New Organization

Steve McCarty (steve_mc@ws0.kagawa-jc.ac.jp)
Thu, 9 Apr 1998 17:22:26 -1000

The growing number of KEYONE-L members seem to be urging me,
as it were, to put my energy where my vision is. I camped out in
my office to be available for MOO discussions after the conference
started at about 3 a.m., Japan time, so the first day was quite a
marathon. That and the second day I was also, like other participants,
scrambling to study the many presentations and list contributions.
My energy may be flagging, but I would like to thank all those who
endeavored to @join Steve and contribute many comments by
personal e-mail as well as to the KEYONE-L list.

If I could characterize the consensus, participants seem to be saying
that there is not now an organization such as I suggested, but that one
is either needed or would inevitably arise. Some would not trust it to
arise automatically or to be imposed on educators out of institutional
rather than pedagogical considerations. As to how this medium or
means of educational delivery is different enough from past media
to warrant such an organization, there is suddenly the global scope
among other epoch-making changes challenging all previous paradigms.

The function of an association or council of online educators would
not in any case be confined to evaluating delivery methods but would
extend to the direction the emerging online teaching discipline ought
to take, organizing resources and communications while offering
guidelines and disinterested assessments of existing programs and
online resources.

The nature of such an organization would be entirely virtual, without
fees but for possible donations or grants. It would have Web pages
spread at least among officers or volunteers and have an electronic
journal as a periodical. These would be at least partly under .edu or
.ac auspices, and I think my college in Japan could be one official
home at the outset. Such places with plenty of server space and
flat rate Internet connections with unlimited use may be well
suited for this kind of voluntarism and globalization of benefits.

What I would suggest to serve the needs that participants have
expressed is a World Online Educational Association. One function
of it could be to serve as a council for free affiliation with other
organizations concerned with the Internet and education. Thus
members could be individuals or organizations. Responsibilities
of such free association would be to give of oneself and to share
institutional resources, especially to distribute knowledge and
access more equitably to people worldwide.

One participant wrote that such an organization could be the most
concrete result of this conference, and the cooperation of conference
would be most appreciated. This one online conference a year is
enough, but friendly participants already look to some way to
continue the process more systematically year round.

Your thoughts?

Collegially,
Steve McCarty
Professor, Kagawa Junior College, Japan
<steve_mc@ws0.kagawa-jc.ac.jp>
<http://leahi.kcc.hawaii.edu/org/tcon98/keynote/mccarty.html>.
<http://leahi.kcc.hawaii.edu/org/tcon98/keynote/mccarty.bio.html>