This is the potential of information networks, and is why I returned to
school, and why I chose to seek admission to UNO’s Ph.D. program in education. I
don’t claim to have the vision of Douglas Engelbart, but I had these same ideas
before I knew him. I believe strongly that what I teach has nothing to do with
technology. A technology is innovative only to those born before its introduction . I
think it is essential that students have access to technology, and that students
understand that what they are learning is a way of thinking, problem solving, and
planning -- of collective IQ. It is getting into position to think.
How I think about learning
I am the author of many Y2K bugs. I console myself because it is unlikely that
any of the computer programs I wrote during the ‘60s, ‘70’s and ‘80’s survive today. It
is a general rule of thumb in computer programming that for every software bug
that is found and fixed, two new ones are introduced. It is a goal of software
engineering to produce software that meets its specifications. Generally speaking, it
is not possible to produce error (bug) free software.
So, in my life as a systems analysis more than half of my time was invested in
finding mistakes, discovering how they might be avoided in the future, and
designing methods to correct them. Mistakes were NOT accepted, but they were
expected. No time was wasted assessing blame. Real learning occurred in the
process. Not only did we learn to find mistakes in the execution of systems, but we
learned how to recognize mistakes in the design of systems.
In computer science, my work is recursive in its nature. Solutions to today’s
problems are used as input to the analysis of tomorrow’s systems. Today’s solutions
are the result of finding bugs -- making mistakes. This is a heuristic model of
problem solving,
a technique in which the most appropriate solution of several
found by alternative methods is selected at successive stages for use in the next step.
This approach to learning is very much learn by doing, synthesize
understanding, design and test multiple solutions, make mistakes. Learning
becomes experiential. This is not to say that learning environments and curricula
should not be designed. It is to say that learning environments and curricula should
always be in the process of being designed. This is a computer scientist’s recursive,
heuristic model of learning. I certainly don’t believe it is the only model.
The year 1996 saw the World Wide Web enter popular culture. I finished my
thesis (North, 1996) and completed my masters degree in Computer Science. I also
remember this year for another event. A paradigm shift changes the way we think
about problems, what solutions to consider, how to plan for change. My many years
of experience implementing computer systems taught me that, from the end user
view, computers would not reach their potential until we stopped thinking about
them as computers. In 1996, what I knew as a computer disappeared. This can be
understood with the help of a simple motto of Sun Microsystems: The Network is
As forms of communication technology, letter writing, the printing press,
radio, television and computers are all concerned with transmission of information
-- networking. These are either one to one or one to many technologies. These are
all pushtechnologies; arrival of information is not user controlled; information is
pushed at users. The information network mentioned above is the first interactive
means of social transmission since the village storyteller -- a many to many
technology. Both the information and its source (the story and storyteller) are
present to all and subject to collective scrutiny. This is the first many to many
information transport of the modern age. Information networks are also pull
technologies; finding and accessing information are user directed.
Prior to printed books the knowledge of any one individual tended to be
much more general and rounded in nature. With the advent of printed books,
knowledge became much more compartmentalized. Specialized areas of knowledge
developed, with special vocabulary used only within their discourse community.
One outcome of this was the overall growth of knowledge and the loss of the free
flow of its information. Modern technologies such as telegraph, radio, then
television are breaking down this compartmentalization, but only in some
discourse communities. It seems that academics and scholars still prefer their own
private “stage” for information flow. To the extent that even within the same
speciality, vocabulary is so unique that ease of communication is not possible.
Information networks are providing a worldwide discourse community with a new
“middle stage.” The middle stage of information networks exampled by the World
Wide Web is an area in which the specialized disciplinary discourse can no longer
maintain its separateness. Extend this into the future ... who knows ... there is the
potential of ending the compartmentalization of knowledge and breakdown the
disciplinary boxes so common in today’s curriculum and instruction (Brant, 1998).
The Web we know today is an information transport system. It is remarkable
from a computer science view because HTML carefully separates content and
presentation. A document is viewable using many different technologies. With
little fan-fare, Tim Berners-Lee is leading work on XML, which carefully separates
content, presentation, and semantics (Metcalfe, 1999). This is a development that is
described in my masters thesis (North, 1996)as HD (heterogeneous data) and
recognized as necessary for building information networks. This is not a
replacement for the Web or for its markup language HTML. XML adds an important
