Academic staff, students and the Internet: The experience at the University of Westminster
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb045453 |
| Published date | 01 February 1996 |
| Date | 01 February 1996 |
| Pages | 111-116 |
| Author | Barry B. Blinko |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Focus Article
Academic
staff,
students and the
Internet: the experience at the
University of Westminster
Barry B. Blinko
Subject
Librarian,
The
Library,
University
of
Westminster,
35 Marylebone
Road,
London NW1
5LS,
UK
E-mail:
blinkob@westminster.ac.uk
Abstract:
The
Internet has exciting potential in
education.
In Higher Education
this can lead to new ways of
teaching.
This can only be achieved if efforts are
made to use and develop
local,
as well as national and international initiatives on
the
Internet.
The University of
Westminster
saw the potential of
the
Internet and
wanted to provide open access for staff and students.
To
speed access to useful
information on the
Internet,
the
University
had to have a strategy for its
use.
This
paper
is
about that strategy: about the training of computer and library
staff,
the
provision of subject
guides,
the introduction of
the
Internet to academic staff and
the use of the Internet by students.
1.
Introduction
The Internet appears
to
have enormous
and exciting potential. The ability to
be able to receive text, graphics and
sound from the other side of the world
in seconds or minutes (or maybe many
minutes at a busy time) is a giant step
forward in technology. For education,
not only does it provide the capability
to converse, send files and receive
graphics, but there are the possibilities
of changing some of the ways
in
which
people are taught. To be able to bring
about changes means continual ex-
perimentation. Clearly, the potential
opened up by the Internet will only be
realised with widespread
use.
Its use in
education is still only in its early
stages. In this paper I intend to look at
developments in Higher Education, al-
though the Internet
is
being introduced
in other sectors of education, for ex-
ample in schools.
My experience of the introduction
of the Internet is at the University of
Westminster — in particular, at the
Marylebone Road site library. I have
relied on interviews with library and
computing staff for much of the his-
tory. The analysis is based on my own
observations and opinions, informed
by the background provided by the
staff.
2.
Potential
There is much talk about how the
seamless integration of different forms
of media via the Internet could bring
about the real possibility of the virtual
library. There are different definitions
of a virtual library which range from
the notion of being able to 'walk'
around it, smelling the old leather-
bound editions, to accessing any infor-
mation at one's desktop. But, in any
case,
the notion of a virtual library is a
narrow view. The advent of the In-
ternet raises much more innovative
and wide ranging changes in how peo-
ple could or should be taught. The In-
ternet can be an aid in independent
learning, yet another tool in student-
centred learning. It can help provide
access to sources of information, to
reference works, to electronic texts
and the like. However, the Internet is
also a means of communication, ena-
bling easy contact between tutors, fel-
low students and colleagues. It enables
quick and efficient communication
with people the other side of the world
who are working in the same field.
The connected networks of the In-
ternet can give rise to an increase
in
the
variety of methods of education, but
that means imagination, innovative-
ness and daring. It means pushing and
developing the facilities and capabili-
ties of every area
in the
education field.
One example of the use of new
technology is at Massachusetts Insti-
tute of Technology (MIT), where the
aims in developing the Athena project
of distributed computing were not
only
to
raise the level of computing but
to improve the facilities for education
in all subjects, raising the level at
which courses were taught and im-
proving the overall standard of educa-
tion in MIT. They set about building a
campus-wide computing network
where every user was faced with the
same interface regardless of
the
hard-
ware they were using. Athena was
used for classroom demonstrations,
electronic classroom sessions, home-
work problems, personal productivity
aids and the submission of homework.
Unfortunately, with the Athena pro-
ject the library at MIT was not men-
tioned once (Champine 1991).
Many see increasing and improv-
ing technology as an opportunity to
make economic savings and as a sub-
stitute for human interaction. In my
opinion the Internet is not a substitute
for debate and discussion with fellow
students and lecturers. The support
The Electronic Library, Vol. 14, No. 2, April 1996 111
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