On my way to school, at 7:00 AM, I stopped at the bank. I needed some money so I could carry out the day’s transactions. I notice that the bank isn’t open at this hour, so I turn to Fleet 24, open at all hours, my ever-present banker, my multiply-networked, fully automated moneychanger in this branch chapel of the regional temple of finance.

On my bank card are encoded the incantations and passwords that allow me through the door and into the sanctuary. At the altar I sacrifice my card to the sacred slot and begin my transaction. The liturgy is familiar:

Enter your code: beep beep beep beep;
What is your transaction? withdraw cash.
From which account? Whichever one has money.
How much? 60 dollars.
Processing your request...
Take your money...
Do you want a receipt? Yes.
Transaction complete 7:02 AM.
Please take your card.

Five years ago, would this have happened in the same way?

That's a long long time ago. Back then, I would wait for two hours until the bank opened at 9:00. Then fill out a withdrawal slip. Then wait in line for the teller. Then watch as the teller raises her eyebrows at the meager balance in my account. Then smile and greet my neighbors in line. An altogether more civilized and humane morning.

Why is the experience different today?
Because computers and networks and easy-to-use software have enabled the bank to deliver its retail services in a more efficient and more convenient way.

And what are the results of this change?
More convenience for me. More privacy in my banking. Less time spent taking care of this piece of business. Fewer opportunities to greet my neighbors. Fewer tellers on the bank’s payroll.


Wallet bursting with bills, I drive to the gas station to fill up for the unpredictable drive into Boston. Here I confront another, similar device into which I insert my encoded card. Following a similarly-structured set of instructions, I choose the grade of fuel, configure the equipment properly, try to keep the gasoline off my hands, and deliver the desired contents into my tank.

As I wait for the tank to fill, I speculate that I could accomplish this even faster if I had a SpeedPass. I wave to the attendant, inside the station. He almost never comes out. Most everyone uses the Self side of the pumps. The full serve costs more and takes longer. Click, and the pump tells me I’m finished, announces its accomplishments, and asks,

Do you want a receipt?

Would this have happened the same way five years ago?

Back then, there would have been three or four attendants working the morning rush hour shift. I would have paid by credit card, but he’d have to take it inside to the embossing machine, the bring the receipt back out for me to sign. Five years ago, the transaction would have been slower, and I would have remained cleaner. Fewer people would have been involved.


I finally arrive at school, at 7:45, to prepare the syllabus and other materials for the fall semester. For my graduate course on Contemporary Mass Communication, I need to see if there are any new books on Marshall McLuhan, one of the thinkers we study in that course. I connect to amazon.com, type in the topic of my interest, and browse hat’s available. Some of it I’m already familiar with, so I pass that by, and continue looking for what I need, and what’s new. I find a new title, read it’s jacket blurb, look up the author’s qualifications, read a professional review, and read an amateur review from a fellow teacher. Then I take a look at a sample chapter. Nope. Too elementary for my students. I find another, explore it from a variety of perspectives, and decide I need to read it. One click, and I’ve bought it. It will arrive tomorrow morning by Fed Ex. Amazon closes its transaction with me with the query, Do you want a receipt?

And five years ago, how would I have accomplished this same feat?

Wait for the bookstore to open at 10. Find the Communication section, which seems to have been moved from where it was last year (between TV and Music, Jerry Springer and Madonna), to it’s new location between Architecture and Drama.
Then figure out whether this section is organized by author’s last name, or subject matter. Hard to tell from the titles on the spine exactly what these books are about. Here’s one that looks new, no dust on it. Nope. Same book, new cover. I go over to the desk, to ask the bookseller if any new stuff has come in about McLuhan. Who? says the kid behind the counter, bedecked in purple hair ad painful jewelry, who I recognize as a student in the introductory undergraduate class.

Summary

The way we withdraw our cash, pump our gas, and buy or books has changed dramatically in the last five years. My morning was more efficient, more responsive, faster, easier, less expensive, and more convenient than it could have been five years ago. In each case, I dealt with a computer -- the ATM and the gas pump are actually computers -- connected to an nationwide network, running easy-to-use software. The ubiquity of such computers, networks, and software enables the industries -- retail banking, gasoline distribution, and bookselling -- to be conducted in much more convenient and profitable ways.

The face of these industries has changed considerably. The basic interface with the consumer is completely different.

• The consumer deals much more directly with the business, with fewer live human intermediaries.
  
• For the business owner, there’s more capital investment in computers and networks, balanced by less expense for labor and people in the front lines -- much less.
  
• And with today’s cheap capital and expensive labor, it’s a foregone conclusion that these trends will continue.
  
• And with consumers demanding more convenience, and wanting to conduct their business whenever and wherever they have a free moment, you can be sure that the market will drive all the banks, gas stations, and booksellers to adopt the new model. It’s the only way they’ll be able to survive in business.
  

These three businesses have already made the change. Amazon.com will undoubtedly sell more books than any other bookseller this year. It’s hard to find a station without an automated self service pump, and just as hard to find a gas station attendant. And almost no business is transacted in the lobby of the bank. When I first moved to Southborough, the branch bank had four full-time tellers. Now it has one, who also doubles as branch manager and security guard.

Where have all the tellers gone?
And the gas pumpers?
And the booksellers?
Bye bye, Miss American Pie.

Other industries, that affect the way we carry out the business of our day-to-day lives, are also beginning to change as a result of the power and ubiquity of computers and networks. Let’s look at some that are just beginning to change, and ask these questions:

How is it different from the old way?
What is causing the change?
What disappears?

Stamps (usps.gov)
Stock (etrade.com) Do you want a receipt?
Groceries (peapod.com)
Newspaper (nytimes.com)
Radio (npr.org)
Television (cnn.com)
Shopping (llbean.com)

These are efficient, responsive, effective, faster, cheaper, more convenient, available to more people in more places at any time. So in a free market, they will prevail. No area of business is untouched, unaffected. They are changing, inexorably, and quickly.

The Future of Learning

What abut our business? Can we deliver learning more responsively, effectively, faster, and cheaper, and more conveniently, to more people in more places at any time, by taking advantage of computers an networks?

And when this happens, what will it look like? Which model will be the one we adopt for education?

ALM
The Automated Learning Machine, modeled on the Automatic Teller, puts learning at your fingertips, whether at a streetcorner kiosk or on your computer at home. Just slide in your credit card, enter your PIN, and then choose your subject. All the standard school subjects are available. And you can learn them in as variety of ways, through text on the screen, with a live video of the professor, or through an online discussion, as well as other methods. No matter what your learning style, the ALM has a product for you. And when your learning’s done, the ALM asks, Do you want a receipt?

LearnPass
Fill up your brain as you’d fill up the tank. The more you pump, the more you learn. This version of online learning provided several levels, depending on the quality of education you desire, and offers both credit card and LearnPass as methods of payment. When your brain is full, the pump stops automatically, so no knowledge is spilled. The appropriate degree is printed, in Latin or Greek for an extra charge) if you respond positively to the pump’s question, Do you want a receipt?, at the conclusion of the fillup.

education.com
Thousands of courses, from the world’s leading education providers, delivered instantly, no browsing, no waiting necessary, available from this patented web site that’s simply amazin’. An educational cornucopia with one-click shopping. Search be keyword, teacher, title, or institution, and we’ll find a course for you. And deliver it to your desktop in the wink of an eye, shipping included. Do you want a receipt?



I’m not sure what online learning will look like...probably none of these. And let’s hope we educators don’t adopt one of these models. We’ll build our own. And we won’t model it on the bank, or the gas station, or the bookstore.

We’ll design it around the needs of our students. Many educators today have just started to provide online learning. These examples range from the ridiculous to the sublime. These are not presented here as exemplars, but as samples of what’s out there today, chosen to illustrate some important points. By examining these examples, we can better understand the nature of the possibilities.

It’s interesting to analyze each of these examples according to the following criteria:

Role of the Teacher:
How much is the teacher involved? Did she write the course? prepare the interactive materials? Respond to student questions? Assign projects to students? Suggest new avenues for study? Appear as voice or video? Live or canned? Receive student assignemnts? Evaluate them? Determine grades and credit, if any? The more you answer yes to these questions, the higher the score.

Social interaction:
What's the extent and nature of work with other students? A forum?A chat room? Assignments that force you to discuss things with other students in the course? A course mentor or teaching assistant to whom you can email questions? Scheduled online discussion groups? Submission of projects to juries of peers?

Forms of Content:
How many different forms does the content appear in? Text? Images? Animation? Voice? Music? Video? Diagrams? Interactive experiments or simulations? Online surveys or databases? References to other online sources?

Interactivity:
What's the extent of the interactivity? Click and read? Choose a path through the material? Search and find key ideas? Respond to quizzes and tests? Conduct simulated experiments? Manipulate simulations? Correspond with teachers or other students? Think and write responses? Conduct an activity in another window?

Extent of Content:
How much does the course cover? How deep is the available material? How much reference material is included? How accurate and up to date is the material? How many different points of view are included?

To assist in performing this analysis, you can use the online learning analyzer that I’ve posted on the web. This interactive device links you to each of the live examples, then provides sliders that you manipulate to provide a measurement on each of the criteria listed above.