needs to be done.213

What a researcher dealing with electronic learning

environments can add to this is that beside psychology, information and

communication technology can also render some help.

2.5.3. The relationship of information and communication technology

and pedagogical methodology

The ideas considering the educational application of informatics devices, and

the thoughts referring to the positive perspectives of educational computer use

appeared simultaneously with the appearance of computers, and were wide-

spread already in the 1960s.214

211

If, however, we take into consideration the fact that humans have a specific psychic world, and

this influences the functioning of biological material (the mutuality of mind and body), then

medical science – and especially medical practice – can only be a ―science‖ in a limited sense. 212

―Die Menchenwerdung ist ein langwieriger Prozess. Bis zu den Schultern ist schon geglükt.

Nur der Kopf ist heikel…‖ 213

―Unterricht ist ‗eine Hohe Kunst, in der psychologische Erkentnisse einige Hilfe leisten

können, das Entscheidende aber vom Erzieher in der konkreten Situation eh und je erspürt

warden muss.‖ In Aebli, H., Grundlagen des Lehrens, Stuttgart, 1987, Klett-Cotta. 214

The pioneers of the educational use of new information technology were inspired already in the

1960s by real time computing and time sharing. János Kemény figures among them, who in

the American Dartmouth College created, in 1963, one of the first and best known networks,

providing universal access for the students. Georg Krutzcal developed an easily learnable

program language for it, called BASIC (Aspray and Campbell 1996: Brückner 2001: Marx

2000).

113

Bitzer L. Donald, who with his colleagues created the first experimental

computerized educational system, PLATO 1 (Brückner 2001), wrote in

1969, ―The appearance of the computer means a new technology in the

field of training and education, which will have such a great effect as did

the printing press in its time…. Computers make possible for each

student to advance individually with the course material. Terminals in

the home will bring home training possibilities and knowledge.

Educational computers are the symbol of our society, which has been

turned by it into a learner‘s society.‖ (Fuchs 1969, 7). In a documentary

made in 1968 and dealing with the future use of computers, the leader of

the Department of Education Science of the University of Aachen

explained that he expected that computer use would further

methodological renewal, a more rational education, the increase of

effectiveness, and a more economical operation. (Schmukler 1968).

Also in 1968, one could read about the future educational benefits of

networked computers ―On the other hand, if the network idea should

prove to do for education what a few have envisioned in hope, if not in

concrete detailed plan, and if all minds should prove to be responsive,

surely the boon to humankind would be beyond measure.‖ (Licklider –

Taylor 1968).

We could quote countless further examples. What is common to them is the

often uncritical positive system of expectations concerning the educational role

and effect of information technological tools, which has since been present in an

unchanged form, although it hides behind the rhetoric corresponding to the age

and the newest technologies. The computerization of schools was followed by

the belief and conviction that these devices would significantly improve the

success of learning.215

Among experts, the conviction became almost standard

that the computer could be an ideal ―cognitive medium‖ and its application

would be a promising opportunity in the process of teaching and learning (Ely

1980; White 1984; Kay 1996; Papert 1980, 1993, 1996; Negroponte 1995;

Gardner 2000, and others). From the beginning of the 1980s, more and more

experts thought that we have arrived at a point in the history of education where

radical change is possible, and this is directly connected with the appearance and

215

The future effect of informational and communicational technology devices in society and in

education can seldom be properly estimated. The role of new technologies has often been

overestimated, but it has also happened – much less frequently – that their transformational

potential was not recognized (Starm 1996: Schulmeister 1996, Malone 1997). In 1913,

Thomas Edison believed that the spread of the moving image would shortly make obsolete a

large part of books – perhaps all of them. At the inauguration of the first radio transmitter, in

1926, Herbert Hoover, American Secretary of the Economy, predicted that the American

network of radio transmitters would spread correct and sophisticated language use. David

Sarnoff, the technological chief of RCA opined in 1939 that high-standard television plays will

give a boost nationwide to the country‘s taste.

114

spread of personal computers (Perelman 1995; Papert 1980; Ely 1980; White

1984, and others).216

The computerization of schools became a reality

worldwide from the second half of the 1990s. This is also the age of the

formulation of information society strategies, the development of educational

networks, and the spread of online learning possibilities.217

Today (2008), the

computer became a natural part of learning environments, and it forms an

integral part of the cognitive habitus of today‘s humans. However, the pedagogic

break-through prognosticated by technophile experts has not happened. It

appears that the experts who expected the renewal of education from the

computerization of schools misjudged the pedagogic effect of the technology, as

well as the relational system of information and communication technology and

pedagogic methodology. Everything that has happened in the computerization of

schools worldwide during the past decades appears to support the supposition

that the relationship between technology and pedagogic innovation is strongly

asymmetric. Concerning the success of learning, the methodological culture of

learning and teaching is much more determining than possessing the

technological hardware. Despite all this – in Hungary as well as worldwide – the

spell of technological determinism is as strong as ever.218

If a conception –

consistently contradicted by reality – is so resilient, it is worth examining its

cause. Therefore, in what follows, we will critically examine the motivations and

certain manifestation of technological determinism.

216

―The course material, accreditation, and the concept of division to peer groups are the products

of obsolete modes of knowledge transfer. […] The school is completely determined by the

primitive technologies of the past … The artificial type of knowledge that is called school had

been introduced so that children could get to know things that they could not acquire naturally

in their learning environment. As soon as this necessity disappears, the institution of the school

will also disappear.‖ (Papert, Seymour, ―Transforming and Preserving Education: Traditional

Values in Question.‖ Roundtable discussion Educom Review, vol. 29, no 6, 1994 November-

December. 217

In Finland, they formulated the strategy of preparation for an information society in the mid-

1990s (Finland towards an Information Society), and in 1995, the Finnish Ministry of

Education developed its own program (Education, Training, and Research in the Information

Society: A National Strategy, 1995). In Brussels, a conference was organized in 1996 to

discuss the questions of the implementation of a European electronic school network. In

Germany, the first significant federal program (Schulen ans Netz) for the facilitation of

Internet access was started in 1996. In England, it was in 1998 that the wide ranging National

Grid for Learning was started. The Hungarian Sulinet program was initiated in 1997/98. 218

The newest development (2008) at the level of education control is the expensive ―interactive

blackboard‖ program and the connected progress rhetoric. In the thematic number/special

edition of Magyar Tudomány dedicated to the future, we find a classic example of the

conception of the education revolutionarizing effect of technology – with the newest

informational and communicational terms (András Benedek, Tanulás és tudás a digitális

korban. Magyar Tudomány, 2007/9. (Learning and knowledge in the digital era)

115

Neither decision makers nor researchers are left unaffected by the progress

myth surrounding information and communication technology, created by the

blending of the potential and the real. They too often make the mistake of

equating the existence of Internet connection and rational Internet use triggered

by a realistic need; computer use during class and up-to-date pedagogic

methods; technological access and cognitive access; digitized and e-learning

course material and up-to-date course material; course material element and

knowledge component; knowledge base and knowledge; digital learning device

and efficient teaching; wide-range education technological development and

system level innovation, etc. The data referring to these – whether they be in the

governmental promotion of Sulinet in Hungary (started 1988) or in various

surveys and examination results – can only be indirectly connected – if at all – to

the success and efficiency of the teaching and learning process. It is also crucial

to keep in mind that there is no deterministic connection between up-to-date

teaching, the level of methodological culture, and the ICT saturation of the

learning environment. The fact that the educational systems and learning

environments that today use up-to-date, innovative, successful pedagogical

methods are informatized does not necessarily mean that ICT devices will

automatically make the educational system and its learning environments

innovative and efficient.

In strategic plans and ready strategies, innovation programs, and scientific

surveys we often find sentences that bespeak an unfounded belief in the primacy

of technology. For example, ―In an economic environment that changes

technologically faster than ever, we must continue the wide dissemination of

information and communication technologies on each level and in each form of

education.‖219

As if the following equation was automatically valid: the

implementation of information and communication technologies = success,

effectiveness, up-to-date pedagogical culture.

A good example for the overestimation of the role of technology is Seymour

Papert‘s parable about time travel: Imagine that a group of surgeons and teachers

from the 19th century visited our age. The surgeons would have a difficulty

finding their way in a modern operating room. They would not know what to

make of the ritual of antiseptics and anesthesia, they would feel awkward in the

milieu of strange, blinking and beeping electronic equipment. However, the

teachers from the 19th century would soon feel at home in a classroom, they

would soon understand what is going on, and they might even be able to take

over teaching a class. The reason of the difference: the vivid scientific-

technological development of our recent past has implemented a ―megachange‖

219

―Út a tanuláshoz: Az egész életen át tartó tanulás magyarországi stratégiája.‖ [―A Way to

Learning: The Hungarian Strategy of Lifelong Learning‖] Suggestion for the Government,

2004, original emphasis.

116

in several fields of human activity, while education has remained almost

unchanged (Papert, 1993, 1-2). 220

Papert poses the question: How is it possible

that while a technological revolution has happened in most fields of human

activity, the manner in which we facilitate the learning of our children has barely

changed? Or, in other words, ―If there is a power outage at school and computers

do not work, the usual school process continues almost without disturbance‖

(Wellington 2001). This latter example leads us to the explanation: learning is

less technology-dependent than other fields of human activity, say, medical

science, traffic, or office administration. The most effective learning

―technologies‖ and the cultural technology making possible successful learning

were ―invented‖ a long time ago. Learning is based on personal communication,

and is a characteristically ―low-tech‖ activity. During human learning, in fact, a

kind of biological ―high-tech‖ is operating, whose importance was made

apparent by information technology in cognitive sciences and evolutionary

psychology (Cziko 1995, Pléh 1998, Donald 2001, Tomasello 2002, Campbell

1974 [2001 in Hungarian] and others).

Although natural (and successful) learning is not dependent on technology,

today‘s school is mostly a mechanical technological system.221

One of the

important questions of the future is whether information technology and, in

general, technology will strengthen the mechanical nature manifest in the school

of industrial society or eradicate it. Again, it was Seymour Papert who – as

opposed to the ideas of his above quoted parable – formulated a paradoxical

statement with respect to this: a change similar to medical science is possible

also in the field of education, but while in medical science this development was

brought about by becoming more and more technological in nature, in the field

of education true change will be brought about by the eradication of the

technological, mechanical nature of school learning (Papert 1993, 55-56).222

220

Esther Dyson formulates a similar view in a chapter dealing with the possibilities of education

of her bestselling book that was also published in Hungarian, ―At the end of the 20th century, a

standard office worker has at his or her disposal a number of technological devices that is

larger by orders of magnitude than that of a teacher….most classrooms do not even have a

telephone.‖ Professor Howard Gardner writes the following in the Futurist (March – April

200, 30-32): It is not an exaggeration to claim that school has not changed much during the

past hundred years; if we could miraculously transport a few people from the turn of the

century, they would find familiar the processes in the classroom.‖ 221

It is in this respect that Meyrowitz (1996) quotes the following text from a study by McLuhan

and Leonard (1967), ―Mass education is a child of the mechanical age. It grew up along the

production line. It reached maturity just at that historical moment when Western civilization

had attained its final extreme of fragmentation and specialization, and had mastered the linear

technology of stamping out products in the mass‖ (102). 222

―…technology can support megachange in education as far reaching as what we have seen in

medicine, but it will do it through a process directly opposite to what has driven change in

modern medicine. Medicine has changed by becoming more and more technological in its

117

A peculiar form of technological determinism appears in Kristóf Nyíri‘s (a

Hungarian Philosopher) study, Virtual Pedagogy – the Learning Environment of

the 21st Century [Virtuális pedagógia – a 21. század tanulási környezete]. The

author quotes Dewey when he writes that while in primitive cultures learning

was an organic social activity in a natural environment, the learning environment

of schools is artificial and unnatural (Nyíri 2003, 10). In his view, the Internet

―is unquestionably becoming a kind of organic learning environment.‖223

In the

part of his study entitled Iconic Turn (Ikonikus fordulat) he unambiguously

signals his positive bias towards the new information and communication

technology. This, partly, is manifest in the verbal disqualification with which he

treats the conventional forms of knowledge acquisition and knowledge transfer.

We quote this in its original context, italicizing the expressions that we feel are

discriminating: ―In our days, we witness the weakening of the tyranny of

written-printed text … philosophy has got rid of the nightmare of the idea of

imageless thinking … with the spread of alphabetic writing, the channels of

communication narrowed down … the reception of the image, unlike that of the

text, is not bound by the binds of linearity … the image … is liberated from the

total tutelage of the word … The dominance of the text over the image is

awkward and dubious… because it necessitates the boring-sweaty learning of

abstract contents by heart.‖ Following this, Nyíri refers to Rudolf Arnheim

(1969), who ―stresses the basically imagistic nature of thinking and the excess224

that the image represents against the word.‖ Then he sums up: ―The printing

press is the basis of the science and schooling of the Modern age; but with time

it became a component of their limitations. If it is true that these limitations can

be overstepped most effectively through interactive multimedia, then it is also

true that the virtual learning environment offers real advantages compared to the

conventional one.‖ In Nyíri‘s view, multimedia communication is a return to the

culture of the age before literacy, to the milieu of the ―communication golden

age‖ of an ancient natural lifeworld.

nature; in education change will come by using technological means to shuck off the

technological nature of school learning.‖ 223

In our view, it is improbable that the Internet take over the role of school learning

environments. At present (2008), in our view, the Internet is still in a flexible phase from an

instructional, learning point of view; it is a steadily changing medium, and we cannot know

what the role of the recently appeared applications will be in a few years‘ time, and we have

no idea what new applications are about to appear. Beside this, the role of the Internet, and in

general, that of electronic informational and communicational technology in the field of

teaching, instruction, and learning is significantly influenced by what we consider necessary,

appropriate and desirable. (In this respect, Doug Brent‘s already quoted study contains

important information [―Teaching as Performance in the Electronic Classroom,‖ First Monday,

Volume 10, Number 4, 2005].) 224

Original emphasis in Nyíri‘s text.

118

Nyíri attributed the unsuccessful nature of the Hungarian PISA survey of

2003 to the fact that ―in the past ten years Hungarian society lagged behind the

developed world in the introduction and use of computer networks, which are

the determining communication technology of the present.‖ (16). ―It was

blindness not to see,‖ he continues, ―that this lagging behind will soon have

consequences in the fields of teaching, learning, and culture.‖ Then he goes on,

―We need machines, access, and what is most important, contents, which are

worth accessing. Rich network contents constitute environments in which young

and old learn working: that is, we need organic learning environments.‖

In the conclusion of the study, Nyíri confirms one of his central messages, ―it

appears that the time has come to rethink Dewey‘s thesis. His argument was that

we need schools, artificial learning environments, since the time has passed

when the young learned spontaneously, almost growing into the world of adults.

I believe that this situation is quickly changing today. The milieu in which

children play, communicate, and learn is becoming more and more similar to the

world in which adults communicate, work, make business, and entertain

themselves. The world of the Internet and of mobile phones is obviously

becoming a kind of organic learning environment.‖ In the end, Nyíri sketches

out his ideas concerning the supposed relationship between the humanities and

electronic media: ―the printed text lost its leading role in the past decades among

the communication media. The humanities necessarily gradually turn toward the

new media, and they examine as yet unknown and unexplored communication

modes: the electronically-digitally transmitted sound, the digital moving image,

the changeable, non-linear text, the multimedia, interactive networking. Such

examinations first happen through the tools of old media (the events of

multimedia communication are written down through printing), but more and

more the new multimedia toolkit is used‖ (22).

This ―multimediaphile‖ bias of the discussed writing can be detected in

Nyíri‘s other studies, dealing with the same topic, ―When electric and electronic

media enter the scene against the printed book as the dominant medium of

communication – and especially with the advent of multimedia interactive

networks – the sounding language and imagistic communication will be freed

from the repressed unconscious of the philosophical tradition of the West…‖225

Or ―McLuhan worked during the realm of television, before the appearance of

computer networks; but he had a clear inkling of what we know today: that with

the new media we are witnessing a kind of communication technological return

225

Kristóf Nyíri, ―Túl az iskolafilozófiákon‖ [Beyond School Philosophies]. Magyar Tudomány,

2002/3.

119

– the repealing of a communication technological alienation, the communication

technological liberation of humankind.‖226

We can observe a similar argumentation in Manuel Castells, who writes in

the first volume of his monumental trilogy, ―However, the new alphabetic order

– while it made possible a rational discourse – divided written communication

from the audiovisual system of symbols and sensual perception […] the price we

had to pay for the foundation of the practice of written discourse that we

banished the world of sounds and images to the hinterland of arts and sciences,

to the area of private feelings and the stage of communal liturgy‖ (Castells 1996-

2000/2005, 433). In the title of the chapter – from which we have been quoting –

Castells promises us ―the culture of real virtuality, that would allow the

development ―in front of our eyes of a metalanguage of the order of hypertext,

which for the first time in history will be able to integrate in the same system the

written, oral, and audiovisual modalities of human communication‖ (434)227

We can detect this bias toward imagistic communication made possible by

the new information technological tools in the work of other authors as well. The

American professor of history, David J. Staley, is, for example, expecting the

renewal of the science of history from the new, multimedia-based information

processing.228

In his review of this book (―Is a Picture Really Worth a 1000

Words?‖), Merlin Donald notes ironically that Professor Staley uses prose to

expound on his message as well: . ――We are hard-wired to scaffold all our more

abstract notions of the universe on this foundation… These basic forms cover

even such things as the built environment and its symbolism, as well as custom,

tribal identity, ritual, myth, and belief. There is no way to avoid or circumvent

these things, and who would want to? They are the glory of human life. The text

happens to be the most popular and widely circulated means to build a formal,

publicly edited encapsulation of these basic elements of our worldviews. And we

cannot do without it.‖229

226

Kristóf Nyíri, Bevezetés a kommunikációfilozófiába [Introduction into Communication

Philosophy]. Stúdiumvázlat. URL: http://nyitottegyetem.phil-inst.hu/kmfil/bevkm_long.htm 227

McGuigan comments on Castells‘ prognoses as follows, ―Castells‘s rhetoric here is much

closer to the extravagant hype of new media and Internet entrepreneurs than to a cool

assessment of what is going on in the cultural field…‖ McGuigan, ―Problems in the

Information Age.‖ In Cultural Studies. May 2001. 228

Staley, D.J., Computers, Visualization, and History: How New Technology Will Transform

Our Understanding of the Past, New York, 2003, Armonk. 229

Merlin Donald, ―Is a Picture Really Worth a 1000 Words?‖ In History and Theory. Volume

43, Number 3, October 2004, 379-385.

120

2.5.4. Viewpoints for understanding the information technological

challenge

Nyíri, Castells, Staley and others belong to those scientists who

enthusiastically hail a technological innovation, and deem its effect beneficial

and positive to the whole or a part of society. Others, among them such

significant thinkers as, for example, Jacques Ellul, Nikolai Bergyaiev, Ortega y

Gasset, Martin Heidegger – rather consider the new tools and procedures from a

critical distance or with suspicion, and call attention to their negative effects.230

We have analyzed the technophile-technophobe controversy in numerous earlier

writings (Komenczi 1997a; 1997b; 1999, 2001, 2000). Here we will only touch

upon two features of the issue that we have not sufficiently discussed earlier and

which are important from the point of view of our present study. The first feature

is the critical rethinking of the truly novel nature of technology and of its effect

on everyday life In his oft quoted study, Peter Golding speaks about two types of

technology, which he categorizes as Technology One and Technology Two.231

Technology One is the technology that helps to perform faster and in a more

efficient manner social activity types that were formed in earlier ages.

Technology Two, however, makes possible, and generates, completely new

forms of activity that were earlier undoable, and in cases unthinkable. According

to Golding, the tool kit of information and communication technology belongs to

the category of Technology One. However, telephones, cars, and television

actually transformed the life style of society, and therefore they belong to the

category of Technology Two. So to the question of how new is the new, Golding

answers that it is not as new as its propagators would have it.

As for the second problem, we have already touched upon it when we

examined the possible renewed change of cognitive architecture. In a study –

230

The first group includes, for example, Nicholas Negroponte (Digitális létezés, Budapest, 2002,

Typotext Elektronikus Kiadó, Original title: Being Digital, 1995, Coronet Books), Alvin

Toffler (Jövősokk, a harmadik hullám), Seymour Papert (Papert, S., Mindstorms. Children,

Computers and Powerful Ideas. New York, 1980, Basic Books; The Children’s Machine:

Rethinking School in the Age of the Computer. New York, 1993 Basic Books; The Connected

Family: Bridging the Digital Generation Gap. Atlanta, Longsheet Publishing). The second

group includes Theodor Roszak (The Cult of information: A Neo-luddite Treatise on High

Tech, Artificial Intelligence and The True Art of Thinking. Berkeley-Los Angeles, University

of California Press, 1994), Sven Birkerts (Birkerts, S., The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of

Reading in an Electronic Age. Boston: Faber and Faber, 1994), Neil Postman (Postman N.,

Amusing Ourselves to Death. New York: Viking Penguin, 1984, Technopoly: the Surrender of

Culture to Technology. New York: Vintage Books, 1992; The End of Education. New York:

Alfred A. Knopf. Inc., 1995; Building a Bridge to the 18th Century. New York: Vintage Books,

1999), Lewis Mumford (A gép mitosza, válogatott tanulmányok, Európa Könyvkiadó,

Budapest 1986), and others. 231

Golding P., ―Forthcoming Features: Information and Communication Technologies and the

Sociology of the Future.‖ In Sociology Volume 34. Number 1. 171-172.

121

balancing on the boundary of reality and irony – a new type of humans, ―Homo

informaticus,‖ is mentioned, whose information processing skills exceed those

of Homo sapiens (Mérő 2005). According to the author of the study, the

characteristic feature of the new human is a more highly developed perceptional

ability, and a highly accelerated information processing. As opposed to this

stands the fixed nature of the information processing speed of cognitive

architecture, those ―anthropological constants‖ which determine the operation of

the brain. Although the human brain is highly plastic, this plasticity has its

limits. Therefore, the new, hectic information world can have a detrimental

effect on the operation of the psyche (Pöppel 1999). 232

Besides, the ―Homo

informaticus‖ expression is not a lucky choice; the attribute is not convincing

enough since all Homo‘s (habilis, erectus, sapiens) are also informaticus.

Goldhaber‘s choice of a name appears more suitable, who calls the Donaldian

gradation of sapiens types homo oralis, homo literalis, homo typographicus, and

homo interneticus. In his analysis, Goldhaber convincingly demonstrates that we

need to consider the mostly negative effects of the world of the Internet, whose

system of effects does not create a new species (which is a biological nonsense),

but may seriously reshape the mentality, world view, and thinking habits of the

existing Homo sapiens.233

232

―Wir haben den mythos, demzufolge Fortschritt auch Schnelligheit bedeutet. Und wenn wir uns

wieder die Informationsverarbeitung im Zeitbereich ansehen, dann gibt es das erwähnte

Gegenwartsfenster von ein paar Sekunden. Das kann ich ein biβchen willentlich verkürzen,

wodurch so etwas wie Hektik entsteht. Unn es kann durchaus sein, daβ sich, wenn man

permanent nur solchen gleichsam kürzeren ―Filmschnitten‖ und Infohäppchen ausgesetzt ist,

dann auch die Art und Weise der Sinnenrnahme aus Sprache und Bild qualitative verändern

mag. Ich meine eigentlich, daβ diese Veränderung nicht gerade förderlich sein wird, denn das

Gehirn gibt normalerweise den Takt immer selber vor, und Technologie sollte immer con den

anthropologischen Universalien ausgehen, als Intelligenzverstärker wirken und nicht zu stark

in die Weise der Informationsverarbeitung eingreifen.‖ Pöppel, Ernst: Auf der Suche in der

Landkarte des Wissens, Interview mit dem Münchner Hirnforscher Ernst Pöppel, 1999.

URL http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/2/2651/1.html 233

―H. interneticus has no such sense of fixity at all. Web sites are subject to constant revision,

…no story or argument is final, fixed; neither tale, nor blog, nor text nor Web site has a

canonical form. Games and interactive stories and novels have the same open-endedness; the

more choices the reader or user is offered, the less definitive the structure presented, the less

authoritative the ―author‖ of the tale or game. Like everything else on the Internet, these kinds

of fiction or game exist not in the past but in the present, and therefore they cannot be thought

of as having a true and final form. As we come more fully into the Internet age then, we can

expect that the feeling that events are fated, or that one choice causes a certain outcome will be

much less powerful than now, if present in any form. Gone will be turning points, ‗tides in the

affairs of men, which taken at the flood lead on to fortune,‘ world-historical events, heroic acts

or moments of genius. No author can be thought authoritative, even in regards to her own

story, and indeed, no story is ever really anyone‘s own. Lives, even one‘s own, will not have

the strong arcs of stories; instead being pastiches, collages, mixtures, with no climax either

past or yet to come, no denouement, no outcome, and thus no anticlimax, and no ironic twist

122

With the above examples we would have liked to illustrate that the effects of

new, electronic information and communication technology on society,

education, and learning can be imagined in many ways. We conclude our survey

with the brief analysis of the ideas of two theorists whose ideas – strengthening

and complementing one another – may offer a well-applicable paradigmatic

framework for thinking about the tasks and possibilities of pedagogy. Both

formulated their conceptions in the 1960s, which appeared fairly provocative for

experts of the time, and resulted in vigorous debates. Both attacked passionately

the conventional system of education. The reason for the relevance of their

thoughts today is that their analyses have been proven clairvoyant by the past

decades, and that the creative alternatives furthered in their works are still

attractive and appear realizable, or their realization is observable.

Starting from the beginning of the 1960s, Marshall McLuhan formulated

provocatively his thesis in acclaimed interviews and books that the conventional

book culture will be superseded by a postmodern electronic culture, and that

typographic man will be superseded by the post-typographic man (McLuhan

1962, 1964, 1967, 1969). McLuhan thought that members of the ―TV

generation‖ – since they got used to the easily encoded messages of television –

find it difficult to adapt themselves to the divided, impersonal, and distant goals

of the traditional educational system.234

Since the publication of his first

provocative thoughts more than 35 years have passed, but, to our mind, his

message is more up-to-date than it was at the time of its formulation. The

ineffectuality of school, the lack of its compensating, counterbalancing role

against children‘s everyday virtual media world is an unassailable reality today.

Experts working on the transformation of educational systems have to face this

situation (Postman 1984, 1999; Hentig 2002; Frydman 1999; Werner 1998;

either. We will make choices; indeed life will present an endless series of menu items from

which to choose, but nothing of any great significance will seem to follow from any choice,

just as one does not expect anything other than one‘s momentary pleasure or lack thereof to

follow from what one orders in a restaurant.‖ Goldhaber M.H., ―The Mentality of Homo

interneticus: Some Ongian postulates.‖ First Monday, Volume 9, Number 6 (June 2004), URL:

http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue9_6/goldhaber/index.html 234

―Because education, which should be helping youth to understand and adapt to their

revolutionary new environments, is instead being used merely as an instrument of cultural

aggression, imposing upon retribalized youth the obsolescent visual values of the dying literate

age. Our entire educational system is reactionary, oriented to past values and past technologies,

and will likely continue so until the old generation relinquishes power. The generation gap is

actually a chasm, separating not two age groups but two vastly divergent cultures. I can

understand the ferment in our schools, because our educational system is totally rearview

mirror. It's a dying and outdated system founded on literate values and fragmented and

classified data totally unsuited to the needs of the first television generation..‖ (McLuhan

1969)

123

Gerbner 2001). The spread of the use of the Internet poses newer challenges,

whose understanding has barely started.

McLuhan was well aware of the limitations of an education system based on

literacy, the printing press, as well as the needs of industrial society. He realized

and forecast the challenges of the age of electronic media.235

He described all the

trend-setting standards that we consider today as the basic conditions of modern,

customized education.236

He stressed that education had to be organized around

problems and projects, that the role of the teacher and the student had to change,

and he also called attention to the fact that the information mediating role of the

school is secondary beside its role to show directions, to orient, and to foster

critical thinking.237

His most important contribution to our ―newthinking‖ about

learning is his medium theory, after which we cannot think in the old way about

the relationship of means of communication, society, and humans.238

The other theorist is Ivan Illich, who suggests the abolition of school as a

social institution in his 1970 book, whose title is provoking enough

(Deschooling Society).239

This tenet of his book fired up a debate in 1970 among

those thinking about the future of education. This is the reason why for many

Illich appears even today as a characteristic representative of antipedagogy.

Thinking about the future of electronic learning environments, we are interested

in the solution that Illich suggests as the alternative of the school. This is a new

style of educational relationship between humans and their environment. Illich

believed that against the practice of traditional school, autonomous learning is a

liberating alternative. The respective criteria system can be realized, in his view,

in such a way that we implement a new linkage between the student and the

235

―New educational devices, though important, are not as central to tomorrow‘s schooling as are

new roles for student and teacher. Citizens of the future will find much less need for sameness

of function or vision. To the contrary, they will be rewarded for diversity and originality.

Therefore, any real or imagined need for standardized classroom presentation may rapidly

fade; the very first casualty of the present-day school system may well be the whole business

of teacher-led instruction as we know it‖ (McLuhan-Leonard (1967 24). 236

His most important relevant writings: McLuhan, M, Leonard G.B., ―The Future of Education:

The Class of 1989‖. Look. February 21, 23-24. Classroom without Walls: Explorations in

Communication (Boston, 1930,? Beacon Press. 237

McLuhan M, Leonard G.B., ―The Future of Education: The Class of 1989‖. Look. February 21,

23-24. 238

McLuhan, Marshall, The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man, 1962,

University of Toronto Press; McLuhan, Marshall, Understanding Media: The Extensions of

Man, 1964 University of Toronto Press. 239

He considers this radical solution important because in his opinion the hidden effect of school –

- which is manifest in the organization of the whole of learning environment, the structural

organization of the buildings, the furnishing of the classrooms, the mode of teaching, learning,

and assessment, etc. – shapes young people exiting the school system in such a way that they

not only accept but also consider as natural the irrational organization and functioning of

modern, mechanical, hierarchic society.

124

world, instead of continuing the old practice, in which every educational

program is funneled though the teacher to the student.240

The solution, for him, is

that we need to implement a network of learning liberated and expanded in space

and time,241

through which everyone would be able to share his or her

experience and knowledge with others with similar interests. He ascertains that

most people acquire the larger part of their knowledge outside school; learning

happens mostly unintentionally, almost as a by-product of other activities; it is

not the result of instruction but rather of spontaneous participation in a

meaningful situation. Therefore, a good educational system needs to facilitate

access to available resources at any time for those who wish to learn.

Rereading Illich‘s book, we get a surprisingly vivid view of the philosophy,

argumentation, future image, and targets of today‘s educational networks.242

In

his work, he formulated the anatomy of a comprehensive teaching and learning,

social network system with the foresight of a visionary, with convincing

argumentation based on thoughtful and logical analysis. He imagined this web as

a school substitute, a system that takes over the role of school. By today, the

infrastructural, technological part of the Web imagined by Illich has become an

omnipresent, functioning reality.243

However, the vast majority thinking about

the future of education does not see the alternative of school, but rather a tool

that broadens the possibilities of formal school education and the horizon of

individual knowledge acquisition.244

McLuhan‘s and Illich‘s education philosophical views are important for us

because they assist us in understanding the creative potential of two basic

aspects of electronic learning environments –- to wit, the multi- and hypermedia

symbol world? , and web-based communication –- as well as recognizing the

pedagogic possibilities inherent within them. An integral part of the system of

thinking of both of McLuhan and Illich is the necessity and program of returning

to more social and natural forms of learning. When they formulated their ideas,

240

New links to the world instead of continuing to funnel all educational programs through the

teacher. 241

―Educational webs which heighten the opportunity for each one to transform each moment of

his or her living into one of learning, sharing, and caring.‖ 242

It is even more interesting since Illich only marginally touches upon the then already existing

computer networks in the realization of his plan. (The role of the computer in his work is only

to store and search for the data of people with similar interests; the notification of those

involved happens by mail, and they will contact each other on the phone.) 243

The timeliness of Illich‘s ―educational Web‖ bas been noted by others as well (Hart, 2001) 244

Another notable example of the idea of the web was described by Z. Karvalics László (1999):

Long before the appearance of network culture, in this 1974 book, The Learning Society,

Torstein Husén exactly noted that technology would provide the possibility of new types of

operation for pedagogy and education. His book also exemplifies that prior to the appearance

of a technological device, the ideal of web pedagogy was formulated while thinking about

productive education.

125

they did not have at their disposal either social receptivity or the technological

system of conditions to create a realistic chance for the transformations

suggested by them.. Today, in the developed regions of the world, the reform

proposals aiming at the modernization of education, training, and learning

largely generate their pedagogical innovations within the orbit of the ideas of

McLuhan and Illich. The dominant technological aspect of this transformation is

constituted by the development of electronic learning environments.

126

3. ELECTRONIC LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

3.1. The system characteristics of electronic learning environments

3.1.1. Electronic learning environment

The concept ―electronic learning environment‖ means learning environments

where at the development of the system of conditions of teaching and learning,

electronic information and communication technology devices have a decisive

role. Through a specific interface – as an interactive communication and

information platform – these devices can make accessible well-organized

knowledge contents with the instructions necessary for their acquisition and

together with programs that measure their completion.

These learning environments always have a virtual dimension too, which

means a hypermedia interactive learning assisting information and

communication system245

generated on the screen through a software. When they

use the concept ―virtual learning environment‖ to denote electronic learning

environments, then the goal is to stress this virtual dimension. Also the

expression ―virtual pedagogy‖ is used, this, however – due to its ambiguity –

similar to the term ―digital pedagogy‖ is inaccurate and misleading from a

didactic point of view.

The information resources of the electronic learning environment – due to its

virtual dimension – are partly delocalized. However, these spread out resources

can, in principle, be reached from anywhere and anytime. Due to the

manifoldness and spread of information resources, the so called didactic design

is increasingly important. This constitutes the organization into a system of the

factors of the teaching and learning process, which improves the success of

learning The electronic learning environment secures communication channels

for shared knowledge constructions, as well as for the experts and tutors who

can be contacted for assistance to solve the problems that have emerged during

the learning process.

Electronic learning environments are also called digital learning

environments. The background of this is that the mechanical processing, storage,

modification, and furthering of information happens today largely through the

help of digital technologies. The course material stored in a digital form is called

245

If someone, for example, teaches or learns using the learning management systems Moodle,

CooSpace, or WebCT, she or he is operating within a virtual learning environment.

127

digital or digitized course material; this is where the term ―digital pedagogy‖246

comes from – which, according to many is an unnecessary and misleading

extension of the concept.

Electronic learning environments are not the alternatives of conventional

learning environments and nor are they the promises of an electronic brave new

world against the conventional school. Rather they are a new developmental

phase of historically developed learning scenes, as a result of which their toolkit

is broadened through the new information and communication technology. The

electronic learning environment is today‘s new system of conditions of cultural

transfer; it is a specific cultural ecological niche, a symbol rich cognitive

habitus, in which cognitive resources are almost at an unlimited disposal.

3.1.2. The mesoworld model of the electronic learning environment

The understanding of the role and operation of the mesoworld model of the

electronic learning environment can be assisted by an approach, which conceives

of the scenes of organized learning – and especially school – as a specific

―mesoworld.‖ The mesoworld is a real learning environment, which establishes

contacts between learners‘ ―micro worlds‖ and the outside world, the so called

―hyper world.‖ In this sense, micro worlds constitute the students‘ inner

representations, their psychic system of components, which are given in the

learning process.247

―Hyper world‖ means the broader information environment

of today‘s humans, that artificial universe of symbols, which constitutes our

specifically human ―cultural ecological niche.‖248

246

The effect system of pedagogy is largely of an analogous nature. It is only the denotative

dimension of speech communication that is digital, while the paraverbal, ectosemantic level –

which is significant from a pedagogic point of view – is not. Metacommunication and in

general the mimetic basic level of pedagogy is analogue. If we attribute a role to pedagogy

beyond the development of the cognitive sphere in the development of personal and social

competencies, then the expression ―digital pedagogy‖ is even less accurate. 247

The concept – in a different meaning – is used in several of Seymour Papert‘s writings; he gave

this name to one of his constructivist multimedia learning programs [MicroWorlds]. My

conception – according to which my use of the understanding of the micro world concept is

naturally given – is confirmed by a sentence of Papert‘s, ―In analogy between ideas and

people, microworlds are the worlds of people we know intimately and well.‖ In The Connected

Family. Bridging the Digital Generation Gap, Atlanta, 1996. Longstreet Publishing, 59. 248

The source of the concept of hyperworld is also Seymour Papert. (Hyperworlds are large

worlds of … loose connections. The ultimate hyperworld is the World Wide Web – that great,

exciting and frustrating province of cyberspace. In The Connected Family, op cit.

128

MICROWORLDS

Marconi - constellation

Gutenberg - galaxy

HYPERWORLD

Different learning preferences

Individual experiences

Variable cultural backgrounds

Personal goals and programs

Prior knowledge

Diverse world-views

Neumann - universe

World Wide WebWorld Wide Web

MESOWORLD

Local representatios

Global representations

Media-sphereOPEN LEARNING

ENVIRONMENT

hyperlearning

informal learning

just in time learning

Figure 9. The mesoworld model of the learning environment

In what follows we will examine the individual components of the

mesoworld model and the nature of the relationship between them.

Microworlds249

In this model, the term ―micro world‖ means the sum of the students‘ inner

representations, the inner state of knowledge, ideas, beliefs, skills, which is

always present in the learning process as a gift, and an antecedent. Examining

the cultural evolution of humans and the process of the development of various

cultures, we need to distinguish two fields of cultural representations (system of

ideas) characteristic of humans: personal, local, and group-related, global fields

249

The term ―microworld‖ stems from the conceptual system of artificial intelligence research,

and it describes the small realities that are easy to pass through and get to know and which

were formulated through computer programs. In the areas of education, instruction, and

training, these small, transparent, and controllable worlds (learning program, task, simulation

system, situational practice) make possible the thorough, in-depth, direct acquisition of

knowledge, excluding the disturbing complexity of the ―external world.‖ From the

computerized micro worlds – through generalizing Papert‘s model – we get to the always

given inner state of opening up possibilities, which appears in every learning process as a gift,

an antecedent (Garnder 1999, Nahalka 2002). Further sources of the microworld concept used

by us are neurobiology and historical science (Csányi 1999, Pöppel 1999, Gyáni 2002). From

the points of view of neurobiology and neuropsychology, a microworld is the substantial,

material carrier of individual singularities coded in the brain‘s micro structure; it is a complex

system of neuron networks. According to historical science, a microworld is representative,

since it contains as a microcosm those features, which are characteristic of a social class of a

given historical age (Gyáni 1997).

129

(Csányi 1999, 2006). The individual, local representations form the personal

microworlds.

In the course of cultural evolution, the collectively developed knowledge of

groups of humans grew exponentially. Today the quantity of global

representations exceeds by orders of magnitude the representations that can be

held in a single brain, significantly exceeding the storage capacity of individual

brains. 250

Figure 10. Local representations, Microworlds differences, experiences, knowledge

contents, compentences, learning styles, motivation, personal interests, intelligence,

attitudes, world perspectives, cultural backgrounds

Hyperworld251

In our understanding, ―hyperworld‖ means a full territory of global

representations. It contains all information that has been accumulated in the

course of human history so far, and which has been registered through external

250

Both its global and local representational strategies can be understood as a network, where the

significations appearing through communication need to be understood in relation to the

context. 251

The source of the concept of ―hyperworld‖ is S. Papert. (Hyperworlds are large worlds of

[…]loose connections. The ultimate hyperworld is the World Wide Web – that great, exciting

and frustrating province of cyberspace.) In The Connected Family. Bridging the Digital

Generation Gap. Atlanta, 1996. Longsheet Publishing, 59.

130

sign storage systems.252

This amount of information increases day by day at an

accelerating speed. The ―media sphere‖ is the real time, dynamic, largely

ephemeral information fluctuation of the hyperworld, which is the everyday

accustomed, artificially generated image world, or symbolic milieu, for the

majority of people.253

The information content of the hyperworld can be

compartmentalized on the basis of the physical parameters of ―external symbolic

storage devices.‖ From this aspect, the areas of the information universe are:

Gutenberg galaxy, Marconi constellation,254

and Neumann universe. The first

libraries came to being to be at the disposal of, and make accessible, the global

set of representations called hyperworld in our model. The ideas referring to a

unified, universally accessible planetary information system (various ―world

library conceptions‖) were born in the 20th century, in answer to the

―information explosion.‖255

The best known among these was the ―world brain‖

vision by H. G. Wells, the famous English sci-fi writer.256

At the beginning, no

one thought that these ideas would be realized one day. But the development of

information technology and the creativity of engineers who gave us the World

Wide Web led precisely to the creation of such a world library. The World Wide

Web – today‘s hyperworld and world library – is a hypermedia information

universe, in which the information elements included in the database are

organized into a unity by a hypertext-based associatively working system, which

also presents them in the form of varied and changing dynamic virtual patterns.

Concerning the optimal development of the personal fields of the global set of

representations (micro worlds), it is a foregone conclusion that there is a need

for the organization of carefully selected minimal sets, which make possible the

252

The information universe signaled by the concept of the hyperworld is in principle the same as

Bertalanffy‘s autonomous symbol worlds (Bertalanffy 1971), as well as Popper‘s third world

(Popper 1993). 253

―For large masses of people, virtual culture still only means passive television watching after

an exhausting day.‖ (Castells 1996/2005, 595). 254

It was McLuhan who used the term Marconi constellation in order to denote the world of

analogous electronic media. More recently, this information field has been called by Manuel

Castells McLuhan galaxy, ―in honor of the thinker, who discovered and showed us its

existence as a distinguished mode of cognitive expression.‖ (Castells 1996/2005, 444). 255

Wells H.G. 1938: Bush V. 1945; Licklider, J.C.R. 1965; Berners-Lee, T. 1989, etc. 256

H.G. Wells, the famous English sci-fi writer, popularized in the 1930s the idea of a modern

world encyclopedia, in the manner of Diderot‘s encyclopedia, and he attempted to collect

resources for its realization. In his idea, there is a thought provoking moment according to

which the encyclopedia need not be in the same place, but it ―might have the form of a

network [that] would constitute the material beginning of a real World Brain.‖ To disseminate

the idea of a world library and to collect the money necessary to initiate the project, Wells

embarked upon a reading tour to America. He tried to convince President Roosevelt to support

the plan, however, the time was not right: humankind had other issues on its mind in the years

prior to World War II.

131

access of the contents of the global field.257

In the development of these minimal

sets an important role is played by the mesoworld of the school.258

Mesoworlds

In our model, we call mesoworld the space where the ―pattern sets‖ put

together out of global representations are being built into micro worlds. The

mesoworld is the connecting medium of microworlds and the hyperworld. In the

formal stage of knowledge, the mesoworld of the school is the scene of

transmission of a set of knowledge defined, canonized, and codified by society.

According to the traditional model of knowledge, this is the basic function of

school. However, the mesoworld role of the learning environment of today‘s

postmodern societies is even more manifold than this.

The mesoworld of the traditional school is in general a closed learning

environment. On the one hand, it is closed against the world outside school, on

the other hand – from a pedagogic point of view – it is closed vis a vis learners‘

consciousness contents: it thinks in information inputs, and it is not interested in

what is there in the students‘ heads. As opposed to this, the mesoworld of

today‘s school is an open learning environment. This openness is manifest both

in the manifoldness of students‘ microworlds, and in the complexity of the

―hyperworld.‖ It drags and allows the world into the learning environment, it

prepares the students for ―navigating‖ in the hypermedia system of the World

Wide Web, and it uses as a source the select contents of the global set of

representations.259

The optimal mesoworld is an organized system of developing

effects; it is the place where individual needs and presuppositions are pulled into

the center of the teaching-learning process.

257

―The novelty of today‘s world is created by the fact that with the appearance of network

communication systems, the ―knowing what‖ acquires in principle an unlimited access. Due to

this unlimited access, the basic question is (again) what, of this cheap knowledge, do we need

to place in the user‘s head so that the transferred systems of skills in fact do work.‖ Csaba

Pléh, Tudástípusok és a bölcsészettudományok helyzete: a tudáslétrehozás és tudásfenntartás

problémája. In Világosság, 2001/7-9. 258

Wir können heute überhaupt nicht mehr genügend Informationen in uns seler speichern, um

daraus selektives Wissen zu machen.[…] Ich kann aber – und das ist meiner Ansicht nach auch

die pädagogische Herausforderung der Zukunft – in mir selber von früher Kindheit an Web

einlesen kann, so daß ich begriffiches Wissen und strukturelles oder bildliches Wissen

aufeinander abbilde. Die Kunst der Zukunft wird sein, ein Orientierungswissen strukturell zu

definieren – und zwar so, daß es nicht chaotisch ist – und mich dort hinein dann nach Bedarf

―bedienen‖ zu lassen. Das kann durchaus dann auch durch intelligente Agenten geschehen, die

wissen, was für mich wichtig ist. Aber das erfordert, daß in mir selner eine Wissenslandkarte

definiert ist, die ich benutze, um ausgelagerte Informationen wieder in mich ―einzulagern.‖ 259

The world is also dragged into the learning environment by the students. One of the basic

difference spectrums of the new learning environments is facing this dragged-in world.

132

The mesoworld is the world of personal presence, of face-to-face

communication; it is the shared acoustic space of those participating in the

learning process, where orality dominates. In this medium, the personality-

forming elements of the teacher-student relationship have a fundamental role:

pattern and example transfer, inciting and keeping up the desire to learn,.

The most important ―teaching aid‖ in this medium is the motivated,

intellectually inspiring, exemplary teacher, who – and this is supported by

human ethological research – has to be respected in order to be effective.260

From the mesoworld model of the learning environment follows the change

of the role of the teacher and the student as well. In an open learning

environment, the teacher‘s main task is not knowledge transfer, but the

development of the learning environment, the organization of the learning

process, plus the provision of assistance, motivation, and feedback necessary for

the student. In the course of this, it is especially important to keep up the

selective effect system that facilitates the development of adequate behavioral

and knowledge patterns. The key elements of the methodological tool kit are

those skills of the teacher, which are directed upon the upkeep of dialogues, joint

evaluation and understanding, which assist the compacting of dispersed

information into a unified knowledge system, and which are suitable for the

development of adequate skills, positive attitudes, and value-oriented conduct.261

The role change of the student is primarily manifest in that – entering the

consecutive phases of formal education – he or she has more autonomy in the

development of his or her personal knowledge system; the student assumes a

larger part of the responsibility for the success of her or his learning. For this, the

student has to be able to discover his or her learning preferences, and to

consciously improve his or her learning methods. The student has to learn how

to steer and organize his or her studies, which includes the choice of the path of

the processing of the various topics and the pacing of learning as well. The ever

increasing tool kit of the electronic learning environment aims at helping the

student to reach the furthest possible in the broadening of his or her knowledge

and the development of his or her skills, in accordance with the student‘s interest

and cognitive style.

The mesoworld is also a space for socialization, in which dominant role is

given to the informal relationship of the students, and the ―second publicity‖ of

the class, the hidden curriculum. In the realization of conscious and planned

260

―It is learning-biological knowledge that human children, just as monkeys‘ young, are only

willing to learn from dominant personalities.‖ In Vilmos Csányi, Etológia és társadalom.

Budapest, 2005, Ulpiusz-ház Könyvkiadó. 261

Perhaps the best way to describe the basic methodological competences of the new teaching

role is through the English terms: guiding, scaffolding, coaching, facilitating.

133

effects the various forms of cooperative learning are important, but also in this

case we need to take into account the unplanned, ―byproduct‖-type effects.

The mesoworld of the school plays an important role in the formation of the

norm system and value system of the community, in the formation of those joint

knowledge contents and jointly distributed values, which are indispensable for

the functioning of a democratic society.262

It can be an ideal place to diminish

social differences and inequalities of possibilities. In the development of

personal competencies indispensable for a normal and successful life, the

mesoworld of the school has an outstanding role – and within this, in the

development of personal physical and mental hygiene, and the knowledge and

inculcation of the missing elements of the pro-social263

role models.

3.1.3. The relation system of electronic learning environments

One of the characteristic features of electronic learning environments is their

virtual openness.264

In such learning environments, direct teaching receives a

smaller role; the stress is placed on the creation of the conditions necessary for

individual learning. These conditions are largely manifest in the characteristic

relation system of the mesoworld. From the mesoworld model – thinking

through the new, renewed, and increasing functions and taking into account the

possibilities inherent in information and communication technology – we can

introduce three characteristic interfaces, which make possible the connection

between the school and other systems

1. The interface between the mesoworld and the micro worlds utilizes

the manifold presentational and varied information accessing and rich

interactional possibilities of the computer, as well as its vast storage

capacity in order to individually address the students. The information

and communication technology to a potentially unimaginable extent

provides for the possibilities of customized skill and motive

development (mass customization). If we are able to accept these

262

In the postmodern networked media society, it is an ever increasing problem to uphold the

shared foundation of social understanding. ―Increasingly, differentiated cultural consumption

across social sectors constricts access to common experience, and thus thwarts the shared

interrogation of cultural symbols which is at the core of a social and political order‖ (Golding,

P., ―Forthcoming Features: Information and Communications Technologies and the Sociology

of the Future.‖ In Sociology Vol. 34., No. 1., 180). 263

The expressions is used here as the opposite of antisocial behavior, in accordance with the

understanding of József Nagy (2001). 264

In a European dimension, one of the key elements of the education developmental goals

formulated in the Lisbon strategy is the reorganization of schools into open learning centers

(Lisbon European Council: Presidency, Conclusions, paragraph 26).

134

possibilities, then – according to suppositions – we can expect a strong

improvement of teaching and learning.265

2. The interface between the mesoworld and the hyper world is

constituted by the Internet connection system of the school. It is through

this that the school‘s mesoworld connects to the European virtual

educational space, the media sphere, and the ―virtual world library.‖ It

would be very important to establish communications with other school

mesoworlds – which exists only sporadically today. This is why, for

example, one of the priorities of the education developmental efforts of

the European Union is the support and instigation of such schools‘ e-

twinning, leaning partnerships.266

We are not simply talking about

electronic student correspondence and holiday exchange trips, but,

rather, about the shared learning that can be implemented through the

new system of tools, which –most probably – will form an integral part

of schoolwork in the near future worldwide.267

In the multilingual and

multicultural world it is difficult to overestimate the importance of such

connections from the point of view of language acquisition,

communication abilities, and, in general, the development of social

competences.

3. The interface between the mesoworld of the school and the family

learning space (the student‘s private home mesoworld) may enrich with

several new possibilities the tool set of pedagogy, and may also expand

learning possibilities. The permanent electronic connection of the family

and the school make possible a better fit between home and school

learning.268

From this point of view, we find interesting the result of a Delphi-Sheer

research269

conducted in 2002 in innovative schools. Within the

framework of the research, we asked for an opinion about the novel

265

―Today technology allows a quantum leap in the delivery of individualized services‖ (Gardner

1999, 88). The meso world open toward learners‘ micro worlds is an organized learning

environment in which we can consciously build upon the effects of the so called ―hidden

curriculum‖ and, with it, the informal, incidental, and random methods of learning. (Tamás L.

Szabó 1984). 266

Barcelona European Council. Presidency conclusion, 44.§ –- Report from the commission to

the council on using the internet to develop twinning between European secondary schools.

Brussels, 2002., COM (2002), 283. 267

―Structural learning ties in a multimedia environment that is both multilingual and

multicultural‖ (3). 268

Lately, the interest of more and more researchers extends to this area. Even the title of a

comprehensive research program is worth paying attention to: Exploring the Secret Garden:

The Growing Importance of ICY in the Home (Wellington 2001). 269

Bertalan Komenczi: The Development of Informatized Learning Environments. Ph.D.

Dissertation, 2003.

135

forms of the relationship between the school and the home in such a way

that on a three-value scale, +1 meant completely positive evaluation,

while –1 was the completely negative evaluation. As seen from the

summary graph, the average of answers was shifted to the negative field

only on one occasion. The rejected idea was as follows: The parents can

observe their children‘s school activity through digital cameras. This

result unambiguously marks that teachers insist on preserving their

complete sovereignty in the class. This can be understood positively too,

since the phenomenon of the ―glass bell of the class‖ formulated by

László Németh constitutes the protection of the intimate togetherness of

the teacher and the students. At the same time, it is indisputable that new

forms of the occasional opening up of the class (beyond class visits)

would provide many important feed-back information possibilities for

the optimization of the teaching and learning process.

Graph 3. The evaluation of the effect of the events, the ten separate events, the average

figures of the received values

3.1.4. Conclusions gained from the mesoworld model

The mesoworld model points to the modification of the role of the school.

One of the new features of today‘s modern learning environments is the

acceptance of the fact that a significant part of knowledge is not acquired at

school: as a result, the primary function of the teacher is not information

transfer. The students arrive at school in the possession of information, attitudes,

136

and behavioral patterns acquired in the family mesoworld and the early virtual

learning environment of the screen (television). In addition, this information

universe brought by the students is not only casual and heterogeneous but ill-

organized, often in a distorted structure. This is one of the reasons why content-

transmitting learning, built on an inductive logic, does not work, or only very

poorly, in the majority of cases. Consequently, one should pay equal attention to

the selection and correction of the already existing knowledge contents as to the

inputting of new knowledge contents!270

It is in this that the constructivist aspect

of the problem-centered learning environment of the mesoworld model reveals

itself most prominently.

The mesoworld model accentuates the new features of the teacher. As the

heterogeneous media sphere, of a questionable quality, constitutes the permanent

and in most cases dominant cultural environment of the student, the teacher

should pay extra attention to the correction of inner world models, distorted also

by media effects, as well as to the development of the ability to critically

evaluate media contents. We need the development of a new set of skills, a

media competence understood much more broadly than before, and here the key

role goes to the teacher. In order for the teacher to play this role, it is not enough

to acquire the competence system of the teacher‘s profession. One would need a

high level of cultivation and a huge amount of information.

The mesoworld model exposes the difference between today‘s knowledge

and the knowledge ideal of yesteryear. We should facilitate the development of

inner knowledge cultures that are suitable for the ―download‖ of knowledge in

the network. Therefore, the real challenge facing educational systems is the

structural definition of orientational knowledge – and the facilitation of their

interiorization – which are necessary for orienting oneself and successfully

navigating in a hyperworld. Besides – extending to an ever increasing proportion

of the population – we need to fit into the basic organization of the personality

such qualities as tolerance, empathy, the ability of cooperation, innovative skills,

the inclination to take risks, the ability of self-control, and a value-oriented

personal autonomy that emanates positive energy to the environment.

The interpretation of the learning environment as a specific mesoworld

diverges on several counts from the conventional system-oriented model of

education.

The mesoworld model is of a holistic nature, and it examines the coordinated,

connected components according to what real mutual effects we need to account

for, and what relations we need to strive to develop. In the mesoworld model, the

270

The philosophical-epistemological understanding of the process is given by Popper‘s

falsification method (Popper 1972), while the bases of neurobiology can be understood

through the processes of neuronal selection (Changeux 1982/2000).

137

dominant information inputs arrive from the hyperworld, and the mechanism,

which in the conventional systems Báthory‘s model stands for the

implementation of the goal and content system of the teaching-learning process,

is only secondary, and is of a correctional nature. The conventional system

oriented model of the teaching and learning process – despite its progressive

elements271

– stays within the traditional, school-, instruction-, and curriculum-

centered, pedagogical paradigm. Contrary to this, the mesoworld model departs

from the ―delocalization‖ of the learning environment, and the multidirectional

extension of the learning process, emphasizing that school is only a medium-

well embedded, dubiously effective information and correctional system

between a vertical and a horizontal information universe.

3.1.5. The communication-centered view of the electronic learning

environment

Teaching and learning can be understood as a specific form of

communication.272

Thinking in this relational system we need to depart from the

fact that – both in the form of symbols and indexical and iconic effects – we are

surrounded by a mass of information and – to an earlier unimaginable extent –

communication possibilities expanded too. The basic role of the school

mesoworld is to facilitate orientation in this world of information overload and

over-communication. Inseparable from this is the utilization of the new set of

possibilities in school communication that develops new skills, and which

shapes personality. The mesoworld of the school is a space of exchange where

the teacher attempts to organize into a developing effect system the diverse

contents of various communication media – for the maximization of learning and

the effectiveness of personality development. The basic principle is: the

development, with the least possible content, of the most possible skills, and

their inducement to an optimal level – keeping in mind the development of the

system of learning motives, metacognition, and learning strategies.

271

―It strengthens the embedding of differential learning theory, the development of school and

teacher autonomy, and the liberalization and decentralization of curricular control‖ (Báthory

1997,) 272

―We cannot only say that social life is the same as communication, but also that all

communication (and, thus, all real social life) has a teaching-educational effect. The receiver

of communication is a participant of an expanded and modified experience.‖ Dewey, J.,

Democracy and Education. New York, 1915, Macmillan.

138

Learner

Written material

TeacherTeacher

Peer

Non- interactive electronic

media

Interactive electronic

media

The role of the teacher

convergence

TutorInstructional designer

Redesigning the communication-pattern of the learning environment

Figure 11. The communication-centered model of the learning environment.

The above figure may be considered as a possible system oriented model of

an electronic learning environment. We will sum up the key elements of the

model as follows:

1. The center of the communication system is occupied by the student.273

If we manage to help the student to acquire a system of independent

learning ability and motives, then the student will become capable of

feeding into his or her knowledge system an optional circle of

knowledge contents – to the extent of her or his interests and needs. In

the meanwhile, it is inevitable to thoughtfully select those contents that

will make possible the personal utilization of the information universe.

273

John Dewey writes about this: ―I may have exaggerated somewhat in order to make plain the

typical points of the old education: its passivity of attitude, its mechanical massing of children,

its uniformity of curriculum and method. It may be summed up by stating that the center of

gravity is outside the child. It is in the teacher, the test-book anywhere and everywhere you

please except in the immediate instincts and activities of the child himself. On that basis there

is not much to be said about the life of the child. A good deal might be said about the studying

of the child, but the school is not the place where the child lives. Now the change which is

coming into our education is the shifting of the center of gravity. It is a change, a revolution,

not unlike that introduced by Copernicus when the astronomical center shifted from the earth

to the sun. In this case the child becomes the sun about which the appliances of education

revolve; he is the center about which they are organized‖ Dewey, J.: The School and the Life of

the Child. New York, 1959.

139

2. In the organization of the communication effect system of the school, the

most important source of system organization is the teacher. The teacher‘s

mental representations are such associational simulation systems, which –

considering the prehistory and potentials of the micro worlds – plans and

facilitates the communication network of books, journals, films, workbooks,

softwares, web sites, etc., and the interactions and mutual correspondences

between students. In order for this activity to be efficient, the teacher needs to

be well-educated and respected.274

The teacher needs to be aware that his or her

most important role is the reorganization and fine tuning of the communication

system of the learning environment, and that in this system she or he is not the

main channel of information.275

3. In electronic learning environments we can observe the ever growing

dominance of the interactive electronic medium, the ―computer,‖ more

precisely the ―outlet‖ through which we connect up to different data

bases and communication networks. This ―outlet‖ serves as a wide-range

access to contents of the most diverse modality; it integrates non-

interactive electronic media; it makes possible varied interactions, and is

an indefatigable tutor. Beside, it is a universal communication device,

which lends a new dimension to all ―conventional‖ communication

forms, making possible new forms of communication with peers and the

teacher. Today it is a common view that the central role of the machine

in teaching and learning processes is on the increase.276

274

In our opinion, the trends of the transformation of the profession of the pedagogue and

the modification of the ideal teacher make difficult not only the acquisition of the

necessary cultivation and its maintenance, but also the development of the

respectability indispensable for exerting an effect. 275

The dotted line means both the teacher‘s immediate learning environment organizing

activity and his or her indirect effect upon students, colleagues, and parents,

including the effect exerted upon the media sphere. 276

The strong symbiosis of humans and the computer is the reality of the near future;

Some people think that in the course of the organization of learning environments we

need to take account of teaching and learning humans as well as teaching and

learning machines. According to these people, the organization, transfer, and

elaboration of the necessary knowledge contents will need to be optimized not only

for humans but also for human-machine systems. In a lecture, Benő Csapó (a

Hungarian Professor of Education) argued the following, ―We need to count on a

special symbiotic knowledge: humans and their computer constitute a special

learning system and an effective problem solving system. […] We need to think

through the whole thing in a new context, not in the relationship of the learning

human but that of the human-machine symbiosis.‖[―The Role of information

technology in the development of well-organized knowledge‖] Lecture. Informatics-

Pedadogy-Internet, regional conference, Pécs 1999.]

140

4. In an electronic learning environment communication with peers

receives a new dimension. The information and communication systems

connecting to global tele-communication networks – as the alternative or

supplement of personal, face-to-face communication – offer a rich

assortment of synchronous and asynchronous communication forms. The

exchange of information and cooperation for learning partners at a

distance is made possible through e-mail, voice-mail, chat rooms,

forums, and video-conference. Virtual learning connections can be

developed: the human dialogue of the students among one another as

well as with a teacher, a tutor, or an advisor may leave the shared

acoustic and physical space of personal togetherness, thus making

possible the joint learning and problem solving of individuals situated

randomly in different places (virtual student communities). There are

people who see the promising beginnings of a new teaching and learning

culture in the cooperative learning realized through the tool kit of the

network communication.

3.1.6. Conclusions derived from a communication-centered model

The information processing abilities and reality capturing psyche of today‘s

humans have developed through the mutual system of evolutionary processes of

diverse pace and intensity. Biological evolution ended more than a hundred

thousand years ago; but our brain structure, and our basic cognitive architecture

have not changed since the late Pleistocene. It is highly probable that in the

course of cultural evolution, already 50 thousand years ago the flexible form of

speech was developed that made the human brain suitable for fine

representational and simulation operation, and effective communication. The

origins of writing go back 5 thousand years, the printing press is 500 years old,

while the appearance of the computer and networks are barely 50 years old.

These latter processes are the results of the synergy of technical-technological

and cultural evolution.

As we explained in Chapter 1, in the process of becoming humans, or during

our cultural and psychic development, the decisive factor was a specifically

human world view connected to mimesis and speech communication. For

generating and understanding speech, we need the operation of the human brain,

which is the most complex apparatus of the known universe.277

With the

invention of writing and the spreading of reading humanity acquired a real

intellectual force. Literacy played an important role in the development of the

―architecture‖ of thinking characteristic of today‘s humans and today‘s methods

277

Although in the first, romantic phase of artificial intelligence research it was thought that the

construction of computerized systems that understand speech was close at hand, this is still to

happen, and possibly a long time will need to pass before the appearance of a system that is

equal to the performance of the human brain.

141

of knowledge acquisition and knowledge transfer. The computer includes the

results of the information- and communication-technological developments of

the past 150 years. We are able to model, algorythmize and realize through

computer software more and more partial operations of the human brain. The

automatic signal processing performed by computers supplements human

symbol processing, but this machine is able to integrate other media as well

(multi- and hyper-media based information organization).

From the communication-based system model of the learning environment

we can discern a teaching and learning media pluralism. Mimesis,

metacommunication, articulated speech, and phonetic writing (the first and

second articulation of language) are the tools of effective interpersonal

interaction of creative, innovative humans, thus, we can justly suppose that these

need to be given priority during the organization of learning environments. In

young childhood, the dominance of mimetic speech communication is desirable

– supplemented with the forms of mimesis abstracted into art. In the operation of

the school learning environment and in the coordination of classroom activities,

speech is the central medium. Dialogue and discussion play an important role in

the understanding of the multilayered medium effects and in personality

development as well. In the formation of cognitive competences and in the

development of media competence in a broader sense reading needs to be given

the leading role – according to concurring opinions based on several

examinations. This view is supported by the experience that only well-read

people are able to contextualize, understand, and judge contents transmitted

through the media.278

In general, we may not be very much mistaken if in the course of our

facilitation of the child‘s development we base our activity on the order of

human cognitive evolution. In early childhood, computers may be used in the

learning environment as a support of speech communication, and later as a

medium facilitating the development of reading and writing skills – however,

their use is not at all necessary. At the same time, as an infrastructural

background technology, the computer is an indispensable, integral part of

learning environments. In later phases of formal education, in non-formal

trainings and informal knowledge acquisition, the networked computer plays

today a decisive information transferring, interactive tutoring, and

communication role.

278

It is difficult, if not impossible, to foresee the role of the computer in the near future. As a

universal medium, it may become such an excellent intermediary device in direct speech

communication and reading that it will later make superfluous this strict distinction.

142

3.2. Information and communication equipment in an electronic

learning environment

At the beginning of the 21st century, information and communication

technological devices play the following basic roles in the learning environment

of the school:

− System organizing function

− Information mediating function

− Communication function

Within the learning environment, the separate functions cannot be

distinguished sharply and unambiguously. Many believe that together they form

a significant transformational potential, which will result in the change of the

organizational culture of the school, and the spread of a new theory and practice

of teaching and learning. Some people expect the new information and

communication technologies to change from the inside the heretofore

unchangeable, rigid, conservative world of the school.279

However, current

experiences show that for the renewal of schools it is not enough to transplant

the electronic information technological devices into the learning environment.

We need a well-thought through pedagogical innovation, which supposes a

leadership devoted to change and teachers ready and capable of implementing

innovations.

3.2.1. The system-organizational function of information and

communication tools

The system-organizational function of the informatics infrastructure is

manifest in the upkeep of the daily organization of the school. This function

constitutes the infrastructural background of school administration, financial

management, planning, organizational and organizing processes, but here

belongs the management of the school‘s information relations, its

communication as well. We can offer a broader, more comprehensive

understanding of the system-organizational function. This understanding –

beyond the functions listed above – includes the optimization of the information

interactions of the learning environment that mediate learning, develop

279

―I believe that with the help of the computer we will be able to change the extra-scholar

learning environment in such a way that a great part of the knowledge – if not the whole – that

schools today try to inculcate at great pains, at great cost, and at times unsuccessfully, will be

learnable painlessly, successfully, and without organized education, in the same way as a child

learns to speak. Obviously, this also implies that schools, at least in their present form, will

have no place in the future. It is, however, an open question whether they will be able to adjust

or whether they will whither away and something else will take over their role.‖ (Papert,

1988.)

143

competence, and form personality.. This interpretation of the system-

organizational function includes, so to speak horizontally integrates, also the

information managing, communication, and personality forming functions that

will be discussed below.

3.2.2. The information mediating function of information and

communication tools

The basis of the information mediating function of information and

communication technological devices is constituted by connected information

sources in global and local information networks. On a computer hooked up to

the network, we can access information made accessible in databases situated

anywhere around the world. The web is a steadily widening world library, which

– in principle – allows access to humankind‘s entire cultural heritage.280

Beside

this, it makes accessible information referring to the near past (news, actualities,

etc.) and – digitizing in real time its information extracted from the environment

– it is suitable for mediating events happening in the present. For schools it is

especially promising that the system has an evolving characteristic which allows

it to mediate information necessary for the development of the most varied

knowledge contents in the form of interactive multi-medial learning programs.

In the not too distant future these learning contents will be appropriately suited

to the ―microworlds‖ of individual students. The real break-through will be the

appearance of ―intelligent‖ systems able to measure individual mental

preferences and preconditions, in addition to being ready for micro adaptation.281

However, even the simplest program may be useful as a tool that assists,

motivates, and enriches learning, if it is available and if used properly.

The information providing function of information- and communication

technical devices reshapes even the inner, sovereign information world of the

school. The well-structured data bases of the schools may provide up-to-date

information to the school‘s clients (parents, teachers, course-participants),

colleagues, cooperative partners and anyone who is interested in the school. The

subject matters, course material, teachers‘ explanations, the most recent

homework and the aid materials necessary for its completion, as well as grade

sheets available for the parents that can be accessed through the home page

280

We need to distinguish between two forms of access. Technical access – in the function of the

resources at disposal – can be made available quickly and to the desired extent. Cognitive

access – that is, the formation of knowledge, skills, values and attitudes necessary for locating

and understanding relevant information –However, the situation is far from being this simple. 281

The creation of software that is able to adjust to the cognitive aspects of the personality, and

which make possible self-directed, self-paced learning is a hugely work-intensive process, and

the truly effective systems require a mechanical ―intelligence‖ that is not available as yet.

However, this situation may change faster than we can imagine.

144

constitute only a small, although determining, segment – considering the

essential function of the school – of the possibilities and problems at hand.

Every school needs a real social space where students and teachers have

access to information sources that supplement textbooks, workbooks, and test

sheets. Such an environment needs to provide opportunity for individual

information and knowledge gathering, and learning. This space is the school

library, where beside the conventional information carriers one has access to the

World Wide Web, and the virtual information array of the school‘s electronic

databases. An up-to-date school library – as a learning source center – may offer

significant help to the students to acquire the basic information searching,

understanding and processing competences.

3.2.3. The communication function of information and communication

tools

Perhaps the greatest promise of the new technology is the communication

function. This provides a new foundation and makes more comfortable and

effective the conventional, everyday communication relations of the school. It

makes possible certain solutions which earlier would have been unthinkable in

the system of relations between school and student, school and family, school

and maintenance, school and authority, school and professional provider, etc.

With the use of electronic info communication devices, completely new horizons

have opened up in the organization of the learning process as well. The school

may become an open source center which is able to get in touch with any part of

the world. The teachers and students of different places can work on joint

projects and can form virtual learning communities: ―virtual mobility‖ may

become natural for students and teachers. The network forms of teacher-teacher,

teacher-student, and student-student communication will reshape the school‘s

inner communication system.

3.3. The basic forms of electronic information management

At the beginning of the 21st century – as a result of the information revolution

of the past decades – we are surrounded by a multitude of information storage,

information processing and mediating devices, and we have at our disposal

manifold and wide-range information services. The significance and central role

of information have become known in a wide circle. The foregrounding of

information is shown in new concepts, which spread in the past decades, and

which mark the areas of knowledge, professions, activities dealing with

information, as well as the age of information itself: information science,

information theory, informatics, information culture, information literacy,

145

information management, information broker, information advising, information

revolution, information capitalism, information society, etc.

The earlier unimaginable performance of the tool systems of information

processing and communication makes possible that the rigid, hierarchic social

subsystems be transformed into flexible, controlled subsystems with immediate

feedback, which can bring about a significant increase in efficiency. This is

especially obvious in the operation of certain sectors of the economy, where

information has become the most important resource, and where the clever use

of information and communication technology has contributed to the higher

efficiency of the operation of material and energy networks.

As a result of information increase, the cultural environment has also

undergone a serious change. The symbolic environment of today‘s humans has

become hugely heterogeneous, and the earlier typographically dominated

symbol world has been transformed into a multimedial one as our senses are

bombarded by a wide variety of information of distinct modality. The

emblematic surface of the new information environment is the screen, which

displays for us visually understandable symbols and icons about the underlying

information streams and interactions. This surface is also the point of entry of

the virtual dimension of electronic learning environment.

The exponential increase of information made necessary the creation of new

information management processes. In order to orient ourselves in the changing,

ephemeral hardware and software worlds, we need organizing principles.

Becoming conscious of the basically new forms of information management

may be one of the organizing principles necessary for orientation. We can

identify four such basic technologies of information management: database and

search engines, hypertext, multi- and hypermedia, and the World Wide Web.

These constitute the information organizing background of icon and symbol

combinations generated on the surface of the screen.

3.3.1. Databases and search engines

The foundation of the new information systems is constituted by databases

and their search engines. The database‘s primary function is to store information

in the form of a well structured, systematically organized heap of data. The

structuring of information according to various data models is basically an

information management process. Structuring serves the purpose of the fast

search of data. In a broader sense, the phone book, a handbook, a printed product

catalogue or a lexicon are also databases. However, electronic, digital databases

have characteristics that greatly exceed the possibilities provided by

conventional, paper based databases. We can truly appreciate the possibilities

146

provided by electronic databases if we compare these with the limitations of the

paper based information systems.

A database existing in the form of a book is a closed, final system: we need a

new edition if the data contained in it needs supplementation or modification.

Compared to this, in principle, an electronic database never becomes obsolete, it

continually provides the most up-to-date information – if we refresh it regularly.

The database in book form can be searched only limitedly, according to the

index, glossary, table of contents based on the categories determined by the

author, or through a slow and tiring browsing. As opposed to this, from a digital

database we can call up information on the basis of variable search criteria, the

various categories can be searched jointly, and all this happens incredibly fast,

literally with no delay. The various databases can be connected with one

another, which further increases the number of the possible search criteria. The

information gleaned from the databases can be displayed at will: they can be

printed out, put into a document, or forwarded electronically. All these qualities

make databases the basic information organizing systems of information

societies, which systems have also a determining role in electronic learning

environments.

3.3.2. Hypertext

Hypertext is an electronically generated text, whose elements – if the user

activates these – can automatically call up newer texts on the basis of predefined

relations (link, jumping point, anchor text, hot word). Certain words of the

hypertext system (information elements) serve as links to another information

unit, which displays further information referring to the prior information while

being logically connected to it. The primary text appearing on the surface of the

screen is at the same time an entry to a potentially infinite information

universe.282

We may also say that hypertext is a non-linear medium between text

and knowledge set. Thus, during the reading of hypertext – without leaving the

surface – we can exit from the text, we can enter other texts, and in the

meanwhile we have the possibility to decide which way we want to proceed. In

the information system formed on a hypertext basis, in principle, an unlimited

282

The conventional text is composed of units arranged along a linear, rigid sequence in a one-

layered, two dimensional physical structure. It has a beginning and an end, a beginning, middle

and a conclusion. The reader gets to know the content of the text word by word, sentence by

sentence, page by page, paragraph by paragraph. The same is true for sound tapes and films

with the further limitation that the access of the separate elements of information strung up on

a fixed time axis can happen through the forward and backward movement of the material and

with an uncomfortable and time consuming positioning. In this case, the linearity and rigid

sequential order of the units is even more obvious.

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number of thematic and sequential possible choices is available according to the

interest and goals of the user.283

3.3.3. Multimedia and hypermedia

Multimedia is the system of information of various modalities integrated on

the screen. Multimedia systems are characterized by the following:

1. The synchronous and consecutive asynchronous uses of the various

medium types is realized on a unified display platform

2. The storage, processing, and display of the data is based on the use of

digital technologies

3. The perfection, speed, and complexity of display is made possible by

high performance microprocessors (computer integration).

4. The user is in a dialogue with the system, in the course of which he

or she is able to influence the working of the system; he or she can

elicit effects and evoke contents (interactivity).

5. The evocation of information elements is also possible in a non-

linear way (hypertext).

Multimedia programs employ basically visual and acoustic elements. The

data carrier and mediating channel may be a magnetic plate, an optical

information storage, and an on-line service. To display visual effects, we have

the screen or the projector, while the acoustic output devices are headphones or

speakers. Interactivity is made possible by input regulating-service devices and

electromechanical or electronic devices (keyboard, mouse, microphone, video

camera, touch screen, etc.). Obviously in the fields of virtual reality (VR) and

augmented reality (AR) further input and output units will appear.

Hypertext and multimedia are new basic forms of organizing information,

which diverges from earlier methods. These information organizational

technologies can be applied together too. In such cases, in the hypertext system

we find information units that are coded differently from text units (video

sequences, animations, graphs, images, speech, music, sound effects). In this

case we are talking about the combination of multimedia display and hypertext;

this is where the name originates: hypermedia = hypertext + multimedia.284

283

Of course, the rigid, linear structure of the conventional text can be broken up by footnotes,

references, and other supplementary parts. While reading we can at will exit the text‘s rigid

space and time determination. It is also important to note that during the mental representation

of conventional texts and media hypertext-like complex structures, hierarchic relations are

formed. All, this, however, does not change the above sketched rigid, linear structural

organization of information coded in printed texts. 284

The hypertext based information management system may connect (hypermedia) information

elements of different coding (documents and document segments). In this case, following the

148

3.3.4. The Internet and the World Wide Web

The first experimental computer network was created in 1969. With this an

evolutional process started, which resulted in today‘s Internet. The physical

infrastructure of the Internet contains the wire system connecting the computers

(and the wireless data transferring systems) and the routers that control the

information flow. The concept of the Internet contained several revolutionarily

new and unusual technical solutions as compared to the thus far applied

communication infrastructure. Its network topology is completely decentralized,

as opposed to the conventional, centralized, or partly decentralized

communication networks. The architecture of the network is open, this makes

possible the free selection of the structure of the connecting networks. The third,

the then most revolutionary solution was the application of the so called

―package connection‖ information transfer instead of the conventional analogue

telephone line connections.

The World Wide Web that determines the present facet of the Internet is

based on the idea of Tim Berners-Lee, who, as a researcher of CERN in Geneva,

proposed in 1989 the creation of a hypertext-based information system, which

would be able to manage on a unified graphic surface the information

―dispersed‖ on computers spread over many locations.285

Utilizing the

communication protocols of the appropriate network

infrastructure, and complementing and integrating them through hypertext

applications, Berners-Lee designed a completely new system of information

management and communication. The key elements of the system are the

acronyms well known for all Internet users: http; www; html; URL.

The basic unit of www is the web page. Web pages contain texts and figures

as well; on their surface we can display moving images in smaller or larger

windows, animations, and video sequences too. The system is able to transfer

and replay sound and films as well. Certain parts of the web pages (links) refer

to other pieces of information, which may be found in the same context but also

in the database of another computer, anywhere in the world. These hyper

references consist of two parts: a text or graphics and ―behind‖ them a title or

Latin meanings of texere, texturm (weave), textus (weaving, text), textilis (woven) we are not

talking about a text but about the texture of information elements. 285

―The current incompatibilities of the platforms and tools make it impossible to access existing

information through a common interface, leading to waste of time, frustration and obsolete

answers to simple data lookup. There is a potential large benefit from the integration of a

variety of systems in a way which allows a user to follow links pointing from one piece of

information to another one. This forming of a web of information nodes rather than a

hierarchical tree or an ordered list is the basic concept behind HyperText.‖ T. Berners-Lee (R.

Cailliau, World Wide Web: Proposal for a HyperText Project. Genova, CERN, 1989. URL:

http://www.w3.org/Proposal.html

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command that tells the browser software the protocol and the computer and

library from which the information can be downloaded. If we activate the link

(click on it), then another web page appears on our screen – from which we can

at will jump further on into any computerized database connected to the Internet.

The World Wide Web is a globally unified information system, which

integrates, at an increasing measure, the earlier information and communication

systems. From an information technological perspective, it is nothing other but

the integration of a hypertext-based information organization, a multi-media

presentation, and an Internet-based communication system. We call this new

―multi-dimensional‖ information universe ―hyperspace‖ or cyberspace. The

information content of the system may in principle grasp the entire knowledge

supply of humankind collected up to the present moment. Because of the

complexity, immense information content, and unconventional organizational

structure of the World Wide Web, it is especially important how we can access

and call up the various information units technically and mentally. In

cyberspace, we need to find a new method of searching for the information in

databases. We need to learn in what way, and with the use of what tools and

methods we are able to access the contents important for us.

The communication and co-operation possibilities of the World Wide Web

steadily broaden, developing a system of options for human connectivity and

collaboration that would have been unimaginable earlier. The conception of the

World Wide Web is more than the elaboration of a new, inventive

communication software. The hypertext based information system of the World

Wide Web is a new, integrative, comprehensive cultural technology, which

reshapes all segments of the symbol using activity of humankind. The Internet

and the World Wide Web make possible those virtual activities, which keep in

operation and shape the entirety of global information society.

3.4. World Wide Web and education

The utopia of the social networks of teaching and learning – suggested by

Ivan Illich in his 1970 book as an alternative to the school286

–- became in

principle realizable with the appearance of the Internet and the World Wide

Web. Diverging from Illich‘s original and often disputed idea, we do not see in

today‘s networks the alternative of modern mass education and the traditional

school, but a system of tools that gives a technical framework to new forms of

teaching and learning, and which makes possible the renewal of large systems of

education and the operation of the various institutions. At the same time, the key

elements of Illich‘s network utopia: the new relationship between the learning

286

Illich, Ivan, Deschooling Society, 1971, Harper & Row.

150

human and her or his information environment, the spatially and temporally

liberated network of the possibilities of learning, the on-demand access to

teaching sources, peers, and experts – these are the realistic and broadly realized

possibilities of today‘s World Wide Web.287

The World Wide Web constitutes

the virtual dimension of electronic learning environments.

For institutions dealing with education and training at the beginning of the

21st century, one of the indelible challenges is the integration of the system of

possibilities in their learning environment. Worldwide we can observe the

formation of the virtual dimension (virtual campus) of the operation of

institutions of higher education; the urge for this has been formulated explicitly

in developmental directives and recommendations of the European Union.288

In

what follows, to help orientation, we will first present a normative index of an

indicative character compiled by American researchers, which attempts to

formulate criteria and characteristics concerning to what extent and how

organically an educational institution has integrated the electronic-virtual

dimension in its learning environment (the measure of the institution‘s web

integration). After this, we will make an attempt to define the basic forms of

web-based learning.

3.4.1. The levels of web integration

When we strive for the implementation of the Internet and the World Wide

Web in an educational institution, we need to take into account the appearance

of the subsystem, which affects the operation of all elements of the system.

Therefore, an indispensable condition of successful implementation is system-

oriented thinking (Banathy 1991). This system-oriented thinking can be assisted

by the normative taxonomy of Harmon and Jones (1999), which distinguishes

five levels of the institutional integration of the World Wide Web. These levels

stretch from occasional Internet use to a full-fledged integration defining the

operation of the institution. The various levels differ from one another in the

character of web use, the characteristics of the communication system of

287

For example, the Hungarian Sulinet, the English National Grid for Learning, the German

SchulWeb, the European Schoolnet, etc. 288

Concerning the character, direction, and content of the transformation, we can read such

expressions in Union documents as the implementation of ―transnational European virtual

campuses,‖ the development of the ―e-learning dimension‖ of higher education, ―virtual

mobility,‖ and dual mode curricula developments (the latter means the joint application of the

method of conventional and online education). In Proposal for a DECISION OF THE

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL adopting a multi-annual programme

(2004-2006) for the effective integration of Information and Communication Technologies

(ICT) in education and training systems in Europe (eLearning Programme), presented by the

Commission. Brussels, 10.12. 2002 COM(2002), 751 final 2002/0303 (COD).

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relations of teachers, administrators, and students, as well as in the character of

interactions. In what follows, we will briefly circumscribe those supposed

system-level changes, which happen as a result of a given level of web

integration.

Information-oriented web use

In this case, the aim of web use is the information of students and those

interested, as well as the presentation of the structural build-up and operation of

the institution. On the web pages we find the accessibility of the various

organizational units and teachers, training possibilities and forms, subject and

course materials, as well as we are oriented about events important for the

institution that have happened or are about to happen. Such information can be

easily generated; the system set up this way does not need continual

surveillance, maintenance and servicing. It is on this level that the institution

has to make those basic decisions that concern the selection and purchase of

the hardware and software, the development of the system of access, the

provision of the conditions of maintenance and further improvement. These

decisions have to be in consonance with the philosophy, the mission, the future

image and system of goals of the given institution, thus, already on this level we

can detect the appearance of the necessity of the rethinking of institutional

strategy.

Supplemental web use

Supplementation and support primarily refers to content services that aid

learning. This is one of the basic forms of ―blended learning‖ to be discussed

later. The teachers post on their web pages lecture notes, power point

presentations, learning aids, required and recommended reading, and questions

and tasks. This level exerts the biggest transformative effect upon what

transpires in the lecture hall. If the content of the lectures becomes accessible

online in a didactically processed manner, there is no point in attending lectures

– if it is limited to the recital of the course material also accessible online. In

order for a lecture to keep its appeal, it needs to be reformed in such a manner

that it should be in a complementary and additive relationship with the material

posted online. The lecture needs to become the scene of ―a knowledge

construction289

happening in a dialogic social environment,‖ as well as the

learning community of teacher and students.

289

Doug Brent, ―Teaching as Performance in the Electronic Classroom,‖ In First Monday – peer

reviewed journal on the internet. URL: http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue10_4/brent/

152

Essential web use

On this level, it is a basic requirement that teachers and students have at their

disposal the competence necessary for using the internet, because the majority of

course materials, learning aids, and information helping and coordinating

teaching are accessible online. It is a basic question (in 2008) how to assist in

acquiring these abilities those teachers who do not yet have them. We need to

make a strategic decision concerning the selection of the appropriate Learning

Management System. It is on this level that we become aware that online

teaching is an activity requiring a complex, multidirectional system of abilities,

which is hard to acquire alone. Therefore, the institutions need to implement a

system that continually trains teachers and administrative workers, and which

supports their individual learning – including an easily accessible advising too.

Communal web use

On this level new expectations arise both vis a vis teachers and students.

There is a modification in the teachers‘ and the students‘ thinking and attitude

concerning teaching and learning. Teachers – beyond simply posting teaching

contents on web pages – need to be able to use new virtual learning

environments (LMS, LCMS). This level of web use exerts a significant

transformational effect upon the operational logic of the institution. A change

can be observed in the mode of application of lecture halls, the pacing and

character of lectures. It may be an option to be present at a lecture or to prefer

the virtual form. It may become a widespread practice that a teacher‘s virtual

lecture will be attended by student groups from different locations, or that

individual students hook up to the lecture from a far away location. Also

students unable to participate in the training earlier can do so now. The teacher

may give her or his lecture even if she or he is not physically on campus. There

is a significant change in the spatial and temporal organization of learning. This

level of the educational use of the Net may have consequences that are

unforeseeable today with respect to the operation of higher education, but it may

result in significant changes also in primary education.

Immersive web use

On this level, the web is a comprehensive, unified infrastructure of teaching

and learning. The teachers‘ and students‘ bi-directional, continual net

communication becomes the rule. The students‘ controlled, moderated, and

evaluated horizontal communication forms an organic part of the learning

process. The learning groups become learning communities where

communication happens partly between human actors and partly between

humans and an electronic database. The teacher becomes a mentor, the student a

153

researcher, who can contribute to the further development of the knowledge base

that aids learning.

Today (2010) most institutions are in the initial two phases of web use

worldwide but it seems quite possible that development will proceed toward

level 5. Concerning the first two levels, the educational integration of the web in

the various institutions does not happen in a homogeneous manner, but it

depends on departments, teachers, and courses. We also need to note that the

developmental level system is based on the extrapolation of the practices of the

most advanced practices today, and on the lengthening of trend lines. However,

the whole system is plastic, it changes continually, and it is for the future to

decide whether the formation of the virtual campus character of the institutions

will happen in the way we have delineated here.

3.4.2. The basic forms of networked teaching and learning

With the connection of computers into a network, the digital data storage

capacity becomes truly unlimited. Computer processors can be organized into

super systems capable of the performance of great volume computational tasks;

thanks to hypertext technology it becomes possible to display any identifiable

element of the information universe at any desirable place. The new software

makes possible certain forms of teaching and learning which would be

unimaginable without these. The new tools are suitable for the effective support

of pedagogical creativity, and in certain cases they urge the teachers for the

development of new teaching and learning arrangement methods. The

possibilities, which suggest innovative pedagogical solutions are broadening.

Having studied the multilayered practice of institutions, we can differentiate the

following basic variants:

Online lecture – “Teleteaching”

―Teleteaching‖ is the web form of conventional lecture. Teaching happens in

the traditional way, but two points of the didactical triangle, the active teacher

and the receiving students can be situated at any geographical location. Unlike

conventional radio and television lectures, online lectures offer more

possibilities for the interaction between those present at the lecture and the

lecturer. This is the synchronous form of Internet learning, whose precondition is

the adjustment of time frames, thus, it is less flexible than other forms. At the

same time, it makes teaching independent from place and distance, and it

eliminates the spatial delimitation of learning. A steadily spreading variant of

this form is the video version of the lecture made accessible from a database in

such a way that those can be viewed and downloaded by anyone anytime. In this

case independence from time is realized, but interactivity disappears. Such

university video lecture databases are the following:

154

University of California Television Online http://www.uctv.tv

MIT World Video Archive http://mitworld.mit.edu/video_index.php

Princeton University WebMedia Lectures

http://www.princeton.edu/WebMedia/lectures

UC Berkeley: Conversations with History

http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/conversations, etc.290

Online learning direction – “Teletutoring”

―Teletutoring‖ constitutes the internet implementation of entire courses.

Unlike conventional high educational practice, the students enter an interactive

relationship with the learning material separately from one another; from the

duet of lecture and teaching (lecture) and learning, the first practically

disappears. Familiarization with the course material happens at one‘s own pace,

it is self-steered and autonomous. However, this autonomy is limited for the sake

of the calculability and manageability of the process. The turn-in of the tasks, the

discussion on forums are tied to strictly observed deadlines. This form of online

teaching (asynchronous online learning) – contrary to the exam-centered

learning of conventional higher education – requires regular work from the

students; those who miss a few weeks automatically disqualify themselves from

the course. The only course element that requires personal attendance is the final

exam, and perhaps possible midterms exams. The written exams are performed

in defined places with the proctoring of a teacher. In online teaching, the classic

higher educational role of the teacher is significantly modified. Certain elements

disappear (frontal lecture), others are modified (keeping contact with students),

and completely new functions appear (direct learning control). The teacher is the

organizer, controller, and supporter of the learning process. The teacher‘s

activity – beside the weekly learning guidance – is primarily optional (advising,

support, correction, and confirmation), which partly happens according to the

student‘s need (student site initiative), and partly is initiated from the teacher‘s

side, when he or she notices that the student needs assistance. This form is

partially analogous to the conventional master-student practice: it implies

personal teacher-student relationships that come to being through electronic

mediation. Teletutoring does not necessarily need the lateral peer-to-peer

relationships, although they frequently appear informally and mainly with an

information aim. The insertion in the form of virtual group work of inter-student

relationship in the learning process constitutes another dimension of the

possibilities provided by the World Wide Web, which is the characteristic of the

following online learning form.

290

Web sites accessible in 2010.

155

Learning in online learning groups

The new communication and learning assisting software transforms the

World Wide Web into an ideal medium for project-based group learning. The

―virtual‖ collective learning of online learning groups is denoted as Computer

Supported Collaborative/Cooperative Learning (CSCL).291

In the practice of

higher education, the term ―virtual seminar‖ has been used broadly to denote this

form. The theory of cooperative learning considers knowledge acquisition

primarily as a collective process where students build up their knowledge

primarily as a result of interactions with one another. In the center of learning,

we find the solution of problems designed beforehand by the seminar leader or

arising during the process. The members of the group mutually help one another

in finding the solutions. In the meanwhile there is a constant dialogue, which

gives an opportunity to the members of the group to get to know each other‘s

alternative understandings and to continually test these. Thus comes to the fore

the constructivist, selective model of learning. Collective learning acquisition

presents an opportunity too for a part of distributed expertise to be turned into

expertise shared by all members of the group. As a result of the process – in an

ideal case – a shared knowledge base will be formed out of the individual

knowledge parts of the group members.

This form of learning improves the communicative competence of the group

members, which includes the ability to expound and defend one‘s own point of

view, to evaluate and accept others‘ points of view, and to modify and relinquish

one‘s own point of view. The teacher‘s role is primarily the organization and

assistance of the students‘ problem solving activity. Online cooperative learning

is a promising creative teaching method, whose organization and control,

however, poses a serious challenge for the teacher. In an ideal case, the group

members who learn together in this way may constitute real learning

communities.292

Individual online learning

The spread of the printing press made it first possible to gain access to large

areas of knowledge – independently from teacher or school. It was with the book

– as a comfortably portable, external symbolic storage device – that the

individual, separate,

291

Within the framework of a European Union cooperation project a CSCL web page has also

been created (http://www.euro-cscl.org/). 292

A comprehensive, intensive web use today requires a lot of preparation from the teacher. In

such cases the control of the learning process requires about three times the time and energy

than that of a conventional course. Experience shows that the teacher is not able to teach more

than 10-20 students in such a way (Jones et al. 2003). In the case of larger groups, a new

instructor or tutor is needed for each new group of 15-20 students.

156

introspective form of learning appeared, together with the possibility of the autonomous,

self-paced acquisition of knowledge.

In the world of the Gutenberg galaxy, it is the student who selects what to

learn, when, how, and from what sources. Electronic information and

communication technology greatly broadens the horizon of possibility of

personal, sovereign knowledge acquisition. This form of internet learning

requires strong learning motivation and a high level of learning strategy

development and metacommunicative competence. Here there is no

predetermined, rigid curriculum, the learning contents can be accessed structured

in certain modules and databases, and they can be put together on demand

according to actual learning goals and personal learning preferences. This form

of learning is the one that integrates the most comprehensively informal and

spontaneous learning into the process of knowledge construction. Although only

a narrow but steadily broadening group of present day‘s societies is able to avail

itself effectively of this possibility. The most important goal of formal education

is to achieve that the highest possible number of students reach the threshold of

this world. After this, learning will become automatic and the ―knowledge

worker‖ of the information society will embark upon the path of lifelong

learning.

Applications helping the establishment of online learning communities

Net learning sets up serious requirements both for the student and the teacher.

The criteria of success are constituted by the conjunction of a well organized

electronic learning environment, well chosen learning management software,

teachers with media competence and motivated students capable of individual

learning. Those software tools that support cooperative learning and the

collaboration of learning groups are called Learning/Course Management

systems (LMS/CMS). There exist several course management system softwares,

a part of which can be accessed on the marketplace (WebCT, Blackboard SAP,

etc.), another part is free (Nicenet, Think.com), and can at times have an open

source code (Moodle). Learning management software issuitable for the

continual tracking of the students‘ progress, in addition to facilitating a

potentially new kind of personal relationship between student and teacher, as

well as the follow up, evaluation and assistance of the learning process directed

to individual students. There are Learning Content Management Systems

(LCMS) helping the preparation of the course material for accessibility on web-

based surfaces.

The teacher’s motivation for online teaching

How the new challenge appears for teachers is concisely expressed by the

title of a conference talk, ―A Never-ending Journey for Higher Education

157

Faculty: Learning to Teach Online‖ (Zahner 2004).293

The teacher‘s motivation

is influenced by several factors. Literature most often lists the following: salary,

bonuses, raise, advancement, tenure, the easing up of the work load on another

field, and the provision of possibilities of training and assistance. When teachers

(faculty) were asked what they found problematic in online education, they

mentioned the diminishing of the teacher-student relationship and that of the

relationship between students, as well as the declining quality of teaching. It is

interesting to note that this worry was primarily and typically registered in those

who had no online teaching experience. Other experiences showed that inner

urge, the teacher‘s curiosity and innovational tendency were the main promoters

(Bower 2001). Besides, mention was made of a freer and more flexible work

organization, the need to better get to know students, the possibility of a more

frequent interaction with students (McKenzie et al. 2000). A meta-analysis

prepared for more than 100 studies in the topic has confirmed the general

character of the above listed motivation factors (Parker 2003). The set of

requirements formulated by the American Institute for Higher Education may be

of guidance concerning the condition of the introduction of online teaching

(Institute for Higher Education Policy 2003). These requirements contain the

preparation of teachers for the development of online contents, and prescribe the

existence of appropriate technical and methodological assistance and advising in

the phases of curriculum development and teaching. The institutions need to

provide teachers with access to written aid materials, and must develop the

criteria system and organizational framework for mutual assistance and the

exchange of the respective experiences.

Teachers’ competence in a virtual learning environment

The establishment, operation, and continual further development of virtual

learning environments require new teaching attitudes, knowledge elements, and

competences – ones that partly supplement and partly ―overwrite‖ the old ones.

The basic requirement is the knowing use of electronic information and

communication devices – and the inclination of continually developing this

competence. Beside this, we emphasize two competences out of the complex and

manifold knowledge system necessary for online teaching: the abilities of

communication and learning management.

Communication

A teacher working in an electronic learning environment has to have

excellent communication skills. In the virtual environment – where we can only

to a limited extent count on metacommunication and paraverbal signals

293

A talk given at ―AGRIA MEDIA 2004‖ Conference. In AGRIA MEDIA 2004, Eger, 2005.

158

supporting understanding – this is a basic demand for the success of learning.

The teacher‘s precisely formulated written and oral sentences help in the

avoidance of misunderstanding and undesirable run-ins. The teacher has to be

able to handle a larger than average information stream; he or she has to be well-

versed in the rules of internet-based communication (netiquette), and has to be

familiar with special internet codes (e.g., emoticons). The online teacher needs

to be familiar with both the communication technical and socio-psychological

sides of internet communication. In a virtual learning environment, one is only

able to make didactically sensible decisions if one is aware of the possibilities

and limitations of various telecommunication forms.

Learning management

In an electronic learning environment, a high-level management and support

of the learning process is a basic requirement. The teacher organizes the learning

process, he or she sets deadlines, makes suggestions concerning time

management, he or she demonstrates project plans, moderates decisions, and

requires effective, successful work. Above all, this is realized in daily decisions

and actions on a methodological ―micro level‖ (the follow-up of the student‘s

advance, the continuous control of the success of learning through keeping up

with the time-frame of the learning process). In order to promote the learning

process (in the case of temporally structured trainings), the teacher follows the

group members‘ internet activity; he or she supervises the turned-in tasks,

follows up the activity on forums, that is, keeps an eye on the entire learning

process. Besides, the teacher foments and moderates communication among the

group members. It is important that the teacher should promptly notice the

stoppage of advance and the appearance of problems, and thus help the learning

process to move on. The tracking and support of individual learning poses

demands to teachers instructing in a virtual learning environment that

conventionally instructing teachers seldom experience.

3.5. Media and methods in an electronic learning environment

Methodological questions play a key role in the successful educational use of

information technological devices. However, these are often shoved to the

background while looking for up-to-date hardware and software technological

solutions. The developers and enthusiastic believers of new technologies are

prone to believe that it is enough to purchase the devices and software, and they

forget about the personal conditions of implementation, among other things, the

multilayered skill system necessary for online teaching and course material

development.

Beside ―technophile‖ attitudes, we find the opposing pole, the ―technophobe‖

camp, whose representatives consider as inconsequential, and in cases harmful,

the role of new information technology in the teaching-learning process.

159

We also find these two opposing conceptions among the researchers of

educational technology; we find a good overview of the most important

arguments of this debate in the 1994 special issue of Educational Technology

Research and Development.294

The antecedent of the debate is R. Clarke‘s often

referenced 1983 study, in which the author reviewed the research considering

the educational success of electronic media.295

Clark concluded that the technical

device, the medium is only secondary; it is the method, the appropriate

structuring of the effects aiding learning is what proves determinative in the

success of learning. The various technical media convey only contents helping

learning, information, and thus play a secondary, transporting role.296

In his

view, technology does not play a significant role in motivation either, as

students‘ relationship to exterior effects is determined by their prior

expectations, inclinations.

The best known and most referenced formulation of the opposing position

comes from Robert Kozma, who – in polemics with Clark‘s view – expounds his

ideas in several writings. From these, the best known is the 1991 study,

―Learning with media‖ (R. Kozma 1991).297

Kozma represents the view that the

peculiar symbol systems of the various media have differing effects on the

development of the students‘ mental models, and their modifications, that is, the

cognitively relevant characteristics of various media have differing effects on the

various aspects of the learning process. In consequence, the selection of the

various media is very important from the point of view of the success of

learning.

Clark confirmed his earlier view in the 1994 special issue of Educational

Technology Research and Development, which is supported by the title of his

study published herein: ―Media Will Never Influence Learning.‖298

He confirms

his point of view with further arguments, according to which instructional

method is determining in the course of teaching, while the interchangeable effect

system of technical media is secondary. Clark sees the cause of the spread of

technological determinism in that the methodology of instruction, the

―technology‖ of instructional planning and effect system are generally confused

with the system of devices used to convey these. In his view, both are needed for

effective teaching, however, the quality of the learning process and thus the

294

Educational Technology Research and Development special issue (vol. 42[2], 1994). 295

Clark, R. E., ―Reconsidering Research on Learning from Media.‖ Review of Educational

Research 53 (1983): 445-459.). 296

―Consistent evidence is found for the generalization that there are no learning benefits to be

gained from employing any specific medium to deliver instruction.‖ In op cit. 297

Kozma R. B., ―Learning with Media.‖ Review of Educational Research, 1991, 61 (2): 179-212. 298

Clark, R.E., ―Media Will Never Influence Learning.‖ Educational Technology Research and

Development, 1994, 42 (2), 21-29.

160

effectiveness of learning, the student‘s performance are only significantly

influenced by the former. The media can only be mentioned with respect to

costs, access, economy, otherwise they do not count.299

A large part of

educational decision makers mistakenly think – Clark writes – that it is enough

to place new technological devices in the educational institutions in order to

enhance the effectiveness of learning, to increase the students‘ level of

achievement and learning motivation. This leads to an unwise use of meager

resources and diverts attention – and resources –- from the development of

methodological research (Clark 1994, 27).

Kozma, too, has repeated his earlier arguments, supplementing them with

newer ones.300

At the same time, he formulates a new approach, which sheds

light on the complementary character of the two opposing views. He argues that

the rigid division of medium and method is not justifiable, as certain methods

are unthinkable, and unrealizable without the appropriate media. In his view, it is

not right to consider instructional media as passive conveyors of method,

because medium and method jointly contribute to the facilitation of the student‘s

knowledge construction. He enlists examples to prove that new media are in

cases more effective in supporting learning than traditional forms. Besides, new

technologies make possible such teaching and learning activities which were

impossible earlier. In consequence, they can be suitable for the solution of

teaching and learning problems against which conventional methods have

proven ineffective. The new information- and communication technology

solutions may facilitate the fulfillment of training needs, which always exist, but

have now strengthened (lifelong learning), or make possible methods that did

not even arise earlier, because they were beyond the reach of the imagination

(e.g., learning without spatial and temporal limits). Therefore, education

technological research should concentrate on finding out how the effect system,

sign processing capacity of various media contribute to the development of

relevant knowledge – as a result of the interaction of student and medium.

Reformulating his original question, Clark sums up his point of view as follows:

―I believe that instead of asking whether ‗media influence learning,‘ we should

ask, in what ways can we use the capabilities of media to influence learning for

particular students, tasks, situations?‖301

299

―We continue to invest heavily in expensive media in the hope that they will produce gain in

learning. When learning gains are found, we attribute them to the active ingredient in

instruction. When learning gains are absent, we assume we have chosen the wrong mix of

media.‖ (Clark, op cit.) 300

Kozma, R.B., ―Will Media Influence Learning? Reframing the Debate.‖ Educational

Technology Research and Development, 1991, 42 (2), 7-19. 301

Op cit, 18.

161

Similar to several debates of the history of science and philosophy (free will

vs. determination, monism vs. dualism, heredity vs. environment, modularity vs.

general information processing ability, etc.), in this case it is equally impossible

– and has no point in trying –- to decide who is right. However, stepping over

the fruitless passion of the technophile-technophobe debate following the

educational implementation of information technology, the difference of views

found here is productive and constructive. The two views concerning the

evaluation of the role of the technologies helping teaching and learning are

complementary rather than mutually exclusive. This complementary duality is

seen in the approach of the history of instructional design and instructional

technology.302

The history of education technology is, on the one hand, the

chronicle of the educational use of recent technological media,303

on the other

hand, it is the history of the introduction of recent psychological, pedagogical,

system organizational processes used during the design and operation of the

effect system of the learning environment.304

In sum, we can say that media used for educational purposes – generally

speaking – constitute those physical objects, which convey to the student the

information and effects necessary for learning. In the history of pedagogy, up to

the 20th century, there were four dominant media aiding learning: the teacher, the

blackboard, illustrational material, and the book. In the 20th century, a heap of

visual and audiovisual media entered the tool kit of education. Today, the

networked computer integrates all other media, including certain forms of

activity of the teacher.

The methodology of education – generally speaking – means the design and

operation of the effect system of the learning environment. The knowledge

necessary for this is summed up by the science of didactics. In Europe, during

the centuries of the generalization of education the practice of teaching was

almost considered as an art. The view that considered education as a trade

technology stems from the Anglo-Saxon world – and primarily America. This

view – similar to Taylorian scientific management – aims at a full

instrumentalization of the process and its control aiming at maximal

effectiveness. The first general application of these processes was programmed

education (Programmed Instruction Movement). ―Education technology‖

became very successful during World War II (Dick 1987), when psychologists,

pedagogues, engineers and organizers worked out and utilized with success the

302

This dual point of view is characteristic of the recent study reviewing the American history of

instructional design and technology, which provides an overview of the developments on two

parallel lines, those of the history of instructional media (media) and the history of

instructional design (method). 303

Instructional technology viewed as media, history of instructional media. 304

Instructional technology viewed as process, history of instructional design.

162

scientific methods of quick and goal-oriented training of large throngs of people.

This technological view of education can be found in the characteristic

expressions which we can read in international instruction technological

literature referring to the practice of teaching: instructional methods,

instructional design, instructional systems, etc.

Related to the method and process centered outlook of instructional design

are recent intentions and procedures aiming at the increase of learning and work

performance.305

The newest result of instructional environment design is e-

learning (online teaching/learning, distributed learning). This is a perfectly

complementary learning supporting form, in which we can find several elements

of instructional effect system design as well as of the technology conveying

effect and symbol systems.

305

Some of these are: information and knowledge management, performance

technology, distributed learning, learning community.

163

4. THE CONCEPTUALIZATION OF THE NOTION OF

E-LEARNING

4.1. Attempts to conceptualize the notion of e-learning

The career of the expression began in Europe when on March 9, 2000, a few

months after the declaration of eEurope,306

Viviane Reding, a member of the

European Commission responsible for cultural and educational issues, made

public the eLearning initiative.307

At that time, e-learning appears in a broad

sense: as a concept summing up loosely connected normative expectations. This

comprehensive, broad understanding includes the transformation of educational

systems by new information- and communication technological equipment, in

general, the computerized support and integration of education, training, and

learning. E-learning appears as an alternative that exceeds the conventional

forms of education and embodies the signs of modernity. As a result, e-learning

is evaluated and considered largely by its possibilities projected to the future and

not by its present performance. From the positive expectations connected to e-

learning can be gleaned the supposition that it will have a transforming effect on

conventional educational practice. With the eLearning initiative, the creation of

the conditions was emphasized, which are necessary for the generalization of

this new educational practice.308

The field of signification of the concept will be

narrowed down and circumscribed more precisely later in the future.. In the

official education strategic documents of the European Union the definitive

character was strengthened instead of the programmatic character: according to

the laconic definition of the program proposal ―the European program of lifelong

learning,‖ e-learning is ―learning assisted by information and communication

technology.‖309

The concept is somewhat more broadly explained in the E-

306

The European Commission made public in December 1999 a program plan entitled ―e-Europe

– An Information Society for All.‖ The first among the key actions refers to the field of

education, and aims to accomplish the goal of making digital knowledge a basic competence

among European youth. This document has served as the foundation of the economic and

social goals of the European Union formulated at the Special European Council of Lisbon, 23

and 24 March 2000. 307

E-learning: Designing tomorrow‘s education. Communication from the Commission COM

(2000) 318, final. Brussels, 24.5.2000 URL:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/programmes/elearning/comen.pdf 308

The facilitation of the school implementation of information and communication technological

devices, the dissemination of digital literacy, the development of a new learning culture, the

provision of a broad access to learning possibilities, good quality electronic contents, etc. 309

Making a European Area of Lifelong Learning a Reality. Communication from the

Commission, Brussels, 21. 11. 01. COM (2001) 678 final.

164

Learning Action Program, according to which e-learning is ―the use of

multimedia technologies and the Internet for the improvement of the quality of

learning, in such a way that these new technologies facilitate and make possible

the access of resources and services enhancing learning, as well as the

realization of the cooperation and exchange relationships of students far from

each other.‖310

There are several more definitions of the concept of e-learning. ―E-learning is

the comprehensive description of educational and learning methods integrated

through networks (local networks and the World Wide Web built up through

their interconnections).311

Electronic learning is a new learning form that, on the

one hand, is suitable for integration in an organized educational system, and

which, on the other hand, may satisfy individual needs due to its new, electronic

learning environmental characteristic – as compared to the learning environment

realized through conventional means.312

―E-learning is an open educational form

– independent from spatial and temporal limitations and accessible through the

computer network – that, organizing the teaching/learning process, places in a

unified framework and makes accessible for students the course material and

student sources, the tutor-student communication, and the interactive tutorial

software, in the possession of effective, optimal knowledge transferring and

learning methods.‖313

There are also definitional attempts, which try to explain the concept through

certain characteristic features of the phenomenon. The researchers of the

Hungarian Budapest University of Technology and Economics Distance

Educational Center, for example, offered the following definition of the basic

criteria of e-learning:

− e-learning is an educational/training activity

− information and communication technological devices are a

characteristic feature of this form of distance education

− e-learning is an economical form of training

− it is accessible for more people than conventional training.314

310

The e-Learning Action Plan: Designing Tomorrow‘s Education. Communication from the

Commission. COM(2001) 172 final. Brussels, 28. 3. 2001.

http://europa.eu.int/eurlex/en/com/cnc/2001/com2001_0172en01.pdf. 311

Éva Tót, Oktatás-Tanulás-Hálózat [Teaching, Learning, Network]. Educatio, 2003/3. 312

Ilma Kovács, Az elektronikus tanulásról [Of Electronic Learning]. Budapest, 2007, Holnap

Kiadó 313

Forgó et al., ―Tanulás tér és időkorlátok nélkül‖ [Learning without spatial and temporal

limitations]. Iskolakultúra, 2004/12. 314

E-learning és felnőttképzés Magyarországon és Europában [E-learning

and Adult Education in Hungary and Europe]. Kutatási jelentés

[Research report]. 2005, BMGE, Távoktatási központ.

165

In order to have information about e-learning that exceeds the level of

generalities, and which facilitates understanding, explanation, and use, we need

a more detailed interpretation of the concept than the ones we have had so far.

One of the possible approaches is the assessment of the various forms,

components of e-learning. This is useful because, just like an inventory, we can

select from the set of devices the most appropriate forms for the pedagogical

goals.315

The researchers of Universität Padendorf, for example, attempt to grasp

the concept in such a way that they enumerate the various versions and basic

forms of e-learning:

− teleteaching (distance teaching, distance lecture, virtual didactic

teaching, virtueller Frontal unterricht)

− telecooperation (learning communities, Verteiltes Lernen)

− teletutoring (telecoaching, Betreutes Tele-Lernen)

− telelearning (Offenes Tele-Lernen).316

A. J Romiszowski (2004) summed up the learning forms characteristic of e-

learning in a quadrant table.317

315

Concerning the understanding of the concept of e-learning, there is no general consensus

among experts. In his recent analysis of more than 100 studies published on the topic,

Romiszowski has found 50 different definitions, which were quite different from one another.

It is also true that there were many overlaps between the definitions, and there are certain

elements that appear everywhere. 316

R. Schröder – D. Wankelman 2002 317

Romiszowski, Alexander J.: How‘s the E-learning Baby? Factors Leading to Success or Failure

of an Education Technology. Innovation Educational Technology, 2004, Jan-Febr.

166

Asynchronous communicationby e-mail, discussion lists or a Learning Management System

Using stand-alonecourseware/ Downloadingmaterials from the Internet for later local study

OFFLINE STUDYAsynchronous

Communication(FLEXI-TIME)

Chat rooms with(out) video (IRC; ElectronicWhiteboards) Audio/Video­conferencing

Surfing the Internet, accessing Websites to obtaininformation or to learn(knowledge or skill)

ONLINE STUDY SynchronousCommunication(REAL-TIME)

GROUP COLLABORATIVEComputer-MediatedCommunication

INDIVIDUAL SELF-STUDYComputer-Based Instruction/ Learning/Training

A structured definition of e-learning

Source: Romiszowski, Alexander J.: How's the E-learning Baby? Factors Leading to Success or Failure of an Educational Technology Innovation Educational Technology, 2004 Jan-Febr.

Table 13. Learning activities characteristic of e-learning

The table organizes the characteristic e-learning activities according to two

parameters: the method of learning and the form of communication. The table

also shows that the earlier discussed, conventional forms of learning are also

present in the case of e-learning (individual and social, cooperative learning).

The communicational method used in the course of learning can be online,

real time, synchronous, as well as off-line, independent of time,

asynchronous.318

The various combinations of the four squares can give us ideas

for the planning of e-learning programs. This interpretation, however,

approaches e-learning from the student‘s side and activity, and gives us little

help for the understanding of the organizational and design side of the e-learning

phenomenon.

It is, however, possible to provide such a definition of the concept, which

defines e-learning as a multi-component complex system, which is organized

from

educational/learning forms that extend the possibilities of conventional

learning and teaching, and their alternatives. Such a system-oriented definition is

318

Of course, these can be imagined in different combinations too, but this division is also suitable

for the multifaceted possibilities of e-learning.

167

the often referenced Urdan-Weggen model, which contains all determining

components of e-learning, and attempts to visually grasp the system of relations

between the components.

Figure 12. The relational organization system of e-learning319

However, the visual display constructed of ellipses placed in one another –

which is elegant at first sight – hides several drawbacks. The set of relations

suggests such hierarchical and inclusive relations that do not correspond to the

real situation. Also the different sizes of the ellipses are misleading.

4.2. The Design-oriented definition of the concept of e-learning

In order to overcome the shortcomings of the Urdan-Weggen model, we need

to rearrange the elements symbolizing the various components in such a way

that the logical relationship between the various element parts should be made

319

Based on the table of 2000 of Urdan, T., Weggen, C.In Urdan, T., Weggen, C., Corporate e-

Learning: Exploring a New Frontier, 2000.

Distance learning

e-learning

Online learning

Computer-based learning

Interaction,

Multimedia

hypertext

Communication

Source center

System-

organization,

integration

Alternativeness

Historicity

168

visually unambiguous. We solved this problem by displaying the various

components in the form of circles partly intersecting one another, and we

defined e-learning as the shared partial set of these.

Computer based learning

Distance learningself-directed learning

data storage

data prozessing

interactivity

hypertext

multimedia

animation

virtual reality

network comminication

open information resources

augmented reality

no time/place constrain

learner/learning focused

Web basedlearning

simulation

ee--learninglearning

modularitysystemic view

didactic design

Interpreting the concept of e-learning

Table 13. The components of e-learning

The same size of the three circles means that each source is equally

important. In the squares we laid out the characteristic features of the various

source elements, from which the e-learning developments are constructed. Based

on the above data, we have formulated the definition as follows: the

developments, programs, course materials collected under the label of e-learning

constitute certain forms of learning organization, learning management, and

learning support that rely on three well-definable sources:

− computer based learning

− web based learning

− distance learning

E-learning is the collective form designating course material design activities

and operative programs of various system levels, building from three sets of

sources, which labor to improve the success and efficiency of learning through

the use of computers and net-based databases and internet communication, as

well as through the system-oriented approach of the whole of the learning

process, and the effective systematization of the various set elements. The

strategic dimension of the definition suggested by us is provided by its system

view and logical coherence. We believe that this model – through its detailed

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concept analysis and the presentation of the logical relations between the

important components – offers information that exceeds the level of generalities,

and which facilitates understanding, explanation, and effective use. It provides

an eminently applicable system of viewpoints for the evaluation of e-learning

programs and course materials, and the development of e-learning course

materials. By understanding the relationship of e-learning and conventional

education in an integrative and complementary way, the definition can add new

criteria to the system-oriented analysis, planning, transformation, and

development of learning environments. It can be a pivot both for the

developmental strategies needed on the various system levels of education, and

for concrete course material development.

4.3. The tool kit of e-learning developments

Computer Based Learning means the computer-centered organization of the

learning process. This is the newest version of the application of Technology

Based Learning, in which the multi-media, interactive computer makes its

appearance as a central educational-learning medium. Computer aided

instruction was first marked by the acronym (CAI).320

The word ―instruction‖

refers to the early methodological background of educational computer use, the

partly behavioristic and partly cognitive psychological learning theory of

programmed instruction. In the organization of today‘s learning environments,

what is decisive is primarily the problem-centered, constructivist, and

complementary view.

The new possibility that has emerged through computers connected to the

World Wide Web is web-based Internet learning, which constitutes a new

horizon for teaching and learning. With the help of the networked computer, we

can virtually exit the concrete learning environment. The new dimension is

constituted primarily by the network of databases providing a practically on-

demand quantity of information, and the manifold, varied possibilities of

electronic telecommunication. To name the thus extended possibilities of

learning, the following acronyms have been created in the English language

literature: WBL (Web Based Learning), CSCL (Computer Supported

Collaborative Learning), and most recently, DL (Distributed Learning).

Distance education is the earliest alternative of traditional education. Its

earlier forms appeared already in the 18th century, as differently conceivable and

realizable forms of instruction, education, and learning. The completely new

paradigm of teaching and learning, which – making use of the new technologies

of information storage and transfer – has overcome the attendance-learning

320

The letter ―A‖ can also mean Assisted, Administered and Augmented.

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framework of earlier social formations, and by this has resulted in the

modification of the demands posed both to students and teachers. Distance

education constituted the first step toward the direction where the student and

learning were put in the center, in such a way that every element of the

instructional system serves the independent, effective learning of the student.

E-learning uses the elements of these three sets as its building blocks. E-

learning intends to improve the efficiency of learning through the use of

computers, web databases and internet communication, through the system-

oriented approach of the whole of the learning process, and through its effective

systematization. In the course of the compilation of course materials and course

programs, the practice of modularity is observed, which – used in the proper way

– may result in the synergy effect of, on the one hand, the information

organizing opportunity provided by the new medium and, on the other hand, of

pedagogic-psychological rationality. As communicational and information

providing platforms, e-learning frameworks make accessible well-organized

knowledge contents, together with the instructions necessary for their acquisition

and the programs assisting their acquisition and measuring their performance.

They provide communicational channels for shared knowledge constructions

and for experts, tutors who can be called upon to solve teaching-technical

problems. In order to raise awareness of the possibility inherent in e-learning, we

need to familiarize us in detail with the components of the various source sets.

4.3.1. The first circle: the toolkit of computerized learning

The spectrum of possibilities of computer aided teaching and learning is

based on the following characteristics of multimedia ICT equipment.

Data storage

The capacity of data storage devices built into computers and connectable to

them has reached the measure, which makes accessible and storable any amount

of information relevant to the learning process. This characteristic is basically

not new; rather it is the end-result of overstepping a biological limit, that is, the

apparently complete exploitation of the possibilities that have appeared through

the creation of ―external symbolic stores‖ supplementing human memory. We

call engrams the memory traces stored in biological memory, and exograms

those that are stored in external symbolic storage systems. Donald compared the

characteristics of these in a table (1991). The lines appropriately illustrate what

constitutes the novelty of exosomatic information storage.

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Engrams Exograms

Impermanent May be permanent

Large but limited capacity Practically unlimited capacity

Not easily refined Unlimited iterative refinement

Limited perceptual access in

audition, virtually none in vision

Unlimited perceptual access

especially in vision or seeing

Retrieval paths constrained Retrieval paths unconstrained

Table 13. The comparison of biological and external memory

It is possible to store in one computer and show on its display any set or

element of the information universe accumulated so far during the history of

mankind and stored in the ―external memory field.‖321

The new quality

connected to this characteristic emerges due to the data processing, operational

characteristics of the computer, and it is manifest through the quick search of

data according to random criteria, their connection, analysis, and the

presentation of the results.

Information processing

With the data, the computer is able to perform operations according to

varying algorithms. The signal processing ability is a perfectly new quality,

since unlike the earlier, non-biological external devices, the computer not only

stores information, but it is also able to perform various operations with the

information – similar to its biological model. Through this, the external memory

field has become dynamic, it has, so to speak, come to life. With a slight

exaggeration, we can say that the ―ghost in the machine‖ has made its

appearance – at least those functions of humans‘ intellectual operation that can

be algorithmized. This characteristic – together with the practically unlimited

storage capacity – constitutes the main driving force of the revolution of

information technology. Since the invention of microprocessors, the speed of

information processing has been continually and predictably increasing

(Moore‘s law), thus today‘s processors are quick enough to acceptably operate

most of the computer characteristics to be discussed below.322

321

It was Merlin Donald who introduced the concepts of ―external symbolic storage‖ and

―external memory field‖ in his book Origins of the Modern Mind: Three stages in the

evolution of culture and cognition (Harvard, 1991) 322

According to Moore‘s law, the processing capacity of processors is doubled every year and a

half. According to Gilder‘s law, the band width of communication systems gets tripled every

year; while Rutger‘s law projects a yearly doubling of the capacity of memory chips.

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Interactivity

The information processing ability of the computer makes it possible for the

student to enter into a dialogue with the system: his or her entered answers

influence the functioning of the system, they call up various answers, they make

appear varied contents. Interactivity has a key role in the realization of those

parameters that we consider to be characteristic of e-learning environments. This

computer characteristic makes possible the feedback indispensable for effective

learning. In this circle, interactivity appears as a technological system

characteristic: the student ―communicates‖ with the course material and learning

program presented by the computer – in a broader sense of communication.

While the data storage capacity and processing speed of the computer is

suitable today for the promotion of learning (and it is optimal in certain cases),

the measure of interactivity is far from what we might think to be necessary for

the effective support of learning. Here the pattern and norm in front of us is none

other than the real, living teacher, peer, expert, master, and wise man assisting

learning. This human partner element is the one that we are trying to integrate in

the greatest potential extent in e-learning course materials and learning

programs. It is easy to realize that the standard is high; the developmental

possibilities ahead of us have a very broad horizon. In the course of the planning

of interactive programs, our normative attempts are aimed at two levels. On the

one hand, we want to make sure that development should make possible the

optimal provision of assistance that the learning human being may expect in the

course of her or his learning (macro adaptation). On the other hand, our aim is to

make the system capable of diagnosing the personal preferences and gaps of

knowledge that are characteristic of every student, and to be able to respond to

them properly (micro adaptation). We are still far from the best possible

realization of all these. However, the means available today make possible

interactivity much better than average, if we plan carefully enough, and if we

spend enough time and effort on improvement .

Hypertext

As compared to conventional texts, an alternative form of the systematization

of information is hypertext; this is an electronically constructed text, whose

individual elements (link, jump point, hot word), if activated, will make newer

texts appear , on the basis of earlier defined relationships, and other information

elements – including interactive applications. The ―text‖ generated on the screen

is an information classifying system, which connects (hypermedia) various

information elements (documents, document segments, image, moving image,

sound tracks), including interactive applications. This associative mode of the

organization and access of information has become the general and natural form

of e-learning course material.

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Multimedia

Today‘s computers are close to realizing the most daring dreams of the

pedagogue illustrating the spirit of Comenius‘s ―Orbis sensualium pictus.‖ The

multimedia computer includes the presentation abilities of all earlier audio-

visual tools. Overhead projector, tape recorder, slide projector, educational film,

interactive video… –- everything melds together in this integration. This specific

convergence gives an incredibly rich tool set to the expert who develops course

material and the pedagogue who is illustrating something.323

Today we can show

about anything to the student that can be expressed in images and sounds. The

computer can bring to life representable, real, as well as imaginable things and

phenomena.

Animation

The efficiency of information transfer through the moving image, its power

to perform and explain is well known. In education, it is the genre of animation

through the moving image that appears especially promising and effective, since,

due to the virtuality of its essence, it is able to better support abstraction, the

various modeling criteria and needs than the conventional moving image. By the

original understanding of animation is meant a filmmaking technique that,

through ―cells‖ of inanimate objects (mostly puppets), creates an illusion in the

viewer according to which the players of the story put together by a series of

only slightly distinct image frames appear to have come to life or be alive.

Computer animation gets closer and closer to the real movement of real, lifelike

beings, and at the same time we can create backgrounds of an almost unlimited

fantasy with the help of virtual display tools, sound, image, space, and

interactivity. Educational computer animation often applies the sequential

representation of various types of graphic imagery (process figure, block

schema, diagram, graph, function, etc.) in order to assist understanding and

explanation. In the case of interactive animation, the result of the process

changes in the function of the parameters supplied by the user. There is no sharp

boundary between interactive animation and simulation, but the latter always

means the modeling of real processes.

323

―It appears that the variously ramified and individually developing tools of the19th and 20th

century explosion of information management may merge in hypermedia into a unified

system. Following the monotone growth of efficiency parameters, the separate success stories

(telephone, radio, television, computer, sound recording systems) give birth, as a result of this

grandiose unification, to new system qualities, as the beginning of the third phase of

information technology is comparable only to the development of language and writing.‖ In

Élő Gábor – A. Karvalics László, Hiperkihívás [Hyper Challenge]. ABCD Interaktiv Magazin,

1994, 2.

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Simulation

If we manage to define a sufficient set of the characteristics of real processes,

and to describe their mutual interchanges through appropriate algorithms, then

they can be made to appear as models operating within the computer and can be

studied. There is a possibility for the change of the operational conditions of the

model and the examination of the process among variable conditions. There is a

number of processes that can be shown to the students including a volcano

eruption, the operation of a nuclear reactor, the division of cells and the change

of populations, in such a way that questions of the type of ―what would happen

if‖ could be immediately answered (of course, within the limits of the model).

The computer simulation of processes and phenomena is a mature and

operational technology, a reliable study aid. Its application is only limited by the

fact that the composition of simulations and their optimal fitting into the learning

programs is highly work-intensive.

Virtual reality

The student can not only have a look into the simulated worlds, but he or she

can also enter these Flight simulators existed already during World War II.

However, what we today call virtual reality, is much more than this. Through the

use of special sensors and the computer generation of varied physical effects we

can partake of the illusion of participating in real and imagined environments

and situations. From the perspective of studying, this is a very promising

possibility. However, to realize this, technology is not sufficiently developed

yet, and it is presumably far from being the standard component of electronic

learning environments.

The tool system of course material development and computer assisted

learning

The above listed characteristics constitute the tool set, which is supplied by

the computer for the improvement of e-learning course materials and learning

programs, as well as for the development of e-learning environments. The

elements of the tool set can be divided into three groups according to their

practical usage:

− The performance of computer processors and the storage capacity are

such resources for the educational program writer that he or she needs to

take into account, but they are ready-made entities, ―black boxes,‖

independent of her or

− him and his or her work.

− Multimedia and hypertext (together: hypermedia) are such mature

technologies, whose use has pedagogic and methodological aspects.

With their application, the curriculum developer does not simply find a

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form for her or his ideas, but they significantly expand the circle of these

potential methodological solutions, and may instigate us to innovation

and creativity.

− The educational applications of interactivity and simulation, as well as

virtual reality are budding initiatives of software development, but

considering their horizon of possibilities are by far not mature

technologies. At the same time, in the assistance of the student, and the

realization of the dream of easier and more effective learning, these

latter solutions are the most promising.

4.3.2. The second circle: internet and web-based learning

The connection of the computer to the internet further expands the toolkit at

our disposal in the course of the development of e-learning programs: all of the

above discussed characteristics will be expanded with new features. The data

storage capacity indeed becomes unlimited, the computer processors can be

organized into super systems capable of the calculation of great volume

computational tasks, while hypertext technology forms the base of the operation

of the World Wide Web. However, the Internet offers completely new

possibilities, which further expand the palette available for the developer of

curricula.

Web-based communication

The on-line computer as a communicational tool, and as a complement, or

alternative of personal, face-to-face communication, offers a rich assortment of

synchronous and asynchronous communicational forms. The exchange of

information, cooperation for far away partners is made possible by e-mail, voice-

mail, chat, forums, chatting programs, and video-conference applications. While

the interactivity mentioned in the previous circle means the interaction of the

student with the learning program, here we are talking about the dialogue

between students, as well as with teachers and tutors – overstepping technical

interaction: this is ―interpersonality.‖ Given that knowledge is basically a social

construct, web-based communication appears to be a promising tool for the

development of a new teaching-learning culture.324

324

With the Internet, the web-based utopia of teaching and learning society has become realizable,

which in his 1970 book Ivan Illich suggested as the alternative of the school (Illich, Ivan,

Deschooling Society. 1971, Harper & Row). The new relationship between the learning person

and her or his environment, the network of spatially and temporally expanded and liberated

possibilities, as well as the real possibilities of ever accessible learning resources are the real

possibilities of today‘s World Wide Web. Diverging from Illich‘s radical proposal, however,

we do not see the alternative of the school in the web, but rather a tool that expands and

complements the possibilities of school education.

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Open information sources

The new, characteristic feature of the information sources at our disposal

during online learning is openness, which can be interpreted in several different

ways, and which means openness in several senses of the word. A large part of

the electronic documents accessible on the internet is basically open due to the

hypertext information organization. These do not or only seldom constitute a

closed entity corresponding to conventional library documents. In an electronic

document usually there are possibilities to access other documents, other data

bases. This openness often implies the possibility of entering into a direct

relationship with the author of a document and the maker of a webpage. The

circle of hypertext references may also change, be modified, thus, the window of

the target information, the environment is open and changeable. Information

sources are also open from the perspective that they can be easily modified,

changed, supplemented, extended, and rewritten given the character of electronic

information management. In principle, thus, there is a possibility to have the

information necessary for learning always up-to-date. From this openness, it also

follows that when we build learning programs on information sources accessible

on the Internet, we need to be aware that we are dealing with an information

universe that is changeable in its content and organization.

Augmented reality

Augmented reality means both an expanded and a supplemented reality. In

the course of perceiving and conceiving their environment, human beings have

always attempted to exceed their biological limitations. The first devices for the

augmentation of reality in a broader sense were Roger Bacon‘s eye glasses,

Robert Hook‘s microscope, Galilei‘s telescope. The information transmitting

revolution started in the 19th century further augmenting humans‘ indirectly

perceptible reality radius. The visual and acoustic peripheries and the broadband

data transmission channels make possible today a good quality image and sound

transmission. The development of technology on this field can be well

prognosticated; an ever so high quality image and sound transfer becomes

possible from anywhere to anywhere, to anyone anytime – providing that the

input peripheries will be placed in a given location. Satellite systems spread out

the action radius of their visual and acoustic perception to the entire surface of

the earth, while space probes do the same in inter-planetary and inter-stellar

space. Considering the fact that our understanding of reality and our image

formulated about reality is mostly built on visual information, the Internet

multiplies the real environments that are at our disposal and which help our

learning. The observation of far-away realities in real time is today largely an

unexploited possibility of learning. Distance presence, however, can be more

than the passive contemplation of far away worlds. We have the possibility to

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interfere with the happenings far away from us, to affect the operation of

physical systems without in fact being there in our bodily being. We can perform

physical, chemical, biological experiments, we can study the operation of

machines, appliances, testing them in centers specifically developed for this

goal, whose development and operation can be quite economical. This

augmented reality is a personal window to the world through which we can not

only see into happenings but also influence them.325

Internet ―telepresence‖ differs from the one offered by television in that we

choose the place, the time period, the perspective, thus no one is broadcasting to

us (push medium), rather we bring along the information with us (pull medium).

At the same time, due to convergence, the program broadcast of television

channels, as well as their on-line and on-demand programs can form a part of

this effect system.

But ―telepresence‖ and ―tele manipulation‖ differs also from virtual reality as

well, since here we are not speaking of digitally organized simulated realities,

but, rather, a digitally transferred real effect system. In the case of virtual reality,

we build around us a non-present reality, while with a ―telepresence‖ we

broadcast reality for ourselves. In the case of virtual reality, we enter into

interaction with an artificial, simulated world, while in the case of ―telepresence‖

we interact with a far away but real environment. All this, of course, does not

imply that the combination of ―telepresence‖ and virtual reality could not

constitute exciting and promising effect support systems. The other variant of augmented reality is supplemented reality. This

narrowed down ―augmented reality‖ is a completely new phenomenon, which

owes its existence to the informatics revolution: the real environment is

supplemented by computer generated elements, which help the efficiency of our

activity in a given environment. This supplementary information is mostly

visual, but it can be acoustic and tactile as well. The simplest form of

―augmented reality‖ is the real time display of signals and signs, while its most

sophisticated forms are the placement of virtual objects into a real environment,

the combination of reality and virtual reality, its integration into a unified

activity control system. An example for the former is the projection on a

vehicle‘s wind shield of driving directions by a GPS system; an example for the

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―The simplest augmented reality system is the so called ―Window on the World‖ system

(WoW) (Feiner, MacIntyre et al. 1993B). The user observes the augmented environment

through a window such as a computer monitor. The real world environment is first recorded

and augmented with computer generated objects and then displayed on the window. The user

is not in the center of the augmented universe but rather an outside spectator. Interaction is

achieved through any normal HCI input devices. Even though the feeling of presence is faint at

best, WoW systems are suitable for various telepresence applications.‖

In Sairio Mikko: Augmented Reality:

http://www.tml.hut.fi/Studies/Tik-111.590/2001s/papers/mikko_sairio.pdf

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latter is the generation of a three dimensional image to assist a surgical

operation. The supplemented reality means a completely new relationship

between humans and their environment in that the knowledge referring to reality

is not present in the biological internal mental representation, but coming from

the outside, it is directly superimposed on the environment, giving a new

dimension to the interaction of humans and their environment.

From an educational perspective, we can consider as very promising the

information from objects, buildings, and works of art, which appear

automatically at the given place, or can be called up through wireless personal

communicators (local sensitive narration/visualization). One of the possible

forms of intelligent environment is when things ―tell‖ their stories, their purpose,

and they offer up visual supplementary information concerning their own and

their environment‘s earlier form of presentation and possible future state. Let us

imagine that a building tells and shows how when and why it was built, what the

environment was like into which it was built, what purpose it serves for today,

and how this can serve our education. Or if a museum fossil is supplemented

into a three dimensional virtual model and its one-time environment also comes

to life in the form of dynamic simulation (smart objects, intelligent contexts,

virtual time travel).326

Unlimited communication, inexhaustible information sources, augmented and

supplemented reality, ―telepresence,‖ and the possibility to have an effect

through space – these are today the most obvious looking possibilities that the

World Wide Web puts at our disposal for the structuring of e-learning course

materials and programs. The evolutional predecessor, historical antecedent and

basic philosophy of e-learning, however, can be found in distance education.

4.3.3. The third circle: distance education

For the appearance of distance education we needed the realization of three

conditions: the development of easily manageable external information storage

systems, the development of an appropriate information conveying commu-

nication network, as well as the idea of the alternative of teaching and learning

326

In order for this web system that thusly supplements reality could offer a personal support, we

need a two-way communication. The system needs to receive information about the verbal and

general competence of the person, of his or her standard of knowledge, fields of interest,

learning preferences, etc. Such a system – under construction –- describing the student is an

―electronic training jacket,‖ which forms a part of a personal intelligent card constitutes, so to

speak, the digital imprint of the student‘s personality. The information imaging the student: her

or his competences, level of their development, his or her personal learning history, goals, the

most precise definition and timing of the education and training needed for their achievement.

The protection of personal (sensitive) information is possible through greatly reliable

identification techniques (finger printing, voice sample, retina image, DNS, etc.).

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basically divergent from the conventional model. In the 20th century, for the

spread of distance education, we needed the massive increase of the need for

training and learning. Now, at the beginning of the 21st century, the development

of a knowledge-based information society requires the generalization and

naturalization of continuing learning. As a result of the revolutionary

development of telematics in the past decades, the system of possibilities of

distance education has expanded, to mark its new horizons, today it is general to

use the expression e-learning. It would, however, be a grave mistake to forget

that the basic assumptions and goals of e-learning, as well as a large proportion

of the solutions and methods necessary for their realization were formed during

the past decades of distance learning. Let us have a look at the most

characteristic of these.

Independence from space and time

The student exits the framework of the conventional, person-centered

classroom teaching – moreover, he or she does not enter there, only temporarily.

He or she has at her or his disposal the information necessary for learning; he or

she can learn at will anywhere and any time. Let us make a mental note here:

beside that fact that this is considerably augmenting the possibilities of teaching

and learning, this is at the same time the basic problem of distance education and

e-learning, to wit, how can we effectively help the students and urge them to

familiarize themselves with the course material, that is, to learn, if they are not

together with the class and the teacher in the lecture hall? This is the basic

problem situation of distance education and e-learning. The first part of the

question will be answered by further characteristics of distance education.

Learning- and student-centeredness

The most ancient form of education is personal instruction, the master-

student relationship. It is the teacher who is the source of knowledge and the

transmitter of information necessary for the acquisition of knowledge; the

primary method of transfer is the mediation of knowledge. In conventional

attendance-based mass education as well, the central role is occupied by the

teacher‘s frontal knowledge transfer. The textbook – together with other study

aids – has a supplementary, supporting, adjunct role. In the case of distance

education, we cannot – or only to a very limited extent – count on the teacher‘s

explanation; the student is left alone in the course of the acquisition of the course

material. The role of information sources changes; their weight increases, and as

opposed to the conventional attendance-learning now the main role is given to

printed texts and other learning aids in the transfer of knowledge and the

management of the learning process. The course material of distance learning

includes the teacher‘s instructions needed for its learning; it suggests and

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motivates learning method and learning strategy. In the system of relations

earmarked by ―teacher – student‖ and ―teaching-learning,‖ the emphasis is

strongly shifted towards the direction of the student and learning. This brings

about a significant change in the role of the teacher, and also changes the

expectations posed to the students.

Individual learning

In order for someone to be an effective distance learner, this person needs to

possess the capabilities necessary for individual learning. He or she has to be

capable of and ready for acquiring the course material and finish the learning

program, that is, he or she has to have the skill of knowledge construction. The

conditions of this are:

1. the required level of development of basic cognitive and personal

competences

2. the metacognitive abilities necessary to apply effective learning

strategies

3. interest in learning and in the course material

The learning- and course material-centeredness of distance education is

manifest, among other things, in giving assistance to mobilize, and partly

develop, the above listed internal conditions. In traditional distance learning,

learning aids fill this role. In the case of e-learning all this is built into the course

material, the learning program.

We can see that already in the case of distance education the basic problems

of e-learning are taking shape: the role change of teacher and student due to the

independence of learning from space and time, as well as the change of the

character and structuring of the learning material. These challenges have

generated responses, as well as organizational, administrative, and

methodological solutions, which need to be taken into consideration in the

course of the development of e-learning. The above elements that figure in the

three circles marking the source areas of e-learning are those which we have at

our disposal in the course of the compilation of e-learning course material. In

what follows, we will have a look at the joint cross section of these, that is, those

operations, points of view, which are the basic conditions of the success of an e-

leaning course material, program, of learning-environment development.

4.3.4 The fourth circle: system integration

Having reviewed the source areas of e-learning, and having shortly

introduced the elements of the various concept clusters, we have now reached

the critical phase, where we will find out whether we can prepare a good quality

e-learning course material. In the joint section of the three concept circles we

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enumerated the concepts of didactical planning, modularity, and systemic view.

Didactical planning is the development of the optimal effect system of the

course material, the learning program, and the learning environment making use

of the above discussed elements. Modularity is a technological dimension of e-

learning, an effort to make the elements of the course material fit in the learning

management software system Systemic view is nothing other than the fitting of

the e-learning program in the whole of learning and work environment, its

positioning in the organizational and social networks of learning.

Didactic design

In the course of the compilation of e-learning course material and e-learning

program we need systematic planning. This design process comprises the

following components:

1. the selection of the content of the course material, its compilation and

shaping to fit the aim of the course – content design

2. the elaboration of the text of the course material according to didactic

criteria– text design

3. the design of the internal and external reference system of the

hypertext built out of linearly organized content – hypertext design

4. the selection of image and sound materials, videos, animation,

simulation, and their integration in the course material – multimedia

design

5. the design of program elements coordinating and helping the learning

process and learning – learning support design

6. the design of feedbacks, evaluating and measuring systems

concerning the success of the learning process –

evaluation/assessment design

Modularity

Modularity is a system organizing activity directed at the management of

complexity and the satisfaction of the need for multiplicity. The thusly organized

and operated systems have a maximum flexibility, and are suitable for the

realization of varied product and service supply. In the case of e-learning

materials and learning programs, modularity appears primarily on the software

technological level of learning material organization. In order for e-learning

frameworks (CMS, LMS) to easily manage the various course material

components, we need a kind of standardization. It is well worth to break up the

learning contents into small blocks, basic learning components, similar to the

knowledge components of programmed learning. These basic components are

called learning objects, and are provided with meta data, according to which

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they can be identified, organized into a system and reused (Reusable Learning

Object).

This technologically justified procedure is followed by a new perspective

concerning learning contents. The earlier unified, complex course materials that

were only divided into chapters need to be divided into 2-15 minute-long units,

which stand on their own, and can be organized into larger units as well.

However, we have to be careful to avoid the confusion of the software

technological level of modularity and the didactic level of learning material

planning327

We are very wrong to think that the problem-free insertion of

learning objects in learning management software is equivalent to the solution of

didactical problems, that this is certainly an e-learning pedagogic methodology.

We must not forget that any well-operating e-learning framework (LMS) filled

with learning objects constitutes only the inputs in the learning process, and says

nothing about the relevance of the course material, nor the success and

efficiency of learning. It also can be a problem if during course material

development those knowledge elements are given priority, which, true enough,

are standardized ―reusable educational objects,‖ but it is not sure that they offer

the most precise possible image of the real process, or that they are the most

efficient from the perspective of learning support, and that they develop the

really necessary competence and skills.

Systemic view

One of the key elements of the success of building from the components of e-

learning is a systemic view, that is, the focusing of attention on the whole of the

complex system of teaching and learning. Already didactic planning supposes

thinking along these lines, since adequate media choice, the integration of

multimedia elements, the systematization of information helping learning – all

these necessitate that the parts and the whole be thought out together. The title of

one of the classic textbooks of didactical planning refers to this: The Systematic

Design of Instruction.328

The course material and program of e-learning cannot

solely, in itself, be considered systematically, since it constitutes a part of a

bigger system, the whole of the learning environment. Thinking in systemic

terms: e-learning is situated in the broadly understood learning environment, in

the entire, given effect system of learning. A systemic view is nothing but the

327

―The course management and instruction management systems consider as educational

methodology the methodology of education organization and administration; this, however,

they covertly confuse with the pedagogically and cognitively inspired methodology of

education.‖ Klára Benda: ―Minerva moves into computers: The past half century of

computerized educational methodologies‖. In: Médiakutató, 2002. 328

Dick, W., Carey, L., Carey J. O., The Systematic Design of Instruction. 2001, Addison-Wesley

Educational Publishers.

183

adjustment of the e-learning program to the whole of learning and work

environment, and its placement in the organizational and social network of

learning.

4.4. Various possibilities of grasping the instructional role of e-

learning

In the 20th century – which was called the century of technology – education

technology became one of the flagships of pedagogical innovation. The leading

concepts of instruction innovation built on technology quickly followed one

another: first programmed learning, then interactive video, then computer

assisted learning, later the Internet and now e-learning. It has been in the past

few years that the expression has become the comprehensive leading concept of

the education developing efforts based on information and communication

technology. One is right to pose the question: what is this all about? What is

hidden behind the concept, what can the expression mean? What is the

relationship between learning marked with a small ―e‖ and the earlier forms of

teaching and learning, and the earlier trends of education technology? If we wish

to consider e-learning as an alternative of conventional education feeding on the

experience of thousands of years, it has to promise a lot. Which are these

promises? Are they realistic? How can we judge it today? The promise of easy,

effective learning has long attracted humans. Perhaps with e-learning we have

finally acquired the tool system which makes possible the realization of this

dream? We believe that today we are still far from well understanding the

processes which the revolution of informatics and telecommunication has

effectuated in society and education. However, it can be shown that e-learning –

as the comprehensive peak concept of the educational applications of electronic

info-communicational technology – can be understood differently in different

areas and system levels of education. It is equally important for both decision

makers and institution leaders and the experts participating in program and

course material development to get to know these different meanings which,

however, complementing one another, pose a new system of possibilities,

perhaps a new world of teaching and learning?

4.4.1. E-learning as an alternative of conventional education

E-learning can be understood as an alternative of conventional, attendance-

based instruction. When we prepare e-learning course material, or when we buy

such a program of course material, we choose an e-learning solution instead of

conventional teaching and course material. As an alternative of attendance-based

instruction, classical distance education emerged as a differently imaginable and

realizable form of education, teaching, and learning. E-learning appears as a

184

newer alternative, not independently from distance education, which first

overstepped the boundaries of conventional attendance-based education, but

applying and improving its perspective and methods as well.

4.4.2. E-learning additively supplements conventional education

E-learning can be understood and applied in such a way that it additively

supplements conventional education. There are two ways to supplement

conventional learning through e-learning solutions:

1. On some system level of education we alternatively provide the electronic

version of course material, course, and training. It is in these cases that we speak

of ―new solutions,‖ up-to-date ―e-learning course material,‖ or ―partial

programs,‖ etc., within a complex skill development program. In this case, from

among the many factors of the modernization of education, e-learning is one of

the possible supply broadening elements.

2. We supplement a course material or a course, through electronic contents

and network communicational possibilities (CD-ROM, DVD, webpage, etc.). It

is this version that every teacher applies in any partial system of education when

he or she uses the computer or the Internet in some form in the process of

teaching. We find several higher education examples for this type of e-learning

solutions on the home page of the American project discussed in Chapter 3.329

4.4.3. The relationship of e-learning and conventional learning is

complementary

E-learning can be in a complementary relationship with conventional

education. In this case, the reorganization of course material, the course, has the

aim to increase the efficiency of instruction and of the training

institution/organization through the use of information- and communication

technological tool kit at our disposal. In such cases, the conventional structure of

teaching-lecturing-training does not remain unchanged, since the information

transfer based on personal teacher-student relationship is partly supplemented by

electronic interactive course materials and information material available in

digitized form. According to whether the remaining personal meetings

(instructional lessons, lectures) remain unchanged or are modified, we can

distinguish two kinds of ―blended learning‖:

329

URL://www.center.rpi.edu. The National Center for Academic Transformation (NCAT) is a

national, non-for-profit organization that serves as a resource for colleagues and universities,

providing leadership in how effective use of information technology can improve students‘

learning while reducing instructional costs.

185

1. We speak of supplementary blended learning when the remaining

personal teacher-student meetings remain unchanged from the

perspective of content and methodology. In these cases, we

supplement a part of the classes and lectures through information

material, tests, interactive applications uploaded on the net, our own

webpage, or the surface of some learning management software.

2. We can speak of transformational blended learning when the

remaining personal teacher-student meetings (classes, seminars,

lectures) are transformed both from the perspective of content and

methodology. This form of blended learning requires a full range

rethinking and reorganization of the course material, which is a very

work-intensive task.330

4.4.4. E-learning is the tool of transforming the educational institution

There is a possible understanding of e-learning, which considers the

implementation of info-communicational technology as the most important

transformative factor of the system-level innovative transformation of the

institution. In such efforts, the transformative effect is expected from the World

Wide Web, and experience shows that this is indeed such a subsystem which –

in the case of an adequate application – has an effect on all components of the

system. In a broader sense, we are speaking about the transformation of the

institutional functions with the help of information and communication

technological devices, which interactively can result in the transformation of the

institutional culture, and the dominance of new forms of teaching and learning.

However, the new teaching and learning culture of the institution is not induced

automatically as a result of the technological tool system. The desired

institutional transformation may be the result of a hugely complex iterational and

synergic relationship system, in which a key role is played by decision-making

awareness, readiness, and motivation.

4.4.5. E-learning is the tool of the systemic transformation of education

E-learning may also signify the program of the systemic transformation of

education In this case, the aim is the electronization and digitization of the entire

communicational infrastructure of the system, while changes may happen in the

structure, functioning, goals, culture, and methods of the system – changes

which are partly intended, and partly occur as a consequence and side-effect.

This transformational model –- in response to future perspectives positively

330

Twigg, C., ―Improving quality: reducing costs: new models for online learning.‖ In EDUCASE,

2003.

186

biased toward technology –- is built on the expansion and construction of the

developmental trends of the past decades, and can be found in more and more

countries. Those countries wh.ich constitute the cutting edge in this respect

generally reform their educational systems with the help of well thought-through

strategic plans and well-prepared action programs.

187

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