This report presents the recommendations of MIT's Council on Educational Technology. It considers the Institute's future educational activities in a world of new and emerging information technologies, and it proposes ways to support these activities.
1.1. Principal Recommendation: Initiate Project
MIT should undertake an ambitious five-year project - yet to be named - that will make the Institute the recognized leader in the creation and effective application of advanced educational technology and that will create an exportable model for higher education. 1
The proposed project, which is detailed in this report, strives to match MIT's unique strengths to new educational technology opportunities through the pursuit of a carefully chosen set of educational experiments and their associated educational objectives.
This project requires creating the necessary technological infrastructure, together with the human resources, partnerships, and organization needed to pursue these educational objectives and to sustain MIT's leadership in educational technology over the long term.
The council believes that MIT's ability to respond effectively to its changing environment, and to retain and enhance its leadership position in research and education, will depend directly and substantially on the success of this effort.
1.2 Educational Philosophy: A Time to Experiment
This is a time for bold experiments.
Questions of educational philosophy are contentious: MIT's numerous units encompass a wide variety of commitments, resources, and subcultures, and the technological future is filled with uncertainties. Thus it would be difficult at this moment to build a consensus behind a single, monolithic vision of the future—and it would probably be unwise to attempt this in any case. At the same time, many MIT faculty members have exciting ideas and proposals for combining the capabilities of new educational technology with the commitment and skill needed to achieve ambitious educational goals. We therefore believe that the project we recommend should be centered on a set of carefully chosen experiments designed to probe the possibilities of new educational technologies along several dimensions, resolve some of the most critical uncertainties, and provide a reliable basis for future investments.
This report suggests some categories of experiments that we currently consider most important and promising. It proposes mechanisms for modifying the experimental framework as our educational experiences and the rapidly changing technological terrain unfold.
Within each broad category of experimentation, the report discusses specific experiments and scenarios to illustrate some of the educational and technological possibilities. It also includes suggestions from faculty who are already contemplating such prospects. The report, however, does not recommend specific experiments. That task is left—as it should be—to our faculty and researchers, who we anticipate will make specific proposals within the designated categories.
1.3 The Experimental Framework
The council proposes that specific experiments be carried out in the following four broad categories:
1. Educational uses of new analytical and synthetic tools—such as advanced simulation, visualization, and rendering software, together with the integration of text, sound, and images—to help us pursue new and effective ways for teaching our basic science, engineering, management, design, literature, language, music, and humanities courses.
2. Educational uses of new information linkage tools— in particular, tools for organizing, finding, sharing, leveraging, and distributing information in a "webbed" world.
3. Learning through collaboration—for example, by using remote conferencing, electronic mail, the World Wide Web, and various kinds of new groupwork tools that coordinate synchronous and asynchronous learning activities.
4. Pursuit of lifelong learning approaches that extend the reach of our institution—on both sides of our current age group—to include MIT-bound young students, MIT alumni, and the professionals of our corporate partners.
Experiments within these categories should focus on applying advanced educational technology to enhance the quality and extend the range of the instructional and research experiences that MIT provides. They should aim to add value and excitement to what we do best; and, while they should give appropriate attention to efficiency and cost-effectiveness, they should carefully avoid any suggestion of substituting lower-cost but inferior electronic alternatives for the intense interactions that have traditionally been at the core of an MIT education.
Proposals for experimental projects should be selected and funded under this project based on their merit—which includes the clarity with which they identify important educational goals, a definition of the specific benefits that are sought, and the methods for monitoring and evaluating success in achieving these benefits and assessing the cost-benefit implications for higher education. (We elaborate these goals and associated educational questions in the body of this report.)
These experiments should have the potential to transform education, they should aim to produce generalizable results, and they should pay close attention to issues of sustainability and economic viability. We should recognize, however, that many of the benefits are likely to be unexpected and serendipitous, and we should therefore be alert to such opportunities when they emerge.
The selected projects should build on the established expertise and commitment of MIT faculty members—many of whom have already initiated some exciting efforts—and should cover a sufficiently broad range of questions to effectively open up the whole issue of advanced educational technology and its uses. They should involve significant efforts from all five schools at MIT, the libraries, the MIT Press, and Center for Advanced Educational Services.
1.4 Creating the Necessary Infrastructure
To carry out these educational experiments and to maximize our potential for success in our primary objective, MIT will need to put in place an infrastructure that is at the cutting edge of technological capability. This infrastructure must be able to integrate the new technologies with our physical spaces and our way of working and living within the MIT community. To this end the council recommends the following actions:
1. Create the MII—a high-performance, MIT Information Infrastructure to serve the campus and provide strategic connections to the outside world. This infrastructure should be compatible with the Internet and the World Wide Web (the Web), should build on MIT's strengthened campus and off-campus network, and ultimately should support an extended MIT community. It should encourage diverse initiatives by MIT's units and it should provide shared services and capabilities that go significantly beyond what is possible now. To the extent that it is technologically and economically feasible, we should strive to create tomorrow's information infrastructure today.
2. Reinvent the campus by carefully and imaginatively integrating electronic facilities and physical spaces. We should create an upgraded and extended campus in which physical spaces and electronic tools and infrastructure are closely integrated and mutually supportive. We should be especially cognizant of this goal in all new construction. This means moving toward universal on-campus access as rapidly as possible, creatively rethinking dormitory rooms, social spaces, and remote campus access, updating audiovisual and conferencing facilities—for example, by providing videoconferencing and videoprojection capabilities—and integrating displays and interaction points in public places.
3. Create the virtual equivalent of Killian Court and the Dome. Members of our on-campus and extended communities should experience the new MII and its associated tools and resources as a beautifully designed, shared online environment that provides effective access to educational materials, that renders true value to the community members, and that creates a sense of belonging to a special community—the virtual equivalent of Killian Court and the Dome.
1.5 Building on MIT's Comparative Advantage
The council believes that this experimental strategy builds effectively on MIT's traditions of research leadership in science and technology, its commitment to close integration of cutting-edge research and classroom teaching, its capacity to work closely and effectively with industry, and its proven capability to design and implement innovative large-scale systems. These traditions and capabilities constitute MIT's comparative advantage in the field of advanced educational technology, and create the potential for leadership.
The council is well aware that other institutions have made major commitments to advanced educational technology and distance education, and in some cases have gained extensive experience. There would be little for us to gain from a "me-too" strategy. We must strike out in our own direction and build on what we do best.
The council considered—and dismissed—the strategy of making no sustained commitment to innovation in advanced educational technology, and simply picking up what others have produced as needed. Providing the best possible educational resources for the future is too urgent and central to MIT's mission for that. Furthermore, the council notes that MIT already makes large, regular investments in current educational technology—in classroom space and equipment, audiovisual equipment, library materials, computers, and telecommunications. The Council feels little confidence that we are actually getting the best value for our money in this, and there is a strong sense that we could begin to do much better by focusing critical attention and creativity on the task—at a scale large enough to make a real difference.
1.6 Building on Our Human Resources
To accomplish these goals we cannot and should not attempt to start from scratch. We must build as effectively as possible on existing human resources and on past investments in physical facilities and equipment.
The council therefore recommends a transition strategy that preserves the value of the current Athena environment as much as possible and for as long as possible, and allows us to retain the best features of Athena in the new environment. The council also recommends a strategy of integrating the libraries, the MIT Press, Center for Advanced Educational Services (CAES), and other relevant MIT units in the project.
Advanced infrastructure and software resources will not be used effectively unless the human resources are available to maintain that infrastructure and facilitate its application to substantive tasks. The council therefore recommends building on existing capabilities and human resources to create a strong, highly professional support organization with responsibility for both maintaining common infrastructure and ensuring that this infrastructure effectively supports the various experimental projects.
Students should be extensively involved in the proposed project, especially because they are expected to be among the more innovative contributors. The effects of the initiative on junior faculty career paths should be carefully monitored at the departmental, School Council, and Academic Council levels. Junior faculty members who devote significant amounts of time to the effort should be advised to do so in a way that yields original, publishable research contributions. In summary, all members of the MIT community should have opportunities for involvement in ways that enhance their development and their career paths.
1.7 Engaging Industry and Foundation Partners
The council believes that extending the MIT community with industrial and governmental partners is essential to the success of the project, especially in terms of capitalizing on new modes of learning for both young students and seasoned professionals. MIT is uniquely positioned to undertake a groundbreaking initiative in educational technology, and it can bring a great deal of commitment and expertise to the table. It does not, however, have all the technological capability and financial resources required for an effort of the proposed scale and sophistication. The council therefore recommends an immediate, vigorous effort to engage appropriate industry, government, and foundation partners to assist us with this effort.
1.8 Organization of the Project
Success in this enterprise will require broad involvement of the MIT community and a sustained, committed effort from a core group of project leaders. The Council therefore recommends the following:
1. Establish a Project Steering Group with overall responsibility for formulating specific strategies and guiding the implementation of the project. The chairperson of this group should be a senior MIT official and member of MIT's Academic Council, at the level of dean or above, whose responsibility should be similar to that of a board chair.
2. Establish an Executive Project Unit with overall responsibility for implementing the project on a day-to-day basis. The executive director of the unit should be a faculty member whose full-time responsibility and career priorities should be devoted to this effort. Personnel from Project Athena, Information Systems, and other parts of MIT should be consolidated in this new unit at the discretion of the MIT administration.
3. Establish an External Advisory Committee (similar to a Departmental Visiting Committee) to provide an ongoing external perspective on the effort.
These organizations will establish subgroups and subunits as necessary and will follow the judgment of their leaders to achieve their objectives and carry out their processes. The council does not wish to overspecify these important organizational activities but offers the following suggestions.
To ensure the right combination of responsiveness to the MIT community's needs with technical and design expertise, we should consider creating a broadly representative client subgroup with responsibility for articulating educational requirements, plus a small and highly skilled design group, headed by the executive director, with responsibility for proposing and eventually implementing specific solutions. The process envisioned here is similar to that of designing complex buildings and urban projects.
Each experimental area will require careful management. We should therefore consider establishing similar subgroups for each individual experimental area, linked to the overall project group, with objectives and processes for selecting experiments and for modifying the educational experiment areas.