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The Use of Information Technology to Enhance Management School Education: A Theoretical
View
Author(s): Dorothy E. Leidner and Sirkka L. Jarvenpaa
Source: MIS Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 3, Special Issue on IS Curricula and Pedagogy, (Sep., 1995),
pp. 265-291
Published by: Management Information Systems Research Center, University of Minnesota
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/249596
Accessed: 15/04/2008 11:44
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of
Models Learning
The Use of nologies in which management schools should
invest in order to informate and down and ul-
up
Information timately transform the educational environment
and processes. For researchers interested in
Technology to the use of information technology to improve
learning processes, the paper provides a theo-
for
Enhance retical foundation future work.
School Keywords Educational technology, classroom
Management technology, electronic classrooms, learning,
A instruction
Education:
ISRL AA06, HB08
Theoretical View Categories:
By: Dorothy E. Leidner Introduction
Baylor University Although universities create and acquire knowl-
P.O. Box 98005 edge, they are seldom successful in applying
Waco, Texas 76798 that knowledge to their own activities (Garvin,
In academic institutions
U.S.A. 1993). fact, typically lag
in
businesses by a decade the adoption
dorothy_leidner@business.baylor.edu of new roughly This
technologies (U.S. Congress, 1988).
is in
true terms of the of in-
Sirkka L. certainly application
Jarvenpaa formation into the
The University of Texas at Austin technology (IT) learning proc-
Graduate School of Business, ess: the blackboard and chalk remain the
primary in business
CBA5.202 teaching technologies many
Texas 78712 schools even while the merits of information
Austin, technology to improve communication, effi-
U.S.A. ciency, and decision making in organizations
sjarven paa@mail.utexas.edu are recognized and inculcated by IS re-
searchers. However, as business schools expe-
rience increased competitive pressures,
Abstract information is one area that schools
technology
To use information to leam- might use to differentiate or compete with or,
technology improve more to use as a for
ing processes, the pedagogical assumptions un- importantly, catalyst trans-
derlying the design of information for forming educational processes. IT is not her-
educational be technology alded as a miraculous yet unpredictable means
purposes must understood. This of educational but as an effi-
paper reviews different models of leaming, sur- mitigating attrition,
faces assumptions of electronic teaching tech- cacious means of enabling intentional changes
in and
teaching processes.
nology, and relates those assumptions to the learning
differing models of learning. Our analysis sug- Some business schools have already begun
gests that initial attempts to bring information building classroom facilities that incorporate in-
technology to management education follow a formation technologies in hopes of improving
the and For
classic story of automating rather than trans- learning teaching processes. exam-
IT the of houses an elec-
forming. is used to automate the in- ple, University Maryland
formation primarily tronic classroom that enables of
function in classrooms. In
delivery the groups
absence of fundamental changes to the teach- students to work together while communicating
and such classrooms electronically and (Alavi, At
ing learning process, may Harvard anonymously 1994).
do little but speed up ineffective processes and Business School, a pilot program was
methods of Our of technolo- conducted where each student's room
teaching. mapping was with a dormitory
to models identifies sets of tech- networked
gies learning equipped personal computer
MIS 1995 265
Quarterly/September
Models
of
Learning
to
share laser and in
printers scanners common of to the
pedagogical
assumptions
living Interactive of that helps identify
spaces. automate
computer the tradi-
and simulation applications types technologies
exercises were used to tional model
and
supple- learning those that to en-
ment begin
the
traditional
case Stu- able
transformation
into
a new
preparation. model.
dents study Borrowing
had
access to on
videos from
digitized factories, the and
technology organizational
production three change
transformational
processes, marketing literature, visions are de-
and interviews campaigns,
with from
protagonists the case scribed: informate informate and
the students "to up, down,
'visit'
the transform
firms, to
study allowing a virtual The
were and 'meet' learning space. paper
the concludes with
a
discussion
factory they studying key of that
in technologies
players the case" before to class. The schools consider
students also had going management might investing
access to Headline a in
if desire radical in
News, their
of they changes educa-
consolidation news from tional
major leading
zines and across the maga- processes.
and a
newspapers world,
of economic and financial
plethora databases
from
commercial to the in-
providers augment
dustry (The Harbus News,
analysis 1994). Theories of Learning:
Although these remain
isolated promising, developments Assumptions
within their own
even insti-
experiments The use of IT
in an
tutions. While educational will
such at- reflect
to developments represent either or setting of
tempts provide tools to purposely some model
technology improve The inadvertently
the and/or are learning. review of mod-
teaching processes, following learning
learning they els is not rather it
often undertaken a seeks to
without assess- exhaustive; highlight
ment of the thorough differences the more ac-
desired even
learning or pos- major among widely
gains models of in
sible. For terms of their
instance, high expectations without cepted learning as-
and
clear and realistic lead to sumptions, instructional
the objectives goals may goals, implications.
of state-of-the-art at
development facilities, models are often classified as
once impressive replete with Learning being
yet intimidating, behavioral
or cognitive. also re-
clear on how Objectivism,
potential guidelines to
yet lacking ferred
to as the traditional
model
of is
use the to achieve learning,
technology learning improve- the
behavioral
model
of and
in learning represents
ments. research area
the of im-
Early learning a traditional
view of The com-
provements that may be facilitated with learning. primary
model is constructivism.
information is thus needed. The ob- peting cognitive The
technology constructivist
model
has number
a of
delineate derivations
of this is to
jective paper technologies collaborativism and informa-
available to traditional including cognitive
currently support and tion The socioculturalism
of in processing. model
non-traditional methods order
learning to shares some and with
in assumptions goals con-
help universities their technol-
guide learning but some others.1
investment to ef- structivism, challenges
decisions, help
ogy professors
the new classroom
fectively apply technologies,
and to the of
manage expectations university The model
objectivist of
administrators and the learning
professors concerning The model of is based on
benefits of the objectivist learning
technologies. Skinner's is
stimulus-response
theory:
The of this is that the effective- learning
premise paper a in
change the behavioral of an or-
ness of in to disposition
information
technology contributing that can
ganism (Jonassen, be
of how well the tech- 1993) shaped by
will be a function
learning of selective reinforcement. The tenet of the model
a model
nology supports particular learning is that there
is an and that
objective the
of the to a reality
and the appropriateness model par- of is to
goal learning understand this and
ticular The with reality
situation. paper begins
a learning the most advocated
discussion of commonly 1 Social is model of and
theory yet another learning
the of IT learning
models of How assumptions
learning. in
are with the of lies somewhere the middle of an objectivist-constructivist
intertwined the continuum.
The interested
reader is referred
assumptions to Grusec
is then The
models (1992).
learning analyzed. mapping
266 MIS 1995
Quarterly/September
of
Models Learning
modify behavior accordingly (Jonassen, 1993). factual or procedural-based learning. However,
The goal of teaching is to facilitate the transfer models challenging objectivism have emerged.
of knowledge from the expert to the learner. Er- The most widely accepted alternate model is
rors in understanding are the result of imperfect constructivism and its derivations-collaborativ-
or transfer. The model ism and information
incomplete knowledge cognitive processing.
makes several pedagogical assumptions re-
garding learning and instruction. In terms of
there exists
the first is that The constructivist model of
learning, assumption individuals. Sec- learning
a that is agreed upon by
reality be and trans- Constructivism denies the existence of an exter-
ond, this reality can represented of each mind.
nal independent individual's
ferred to a learner. Third, the purpose of the reality
mind is to act as a mirror of rather than as Rather than transmitted, knowledge is created,
reality or constructed, by each learner. The mind is not
an of 1993). Fourth,
interpreter reality (Jonassen, a tool for reproducing the external reality, but
all learners use essentially the same processes rather the mind produces its own, unique con-
for and understanding the world.
representing ception of events (Jonassen, 1993). Each reality
In the model as- is somewhat based on learners'
terms of instruction, objectivist different, expe-
sumes that the goal of teaching is to efficiently riences and biases. More moderate construc-
transmit knowledge from the expert to the tivists do not preclude the possibility of the
into existence of an but that
learner. Instructors structure reality abstract objective world, assume
or generalized representations that can be each individual constructs his or her own reality
transferred and then recalled by students of the objective world (Yarusso, 1992). Eventu-
(Yarusso, 1992). For example, words in a lan- ally, having analyzed different interpretations of
are of the exter- the learner is able to detach himself
guage symbolic representations information,
nal world enabling individuals to communicate from a subjective world of personal experience
rather than to actual ob- to the formation of abstract concepts to repre-
using symbols pointing under- sent
jects. Individuals must share the same reality (O'Loughlin, 1992). Learning, then,
standing of the words in order to communicate is the formation of abstract concepts to repre-
efficiently. The objectivist model also assumes sent reality; learning is that which "decentrizes"
that the instructor is the source of objective the individual from the material. Learning is re-
that is related, rather then created, flected in "intellectual that leads to scien-
knowledge in control growth
class. The instructor should be tific reasoning, abstract and formal
during thought,
of the material and of Via operations"
pace learning. ques- (O'Loughlin, 1992).
tions, the instructor assesses whether transfer The constructivist model calls for learner-cen-
occurred. Another assumption is that students tered instruction: individuals are assumed to
learn best in isolated and intensive confronta- learn better when they are forced to discover
tions with
a subject matter. themselves rather than
things when they are told,
The lecture method of teaching embeds the or instructed. Students must control the pace of
pedagogical assumptions of the objectivist instruction. Based upon the work of Piaget, the
model of learning. The lecture method is the learner must have experience with hypothesiz-
most frequently used instructional method in ing and predicting, manipulating objects, posing
higher education (McKeachie, 1990). To an ob- questions, researching answers, imagining, in-
the of information
jectivist, presentation is criti- vestigating, and inventing, in order for knowl-
cal. Any mechanism that enhances the edge construction to occur (O'Loughlin, 1992).2
communication of the knowledge should en-
hance the transfer, or student learning. The 2 It should be noted that Piaget's theory, which forms the
foundation of was based on his studies of the
model also implies that the pace of instruction constructivism,
should be designed modularly with students' psychological development of children. Although children
need actions to new adults need
on one area before physical grasp information,
progressing topic proceed- vivid examples and illustrations (O'Loughlin, 1992). Thus,
to the next one. while the concepts underlying constructivism may seem
ing to those who with the
The model be the most appealing disagree underlying
objectivist may appropri- assumptions of traditionalism, be less to
adult they may applicable
ate model in some contexts-for in situations.
example, learning
MIS 1995 267
Quarterly/September
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