E-Education: Wave of the Future or Passing Trend?

 

 

¹⁾Entrepreneurs are spending millions to create for-profit universities of the Internet, and the smart money is betting that by the time your middle schoolers go off to college, they may not really go anywhere. Their campus may be your basement, their computer their classroom.

Arthur Levine, President of Teacher’s College at Columbia University, says the new online schools are catering¹ to the new American college student.

Arthur Levine: The image of the college student is somebody who falls between 18 and 22 who attends college full-time² and lives on the campus. That person now makes up 16 percent of the college population. The rest are older, part-time, working.

John Chambers³, CEO of Cisco Systems and perhaps the most respected executive in the world of technology, says that no university can afford not to be on the Internet.

John Chambers: If they don’t change, the students aren’t going to be there.

Reporter: Are you saying that if a Harvard or a Yale or a Stanford doesn’t get, doesn’t start teaching online, that they won’t exist in 20 years?

Chambers: If you don’t change, you will get left behind. It isn’t just teaching online...

Reporter: Even Harvard, Yale, Stanford?

Chambers: Even Harvard, Yale, Stanford.

Robert Berdahl: He’s in the Internet business, I’m in the education business.

    Robert Berdahl, ²⁾Chancellor⁴ of the University of California at Berkeley, worries that schools jumping onto the Internet bandwagon may not like where it takes them.

Berdahl: How do we make certain that the students are of the same quality that we have on campus?

Reporter: You’re getting right at the heart of what concerns the critics of this, what some call the gold rush; rushing in for fear you’ll be left behind, without stopping to think about what some of the downsides are.

Berdahl: Well, I think that is the core issue. How do we make certain that a degree is truly worth a degree and make certain that we don’t have the ³⁾equivalent of diploma mills on the Internet?

    Lots of academics agree with him that an online education could never be as rich, as complete, as fulfilling as an on-campus education.

Berdahl: I don’t think chatrooms and virtual discussions are the functional⁵ equivalent of being in a classroom.

Karen Fungerolli: Your education is like sex on the Internet. You can get it online but it’s a lot better in person.

    When Karen Fungerolli decided⁶ to go back to college 12 years ago, the Internet wasn’t an option. Now with a bachelor’s, a master’s, a PhD and a job teaching English at Georgetown University, she’s become one of the most vocal⁷ opponents of online education.

Fungerolli: My biggest fear is that adults, particularly adults just like me, when I was 28 and working full time, are gonna see it as an irresponsible choice to go to campus, a ⁴⁾self-indulgent choice and they’re going to be lured⁸ to the Internet, they’re going to believe that this is the only responsible thing for them to do.

Reporter: Let’s say you’re in the classroom and it’s also being taught online and there is an interaction capability⁹, what do you lose? Why can’t you get the same back and forth¹⁰, the same ⁵⁾Socratic method going online?

Fungerolli: There is some sort of marvelous energy that gets going between me and a student when I know that that student is really catching¹¹ on. I can tell, I read eyes, I can tell the difference between a shut-down response and an engaged response. Not only do I not know how that would happen with someone online, I don’t know how I’d care. And caring, I think, is a lot of it. How do you care about someone you’ve never met or you don’t know?

Reporter: Do you know who the other people in the class are?

Ella Hullah: Yeah.

Reporter: You do?

Hullah: In a traditional school, I may never know the person sitting next to me. There would be no reason to even speak to them. Online the first thing you do is send a bio, when you go into your class, introducing yourself and who you are and what you do. So you get to know the people and learn about them. CE

 

 

 

08、未来趋势？过时潮流？网上教学正负谈

 

企业家们纷纷斥资数百万来创建营利性的网上大学，而这笔投资期望在中学生们毕业升大学的时候得到回报--他们或许不用四处去求学，大学也许就在地下室里，电脑就是他们的课堂。

哥伦比亚大学师范学院院长亚瑟·莱文说，新式的网上大学将培育出新式美国大学生。

亚瑟·莱文：大学生的形象是年龄在十八至二十二岁之间、住在校园里的全日制学生。现在这样的学生占大学生总数的百分之十六，其余的年纪要大些，半工半读。

约翰·钱伯斯是思科公司的首席执行官，也可以说是科技界最令人尊敬的执行官，他说，如果大学不尝试在网上开办，就不会有前途。

约翰·钱伯斯：如果他们不改变，就不会有学生。

记者∶你的意思是说，如果哈佛、耶鲁或斯坦福大学不这样，不尝试在网上开课，二十年后它们就办不下去了？

钱伯斯：不改变就会落伍。不仅仅是在网上开课……

记者：甚至连哈佛、耶鲁和斯坦福也不例外？

钱伯斯：甚至连哈佛、耶鲁和斯坦福也不例外。

罗伯特·伯达尔：他从事的是互联网事业，而我从事教育事业。

加州大学伯克利分校校长罗伯特·伯达尔则担心说，学校一股脑儿地涌上互联网并不一定能实现办学初衷。

伯达尔∶如何判断网上学生是否和校园里的学生有同样的素质呢？

记者：你说的正是批评家们所关心的核心问题。有人认为，这就像淘金热--惟恐落后而纷纷效仿，却没考虑到一些负面影响。

伯达尔：我觉得，这才是核心问题。我们怎样肯定一个学位证书的真实含金量？又怎样肯定在网上就不会滥发文凭？

许多学者也持相同的见解，认为网络教学无法像校园教学那样丰富、完整，并富有实践性。

伯达尔：我认为聊天室和虚拟讨论无法拥有与教室讨论的同样功能。

凯伦·方格罗丽：教育就和网上性事一样，你可以从网上获得，但最好还是亲临其境。

当十二年前凯伦·方格罗丽决定重返校园时，网络教学还没有时兴。现在，她已取得了学士、硕士、以及哲学博士学位后，并在乔治敦大学教授英语。她是网络教学最强烈的反对者。

方格罗丽：我最担心成年人，尤其是像我当年一样的成年人，那时我二十八岁，有全职工作，觉得上学是一个不负责任、太纵容自己的选择，于是他们就会被网络教学所引诱，觉得只有这样做才有责任感。

记者：让我们来比较教室上课和网上上课，网上也有互动性，没有什么损失啊？为什么就不能在网上取得课堂教学的同样效果？

方格罗丽：在课堂上，我和学生之间能产生一种不可思议的力量，令我了解学生是否真的能跟上进度。我可以看懂他们的眼神，我可以分辨出拒绝和接受两种反应的区别。在网上，我不仅不知道每个学生的反应，同时我也不知道该怎样关心他们。我认为对学生的关心是很重要的。如果你从来没见过或是从来都不了解你的学生，你又该怎么关心他们呢？

记者：你认识班上其他的学生吗？

埃拉·休勒：认识。

记者：是吗？

休勒：在传统学校里，我也许永远也不认识坐在我旁边的同学，因为没有必要与他们说话。而在网上，第一件要做的事情就是发一份个人简历，在进入班级之前介绍自己的姓名和职业。这样你可以认识和了解他们。 CE

 

 

 

1) entrepreneur [CntrEprE5nE:r] n. 企业家

2) Chancellor [5tFB:nsElEr] n. 某些大学的校长，荣誉校长

3) equivalent [i5kUivElEnt] a. 相等的，等量的

4) self-indulgent [self-in5dQldVEnt] a. 放纵的，任性的

5) Socratic [sR5krAtik] a. 苏格拉底（哲学）的

 

1 catering   

n. 给养

参考例句：

• Most of our work now involves catering for weddings. 我们现在的工作多半是承办婚宴。
• Who did the catering for your son's wedding? 你儿子的婚宴是由谁承办的？

2 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

3 chambers   

n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅

参考例句：

• The body will be removed into one of the cold storage chambers. 尸体将被移到一个冷冻间里。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mr Chambers's readable book concentrates on the middle passage: the time Ransome spent in Russia. Chambers先生的这本值得一看的书重点在中间：Ransome在俄国的那几年。 来自互联网

4 chancellor   

n.(英)大臣；法官；(德、奥)总理；大学校长

参考例句：

• They submitted their reports to the Chancellor yesterday.他们昨天向财政大臣递交了报告。
• He was regarded as the most successful Chancellor of modern times.他被认为是现代最成功的财政大臣。

5 functional   

adj.为实用而设计的，具备功能的，起作用的

参考例句：

• The telephone was out of order,but is functional now.电话刚才坏了，但现在可以用了。
• The furniture is not fancy,just functional.这些家具不是摆着好看的，只是为了实用。

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

7 vocal   

adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目

参考例句：

• The tongue is a vocal organ.舌头是一个发音器官。
• Public opinion at last became vocal.终于舆论哗然。

8 lured   

吸引，引诱（lure的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• The child was lured into a car but managed to escape. 那小孩被诱骗上了车，但又设法逃掉了。
• Lured by the lust of gold,the pioneers pushed onward. 开拓者在黄金的诱惑下，继续奋力向前。

9 capability   

n.能力；才能；(pl)可发展的能力或特性等

参考例句：

• She has the capability to become a very fine actress.她有潜力成为杰出演员。
• Organizing a whole department is beyond his capability.组织整个部门是他能力以外的事。

10 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

11 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。