The Impact of the Technical Contexts
Despite the problems that were associated with adopting a distributed approach
to computing, it is important to emphasize that it is clearly advantageous.
The advantages from the aspect of both the discipline and the learner are
clearly associated with its powerful ability to support multi-user collaboration,
even over distances. In every project, the technical issues posed challenges
that threatened to overshadow the academic issues, yet also provided the potential
to contributing to the positive growth of the project if overcome. For example,
Athena began with issues of usability, and then spent the majority of its early
existence wrestling with technical challenges.
The instructional software effort started relatively early in the schedule.
Unfortunately, the system was not yet stable, and developmental tools were relatively
primitive. Thus the people who tried hardest to meet the objectives of Athena bore
the brunt of the problems. By the time the system had stabilized and the tools had
improved, the funds for instructional software development had been largely exhausted.
(Champine, 1991, p.72)
In the end, Athena did survive the struggle to adapt, and is available today
to provide leadership for tomorrow. It is now equipping itself to more
effectively support educational endeavors through supporting powerful tools
like cT and possibly AthenaMuse 2 when it is available. A degree of
development was needed in order to mature to the point where it has now
become more capable of achieving its own more profound educational potential.
In the following conversation between Lawler and Hopper, Lawler
(personal interview, July 20, 1992) refers the a point at which technical
limits are overcome, so that developers can become free to deal with more
abstract issues:
Lawler: I think the example of virtual memory will demonstrate
an important point. Before virtual memory, programmers did horrible things
to get programs to run in limited real memories, but after the introduction
of virtual memory, people could escape from limitations of the machine.
The question is one of reaching a critical point of available resources,
to escape from the focus on the issues of design which are primarily economic
and primarily physical, into the focus on design issues which are primarily
logical and organizational in terms of what is coherent.
This may be the point at which many courseware projects could soon be reaching,
as the computing technology changes at a breathless rate, and the networking
infrastructures in the country and around the world become more and more powerful.
Educators may someday be able to raise above the complexity of the technical limitations,
while maintaining a knowledge and understanding of their importance. At the present time,
it is not easy to do. On the one hand, to forget about issues of portability,
or the limitations of the computational medium for modeling real physical systems,
is to ensure a limited success of your project. However, to become so concerned
about them, that you lose sight of the educational goals or vision is another danger.
This is reflected in the advice that was provided by Evelyn Schlusselberg
(personal interview, October 1, 1992), the interface designer working with
the CECI software team:
Schlusselberg: I tell people to try to forget about what
technology can or cannot do, and to try to think only about what they want.
The other thing I tell them is to think of themselves as the user of the
application and figure out what they would want to do, what they would want
to see and how they would like to interact.
This advice describes the delicate balance that must be maintained between
the technical and the academic issues in order to provide a high quality
educational experience through the use of computers. All of these factors
are important to consider in and of themselves. When taken as a whole,
they produce a larger impact upon the academic considerations in
courseware projects. Across each site, there was an awareness that
the complexity of the computing environments caused a need to deal
with the technical aspects of the projects, while not forgetting to
maintain a focus on the educational issues. There was evidence that
more complex issues emerge as environments become more powerful:
As all media move toward the digital state they represent
new promises and new problems. As video, sound, graphics, and text
become equal partners in computer transmission, their collusion will
cause difficulties in everything from technical issues of movement and
storage to copyright and freedom of expression. As the computer
relentlessly continues to integrate technologies and media,
creating a condition of continuous hybridization of information,
utilities for managing shifting conditions will be paramount.
(Davis, 1991)
This passage reflects a reality found in this study. The need to focus
on complex technical issues will continue to be important for sometime.
It will be increasingly necessary to make decisions in which technical
possibilities are compared to each other, not only based upon their
inherent educational merits, but also upon the large amounts of human,
technical or financial resources involved. This leads to many
organizational issues which are the third and final major category
of concerns that was examined through this study. The next chapter
will describe the organizational contexts of projects which must
be balanced with the educational and technical to create successful
courseware.