Internet and Online Education Moon

Internet and Online Education

Moon

In order to fully understand the impact of online courses and to place them within their proper social context it is important to understand how the idea of online learning developed. A literature review reveals a growing body of sources related to the history of the Internet and it social relevance. The following will explore this research and will summarize it in order to gain a proper understanding of its social significance.

History of the Internet and Internet-Based Courses

The concept of educational courses where the student did not have to be physically present in the classroom began soon after the first television set was introduced. The original concept of the television was that it would be a means to educate a population in a highly efficient manner (Freed, 1999). However, corporate greed soon took over and the educational purpose of the television soon became secondary to the advertising potential.

The first telecourse began in 1959 and continued into the early 1960s. Sunrise Semester involved a teacher, standing before a class with a camera that was shooting over the heads of the students. The program was dropped due to a lack of funding (Freed, 1999). Sesame Street and other educational programs arose from these early efforts (Freed, 1999).

The first true telecourse was offered by Coastline Community College in 1976. Courses were broadcast over public television to universities and libraries in Orange County. At the same time Dallas Community College began producing video courses for export to other campuses (Freed, 1999). Considering these early forerunners it should not be surprising that online courses sprang up quickly after the invention of the Internet.

In 1991 the World Wide Web as we know it was born (Leiner, et. Al, 2000). In a search for the oldest online school on any level, the jury is still out. There were many schools on the Internet that claim to be the first. It was difficult to draw any type of conclusion on this subject. However, one thing became apparent. There are hundreds, or perhaps even thousands of online schools offering anything from preschool to MA and PHD level instruction.

Universities first began giving students access to the Internet in the early 1990s (Freed, 1999). The Internet provides many opportunities for distance learning and has many advantages over early distance learning courses and the face-to-face classroom. The Internet allows for on-demand video, audio, text, and graphics, immediate access to vast libraries of research material, and real time interaction between teachers and students (Freed, 1999). Now systems are being developed that provide these services with improved speed and quality.

Social Ramifications of Internet-Based Courses

The Internet has changed almost everything in our lives. It has changed the way we communicate, the way we do business and the way we learn. The Internet has acted as a leveling force between large and small corporations. The Internet has given customers and students more choices. In this respect it has served to increase competition as well. Even the traditional public school classroom now must compete with online public school classrooms that deliver their material to the student via the Internet.

The psychological and social aspects of online communication have been the study of many peer-reviewed articles over the past 15 years. The Internet is expected to have a greater social impact than television because if effects more areas of a person's life. The Internet affects their personal, family, school and work life (Surveying the Digital Future, 1999). It is not just for entertainment value. Some claim that the Internet has changed social relations (Civin, 2000), but others disagree and feel that the impact has not been as great as others claim (Katz and Aspden, 1997). There are many conflicting studies on the social and psychological effects of the Internet. The difficulty is in determining which ones are the most credible.