Let me start by saying that I am an enthusuastic proponent of the use of information technology (IT) in academic settings. I use IT intensively and in varied contexts in my classes. I believe that IT significantly enhances communication and collaboration between me and my students (and among students) and empowers student learning in ways not possible with conventional means. As teachers, we sometimes forget that the most important ongoing activity in our classes is not teaching, but learning, and I believe that IT is dramatically improving the learning experience of our students. I use IT with three pedagogical goals in mind: 1) to improve communication and collaboration in my classes; 2) to aid my students in information discovery, and; 3) to empower students to learn using a variety of resources. Brief descriptions follow.

1. Communication and Collaboration. I use electronic conferencing to generate discussions on a variety of topics outside of class. Participants can open threads of discussion to which others can respond. The e-conference for a particular course has many different topics under discussion at any one time. One course in which I employ e-conferencing extensively is "Introduction to Genetics and Development", a core course in our biology curriculum for first- and second-year students (typical enrollments of ~100 students). I find that the electronic conferencing format stimulates students who otherwise might be reticent to speak up in such a large class to raise questions and enter into discussions on a variety of topics outside of class. I often post questions for analysis or discussion, and find, quite contrary to some views of computer culture as an isolating experience, that groups of students will work collaboratively in posting replies or in raising new questions of their own.
2. In terms of information discovery, I am using existing resources on the World Wide Web (W3) to provide a means for my students to garner information dealing with molecular biology. I have built web pages to provide W3 links that will launch student inquiries in particular directions. This focuses student explorations and generates useful searches. This approach minimizes a common problem voiced by some critics, that the W3 contains alot of "junk" information. I also utilize some of the molecular biology databases in my laboratory class, "Principles of Gene Manipulation" to search for and analyze gene sequence homologies. These information discovery approaches are used in addition to having my students employ traditional literature search engines provided by our library.
3. Graphical Resources. Molecular graphics are especially important in teaching current biology, because so much about the chemistry of biological molecules can be conveyed with molecular models. I employ several programs that I have acquired from internet sites to build and display models of complex, sometimes interacting macromolecules. I have constructed tutorials which allow student-generated exploration of important molecules in three dimensions. I have also made animations of important molecules which are shown in class. I have produced W3 pages that contain these molecular graphics (including movies) so that students can access them outside of class at any computer classroom on campus. MOST IMPORTANTLY, I now require students to construct their own molecular tutorials. For examples of student-centered learning in my molecular biology class, you are invited to visit our molecular tutorial pages. Any of the above models plus scanned images from the research literature can be put into a digital slideshow. I use these digitized slides often in class. In a sense, they have replaced old overheads, with two important improvements: 1) full color graphics to illustrate important points, and; 2) students have access to the slide show for a particular lecture anytime from any computerized classroom on campus. Thus, students can revisit AV aids projected in class anytime.

Why then the title? Do I really think that distance learning is "tired"? No, but I do find absurd the notion that IT-mediated distance learning will largely replace the interactions that occur between me and my students as they come to understand the macromolecular machinery that runs the chemistry of life. Analysis of research papers and learning to approach new ideas with a healthy, critical skepticism through logical dissection are two activities that are essential if students are to understand the experimental underpinnings of current models of cellular mechanisms. Although IT allows us to approach these activities at a higher level than otherwise possible, I am quite skeptical that virtual classrooms will ever be able to supplant the intense student-faculty collaborations that facilitate these activities.

Proposals for virtual universities and colleges grow naturally from the tremendous impact that IT has already had on education. My skepticism about these visions arises from a conviction that that learning is a multi-faceted and complex process, deeply dependent on personal interactions between students and faculty and among students themselves. This is not to say there are not many ways that IT can enhance these interactions. Also, for some topics, remedial mathematics, for example, exclusive use of IT-based distance approaches may be entirely appropriate.

John Seely Brown and Paul Dugid (Change, July/Aug., 1996) have provided many cogent arguments for maintaining the physical continuity of colleges and universities in the digital age. Foremost among these is that higher education at its best involves the "enculturation" of students into learning communities, something that distance learning is not good at. While distance learning pursues access to information, it may ignore fundamentally important access to communities engaged in scholarly activity:

"If...learning requires genuine participation, distance learning often provides its illusion only, while actually keeping students at a disempowering distance"

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