Asynchronous Learning Networks
Special Interest Group
Colleagues interested in ALNs are welcomed to discuss these issues and more on eForum.
EVERAL faculty in English at the College of DuPage are beginning to explore the potential of networked computer environments to mediate learning in ways that are not bound by time or space. Our interests vary widely, coming as we do from different backgrounds, and our intents with this technology differ too, as each of us wish to use this new medium to achieve different goals. Nonetheless, we have banded together in the summer of 1997 to form the Asynchronous Learning Networks Special Interest Group (ALN-SIG) to promote the use and development of new learning through networks.
Colleagues with similar interests are welcomed to join us. I have a message board, called eForum running, and if you would like to join us simply post a note on the message board or send a note to Daniel Kies.
The ALN-SIG Manifesto
Second Draft
We recognize that today's students — be they students in auto or office technology or students in nursing or English — communicate and work in a networked environment. We believe they should learn to communicate (write) in a networked environment as well.
We recognize that the very idea of literacy itself is an evolving one, entailing the need to communicate in new media. We understand that students should learn to communicate in those new environments as part of their developing literacy.
We recognize that technology is an expensive, sometimes difficult tool. We believe, however, that the pedagogical advantages to the student (and to the student's future) justify the expense only if those tools are put into the hands of those who will be asked to use them — our students. There will come a time when taxpayers, state legislatures, Boards of Trustees, or Presidents of institutions will ask to what end all this money (=technology) has gone, and we will be able to demonstrate that our students are learning to communicate in the environment of today's communication media.
We understand too that these tools are not restricted to those who work in science, technology, or business. With the advent of sophisticated word processing programs, text analysis programs (such as concordancers), hypertext, and networks, computer tools are now a mainstay of composition instruction, literary study and teaching. We recognize too the significant role computer tools are playing in other areas as well, such as the fine arts, most notably music and the graphic arts. Thus, computer tools have assumed a significant role in enhancing the education of all students, not only those in science, technology, or business.
Therefore, we have joined together to make the best use of this new medium for the educational advantage of all students.
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