Brooke Bernal
Community Psychology
February 3, 2004
The article entitled Technology and the Postmodern University by Arthur Warmoth is a discussion of the changes and opportunities likely to be brought about by the introduction of electronic communication and information technology into the modern college or university. The article supposes that the introduction of such new technologies will allow information to become easier to retrieve as well as more widespread. The author states that the two most likely changes to occur in a university setting are in the areas of the "sociology and economics of education" (Warmoth, 1997) since, according to the author, " the psychodynamics of human learning are well known and not likely to change" (Warmoth, 1997). This means that humans will not necessarily change the way that they learn once certain new technologies are introduced into the university setting, but rather that the main changes will occur in the way that learning is financed and/or performed.
The article explains that information and communication technology will enable information that was once gathered and organized by hand to be gathered, organized, and stored automatically by computers. The author seems to feel, however, that some of the traditional benefits of learning are quite dependent on "social psychological relationships" (Warmoth, 1997) that occur in a classroom or departmental setting, and gives the examples of mentoring, modeling, evaluative feedback and reinforcement as examples of these relationships. The author states that even with the introduction of new technologies, "whole-person relationships" will continue to be a vital and important part of the educational setting.
The author goes on to predict ten changes which he feels are likely to come about once the new electronic communication and information processing technologies are widespread among educational institutions. The outlined changes range from the author's prediction that information will simply become "more sophisticated and accessible" (Warmoth, 1997), to the prediction that a separation will occur between "the educational function of providing learning experiences…and of providing evaluation and credentialing" (Warmoth, 1997). The author ventures that if the changes and predictions he outlines are correct, there is even the possibility that other areas of "social activity" within a society will become more like the modern university in the sense that they will become "learning intensive" (Warmoth, 1997).
The three main functions of a typical modern university are described by the author as maintaining the academic disciplines, credentialing and "providing instruction and initiation to more or less privileged young adults" (Warmoth, 1997), with the last function being the main source of support for the other two.
The article then describes a university setting in which "appropriate institutional restructuring" has taken place as one in which there is less of a requirement for "personpower," and that is concerned mainly with providing varied types of learning opportunities. This hypothetical university would have a widespread access to information with educators skilled at accessing such information as well as maintaining the traditional educational style of "facilitating cognitive and emotional human development" (Warmoth, 1997). This imagined university would also include interdisciplinary teams to assure that the society functions properly, which to the author, means that "the long term health of the biosphere, as well as the short term pleasures of human beings" (Warmoth, 1997) are taken into account.
The author goes on to discuss the economic implications of such changes, stating that cooperation and collaboration are key concepts in the economics of a university and that knowledge and information are public goods whose main source of funding have traditionally come from either philanthropy or public spending. The author then acknowledges the "widespread distrust" of governmental institutions and the dwindling of resources that could be "channeled into philanthropic support of the greater public good" (Warmoth, 1997), which seems to mean that the traditional sources of funding for the so-called "public goods" of knowledge and information are not as easy to count on as they once were.
The author concludes by suggesting that his scenario of a modern university society can be realized, but that it is a huge undertaking that depends on learning how to create the "social, political, and economic institutions that will enable us to realize our aspirations" (Warmoth, 1997). The author recommends that all "participants in the democratic process of social evolution" learn all there is to know about knowledge so that individually and as a society, we can figure out what it is that we really want, in hopes that it is toward the greater good.
The author cites no sources in this article, and there is no real data present other than the comparisons in the appendix. The article seems to be the opinion of the author along with his predictions and outlook for the future of the university setting. The information is presented in such a way that the present situation is compared and contrasted with a predicted situation The figures in the appendix of the article are meant to compare and contrast the systems of "old" colleges versus those of the proposed "new" colleges, and then go on to outline some of the predicted changes described within the body of the article.
The report entitled Greater Expectations: A report of the American colleges and universities contains tables which summarize some of the pressures and changes being faced by 21st century educational institutions. Some of the pressures outlined include such things as the changing demographics of college attendance, new enrollment patterns, the changing nature of the workplace, along with what the author(s) call the "information explosion" and the "technological revolution," in which the availability of new technologies are changing the way information is gathered and used, and which have implications in the classroom and in terms of employment.
The article then goes on to continue where the Warmoth article left off in terms of comparing and contrasting the existing system with what the author(s) call the "new academy." Certain educational principles are outlined as they are at present and then modified and updated to predict what the outcome could be (or should be) in the future. For example, in the present, the university focuses on teaching but the modified version would include the notion that what is taught is not always what is learned, in hope that in the future, there is also a focus on learning.
The article states that the new academy would provide a rigorous, practical liberal education for all students," and then describes the foundation which this education would be built on as well as the steps necessary to see that it is enacted. To achieve the goal of this new academy, the article recommends "enlightened public policies tied to concerted action," which is strikingly similar to A. Warmoth's statement that "all of us, as participants in the democratic process of social evolution, must learn what knowledge is, what it is good for and how its benefits can best be realized" (Warmoth, 1997).
Other recommendations have to do with the expectation and subsequent support of achievement in the educational system, as well as the plea to create better public understanding of the value of public learning.