Transcript: A Conversation With
Jan Poley

11 Minute Videotape Transcript

Just In Time Learning

Just in time learning is almost a buzz word these days. However, underneath is a very important concept. Today we are very busy. We don't have time to go and get more learning than we need. We want to be able to get our learning, when we want it, where we want it, how we want it, and we want that learning to be immediately applicable to our problems and issues. Almost everything today is becoming customer driven and it's extremely important that those of us in the learning delivery business understand that our customers want what they want, when they want it, where they want it, at a price that's affordable. If they don't get it that way, they are going to move on to someone else.

Collaborative Learning Tools

Well, our tools are growing faster than our capacity to do just in time learning-- to do collaborative learning. Some people call these mind tools, some people call them tools that deliver just in time, the Internet, world wide web, collaborative learning environments, these are the words that people are using. In fact, a metaphor that I really like as a way to think about this is a Dalmatian puppy. I mean with all those spots. A lot of our tools at this stage of the game are like the back of the puppy with just spots. They are not as integrated as they might be. We are going to see very rapid movement in the area of our tools and our ability to create, and the ability of our customers to use these tools. We don't know what is going to happen next week or next month, if you look at the fact that the World Wide Web was around for maybe fifteen or twenty years as a concept in physics. It wasn't until Mark Andreessen and that team at the National Supercomputer Center sat down and developed the browser--sort of the "killer app"--if you will, in the electronic era that the World Wide Web became available and accessible to everyone. Our teaching and learning tools now are moving beyond simple e-mail on the Internet or the World Wide Web and being able to browse and surf in information warehouses. We are truly moving to the point where we are going to be able to impact people's capacity to learn. We are going to be able to offer learning in different styles. It's going to be very customized and it should mean that many more people will be able to avail themselves of learning opportunities.

Asynchronous Learning

Today, a lot of the energy and development of new products is around the area of asynchronous learning. This comes right back to just in time learning. If I'm working, if I have a family, if I have lots of other things on my plate, as most of us do these days, asynchronous learning is our only option. It means that I can get on-line at eleven o'clock at night, if that's when I need to be there. It means that if I'm an instructor, I might be teaching a class live, I might go home and I'd be answering e-mail for students in the dorm at midnight. It means that we still have to come together, but it's an issue of changing our timing.

Public Interest and Spectrum

Public interest, convenience and necessity have been a part of our telecommunications legislation since 1934. It was carried over into the 1996 Telecommunications Bill. Recently I had the opportunity to visit with the Federal Communications Commission about some aspects of public interest and the spectrum that are important to all of us in higher education. The intent as we move to digital television, to high definition television and to other digital services, is to give to commercial broadcasters an amount of spectrum equal to what they currently have for analog broadcasting. Now, we don't expect high definition television to be implemented exactly the way that we thought it might be a few years back. We expect most commercial broadcasters will break the spectrum up into a variety of services. Which means that now, where you might have one channel, commercial broadcasters can put in place new services, they can also put in place more channels--where you have one channel, you might have sixteen. We might look at this a bit in the same way that we look at the land grant institution. One of my colleagues said the spectrum grant was like the land grant of the 1800's. Spectrum is going to be so important to our future as a nation and to teaching and learning, and if we are going to have the spectrum grant, all of us need to be aware and need to advocate for more use of the spectrum in the public interest.

The Global Land Grant

We have an opportunity to become Global Land Grants. This opportunity means that we can take the knowledge, the people, the content, the resources that we have on a world wide basis using telecommunication. Food, agriculture, natural resources, environment, community and economic development, children youth and families are very important issues here on the United States, but also everywhere you go in the world. We have a wonderful opportunity to create knowledge networks. We have an opportunity to connect to our alums wherever they might be throughout the world. I want to say one additional thing about this. We also have an opportunity to learn from other people in other countries. I think sometimes, we here in the United States become somewhat insular and we don't really stop to think that we have a great deal to learn from scientists in other countries, we have a great deal to care about in the natural resource and environmental area in other parts of the world. The Global Land Grant concept will be our future. I expect that we have an opportunity to become world class, and the way we handle telecommunications and our opportunities today will make all the difference tomorrow.

Vision for Distance Education

My vision for distance education is that the word "distance" disappears and we look at our opportunities up close and personal. Also, education, I hope, will turn into learning. I hope that technology will disappear in the sense that users are no longer aware of the technologies that they are using. It's so simple and easy that we can focus on the important stuff, what we are learning, who we're meeting, how we're connected, where we are in the world using our technologies. I'm looking at a time period of five to six years for this to happen and this is not unreasonable. Things are moving very rapidly, we have a great deal of the American economy invested in this area. We have a world class educational system in terms of our history, in terms of our resources. My sense is that this vision is possible and doable and I certainly want to see the state universities and land grant colleges in that vision of the future.

For copies of the videotape, contact the ADEC office.

Box 830952
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Lincoln, NE 68583-0952
Telephone (402) 472-7000
Fax (402) 472-9060