A "laissez faire approach" among educators has produced "a disturbing lack of critical thinking" about the impact of technology and online instruction on education, writes E. Wayne Ross, a professor of education at the State University of New York at Binghamton.

"A growing number of technology skeptics argue that the digital revolution has produced a variety of deleterious effects, such as disconnecting people from nature, their communities, and one another," he says. Though many colleges are scrambling to make courses available online, Mr. Ross notes that critics are questioning whether distance learning will ever replace the classroom and social experiences that are integral to college life. "The conflict between distance education advocates and critics is at least in part based on contradictory conceptions of education," Mr. Ross says. "Can computer-mediated interaction substitute for the human interaction/experience that is at the heart of learning?" he asks.

Mr. Ross argues that distance learning is a key element of the growing commercialization of higher education. Worried that commercial online universities will lure away students, the leaders of traditional universities "sell their institutions' reputations in exchange for the resources to mount online programs," he says.

But profits aren't necessarily on the horizon. Mr. Ross notes that Terri Hedgaard-Bishop, the vice president for distance learning at the University of Phoenix, recently acknowledged that technology education often costs more than traditional methods. "We must be aware of the potential downside of e-learning and demand wise use of technology for the collective good," writes Mr. Ross. He challenges educators to move beyond the use of technology for "quick-fix pedagogical or budgetary ends."

The article is not online, but information about the magazine may be found at http://zena.secureforum.com/Znet/zmag/zmag.cfm

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