Electronic Communication and the Humanities

Barton D. Thurber, Jack W. Pope - University of San Diego, USA

The speakers consider that using electronic communication as in a Virtual On-line University does not deal with the essential aspects in teaching humanities. That is a raison why people in humanities are not actively participating in the computer revolution. They remark that in the Web, information is just given like in a library, but the information is not knowledge, and the university is not a library. This is one of the reasons why they consider that for humanities, Internet is not an adequate tool. Using the Web, it is possible to talk and write quickly, but that is not the same as face to face communication. They emphasise that in humanities, interaction is important. Education is not a transfer of knowledge to the students. In some cultures there are gestures, which are an important aspect of the communication, and hypermedia can not replace them. Also, in humanities, there are other problems such as the transfer of credits for courses on the Web.

The Pros and Cons of Implementing the Internet in the Classroom: Making Sense of the Hype

Eszter Hargittai - Princeton University, United States

The speaker presents a list of advantages and disadvantages concerning the Internet as a basic tool in the classroom. She points out that it is good for shy students but she remarks that a disaventage is that the Internet does not contribute to the social behaviour of students. Internet does however affect the social behaviour and the nature of the interrelationships. For professors, using the Internet implies new skills and new responsibilities. Then the author emphasises that Internet use implies the adoption of new policies, new responsibilities: monitoring, limiting access to services, filtering software, etc. She concludes that the Internet should not be considered as a substitute for the tools of traditional education but as a complementary tool. With Internet aspects of education have to be changed. The role of the teacher changes from an information provider to an information guide.

See http://www.princenton.edu/~eszter/edu