jlovett@wiley.csusb.edu wrote:
>From ftp Fri Oct 20 04:27:35 1995
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 1995 04:27:34 GMT
From: jlovett@wiley.csusb.edu
Subject: Request from jlovett@wiley.csusb.edu
Content-Type: text/html
Apparently-To: jod

I am a graduate of Penn (64) and was holder of the first IBM Graduate Fellowship for the Application of Computers in the Social Sciences and Humanities (1965-1967). I was also author of the first automated content analysis program at Penn (PennInk). Not bragging but simply introduction to saying that what you have done is realize the visions we held 30 years ago about what might be as we considered computers and the new university. I remember (and still have) the uniquely nonlinear letters from Ted Nelson as he dreamed his dream of an interconnected world. This year, I am on leave from my department (Health Science and Human Ecology), on loan to administration where I am assisting the university (California State University, San Bernardino) form a vision for the 21st Century. Telecommunications based distance learning is absolutely critical for a university whose state-mandated service area is larger than many entire states (we serve over 30,000 square miles of deserts and mountains). Yet, faculty are becoming trifucated into the "Frightened," "Fretful," and "Fabulous." The Frightened see technologies and applications as yours as threatening. Threatening aspects are: technophobia, refuse to learn a new way of teaching, recognition that the epistemology and taxonomy of knowledge (as they know it) is being replaced by an elastic, dynamically evolving knowledge-web, and also probably loss of the raw power/prestige that lecturing to a class of students may afford them. The Fretful are just that -- a larger group of the uncertain, willing to listen, but as yet uncommited. For the most part, I think, fretful because they are afraid that some imperative will occur before they have a chance to retire. The Fabulous are the group who have embraced the technologies and approaches wholeheartedly and wholesale. They are sometimes a hammer in search of a nail; they are always the evangelists. We need more reasoned and thoughtful demonstrations of the appropriate uses of computer-mediation in learning. We need strong examples of fostering self-discovery and creativity. We need more operating examples of society-building via the net. Do you know of any examples where faculty at different universities have "combined" their classes over the Net? Would you be willing to join in on our strategic planning listserver here at CSUSB to contribute to the discussion on education and the Internet? Finally, on our strategic planning web pages (Cornerstone), may I cite and provide a link to your page? Good luck, I will follow your pages regularly. Joe Lovett