| Author: | Birten Celik |
| Title: | Web-based History Education In Turkey |
| Publication info: | Ann Arbor, MI: MPublishing, University of Michigan Library November 2001 |
| Rights/Permissions: |
This work is protected by copyright and may be linked to without seeking permission. Permission must be received for subsequent distribution in print or electronically. Please contact [email protected] for more information. |
| Source: | Web-based History Education In Turkey Birten Celik vol. 4, no. 3, November 2001 |
| Article Type: | Article |
| URL: | http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.3310410.0004.302 |
Web-based History Education In Turkey
The adoption of online forms of history education commenced only five years ago in Turkey, and requires the investment of further time and attention.
Significantly, the Turkish Council of Higher Education is encouraging web-based history education in the Turkish universities, starting with the general required history courses. However, it is not easy to attract the history departments and academic historians at universities to the idea of preparing and conducting history courses via the Internet (Asynchronous Learning). Historians and instructors of history voice two reasons for this reluctance to adopt web-based history education. First, they argue, history courses should be conducted in the classroom as face-to-face teaching facilitates students' understanding of historical events, and where the instructor can enliven the learning experience in a way that would not be possible in front of a computer screen. Second, they believe that without technical aid and an effective network system, web-based education is not possible. The latter argument may be reasonable with failing networks due to the inefficiencies of the technical infrastructure. But as for the former argument, it is probably mistaken when the positive results of the online history course which has been conducted at the Middle East Technical University (Ankara, Turkey) and the already wide use of web-based history teaching in the world are taken into account. This study is intended to share the results of our experimentation and to examine the reluctance of the Turkish academic historians as to web-based history education, taking into account possible reasons for their hesitation beyond those two given above.
.01. INTRODUCTION
A Chinese proverb states: "Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I will remember. Involve me, and I will learn." In this age of discoveries, information and instructional technologies present opportunities for the learner to be "involved" in learning activities in exactly this sense. The Internet, the basis of many of these technologies, is regarded as "the most revolutionary mode of communication since the invention of radio and some suggest it is the greatest leap forward since printing itself." [1] Therefore, its use in education increases daily. The tools provided by the Internet make attractive and interactive education possible scientists. Online or web-based education should be regarded as an important aspect of the requirements for modern education, especially with Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALNs), which lay the foundation for interactive teaching and learning. Historians can benefit from these developments as much as academics in other disciplines.
In fact, as soon as the benefits of the use of ALNs and web-based education were discovered, the institutions of higher education started to use information and instructional technologies in teaching humanities, because they provided useful tools to make an interactive and attractive education possible. The availability of audio-visual tools such as television, pictures [?], maps, and casettes enabled teachers and students to achieve the standards demanded today. In the contemporary world, historical concepts and methods of teaching history have changed due to recent developments: and expectations are still changing. With the current issues such as overcrowded classroom, increasing fees, changing requirements in equality of opportunity, and new expectations of teaching styles and of enhanced quality in education and in the attractivenes of the course subjects, the ALNs or new informational and instructional techno [2] However, some say that "the academy is embracing computer technology "hurriedly and mindlessly" [3] Some of these reluctant academics are historians. Many history teachers still do not include the use of computers or the adoption of online education in their agendas "as an important future issue". [4] Moreover, they are not aware of the benefits that could be drawn from computer- and Internet-assisted history teaching. While not adopting web-based education, such historians are anxious about the future role of the instructors of history, and wonder whether computers will become more important than history as a subject. Specifically, such observations can be applied to the Turkish context.
Turkey has only four years' experience with web-based history education, and the only web-based history course worth mentioning has been run during that time. This study will discuss and define the problems pertaining to the adoption of the web-based history education specifically in Turkey, although also with resonance to a wider context. There is only one online history course because the use of computers, the WWW, and ALNs in history classrooms has not been adopted in every history department of Turkish universities due to the hesitation or reluctance of academic historians toward these developments in information and instructional technologies. Their doubts concentrate on two points: the lack of technical infrastructure and their belief that history education in front of computer screens cannot be as exciting as face-to-face classroom education. The first argument has some justification, considering the lack of technical infrastructure and the possibility and actuality of network failures. Yet regarding the latter, they can be mistaken when the postive results of the online history course conducted at Middle East Technical University and also among universities in the United States and in Europe. For this reason, this study aims to introduce web-based ecuation or asynchornous teaching and learning efforts, together with comments on the adoption of the online eduation in history teaching in Turkey. The anxieties of the Turkish historians will be countered by providing solutions arrived at in the light of four eyars' experience in an online history course conducted by the author of the present study working with two colleagues.
This paper will also examine some other doubts among Turkish academic historians which, while not discussed openly, are as important as the arguments iterated above, and possibly constitute the main reason underlying their hesitations. These "human factors" include fear of loss of jobs, of authority or of autonomy in teaching and in the classrooom, and apprehension toward, and lack of capacity to use, Internet technology.
.02. HISTORY OF WEB-BASED HIGHER EDUCATION IN TURKEY
Turkey has been familiar with the web-based education since 1996, and even in this short period, it has recorded some successes in Turkey. Turkish educational institutions are certainly possible arenas for the application of web-based or online education.
The Turkish Council of Higher Education and a few major universities have funded efforts to adopt web-based education. [5] Prior to the application of information technology to higher education, notions of supplying lessons with audio-visual materials such as video, television, radio, cassettes, maps, and overhead projectors to make education more attractive had been discussed for many years. Distance education programs were started in the 1980s by Anadolu University in Eskisehir/Turkey via television to provide education for those who could not follow regular programs in a university. Such programs are still active. Computerization became a major issue in the 1980s. Gradually, new developments were implemented in higher education in Turkey. In addition, CD-ROMs were prepared for use as auxilliary tools in history courses of secondary and high school education by the scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey. [6] From the beginning, the Turkish Council of Higher Education encouraged all Turkish universities to benefit from the developments in information and instructional technologies for higher education. Underlying this official sponsorship are the aspirations to provide equal opportunities for all university students to benefit from courses given in other universities via the Internet, and to encourage all faculty to pool their knowledge and experience in preparing and conducting distance learning courses. However, progress toward this goal has been slow because the technical capacity and financial support for a web-based education are not yet fully in place, and faculty (including administrators) seem to be psychologically unprepared and unwilling to adopt web-based education. Indeed, most of them are not prepared to acquire the information and financial and technical support which are necessary for the adoption of IT in their field of work. For this reason, they are slow to change, and the widespread adoption of web-based education in Turkey has yet to be achieved. But a few major Turkish universities have prepared the technical infrastructure for online education and are working to increase the nubmer of 0ff-campus asynchronous courses, and to develop more courses to be shared with other Turkish universities, as well as with foreign ones.
Among the universities that have adopted online education, Middle East Technical University (METU) deserves to be mentioned of as an initiator of the web-based education/asynchronous teaching in Turkey. The Informatics Institute of METU was the initiator of Asynchronous teaching in 1997. The Informatics Institute was founded in 1996 with the main objectives of conducting multi-disciplinary academic programs, research and development projects, of taking an active role in the task of developing and disseminating basic informatics courses to university students, and of increasing cooperation between the university and all sectors of industry in the field of informatics in order to meet the personnel needs created by the increasing spread of information and communication technologies. The institute has graduate programs in a multitude of disciplines and affiliated faculty from different departments. As a main tool to fulfil the second objective, the institute conducts several projects on asynchronous learning. [7] Among the facilities developed by the Informatics Institute, there is the METU-Online, which is a general hardware and software service and educational service of Middle East Technical University. It provides web-based semester-long courses for campus and distance students. These courses are offered in various departments and are offered online using the regular university calendar. A METU-Online course may be offered completely online (without any lectures), partially online, or web material may be used as supplementary to regular lectures. METU-Online was developed as a part of a State Planning Organization (SPO) project, and many people have contributed to various parts. It provides a technical base and staff support for the online courses given at METU.
In the academic year of 1998-1999, within the project of METU-Online, ten undergraduate courses conducted via the Internet were started. These courses were offered by different departments within the program of METU-Online. The number of undergraduate courses has now increased to 19. [8] However, when one considers that the university has 44 departments, four graduate schools and nine interdisciplinary graduate programs, the number of online courses is still few, acceptable only as the beginning of online education, within the framework of the technical possibilities and the readiness of the academic environment to adopt computer-based education.
Among the online courses given at METU, there is an online history course conducted by the author of this paper (who is a member of the Department of History in the Middle East Technical University) with her two colleagues. This experience gives the author a privilieged insight into views regarding the adoption of web-based history education in Turkey, and a perspective from which to evaluate the reluctance of history academics toward web-based history education.
.03. WEB-BASED HISTORY EDUCATION IN TURKEY
Web-based history education at METU was started as a pilot project during the fall semester of the 1998-1999 academic year. This project was conducted with a history course required at the undergraduate level and offered in two semesters to second-year students enrolled in all departments, from the social sciences to engineering programs, by every faculty of the METU. This history course, titled "History of the Turkish Revolution," is taught by the department of history of the METU. [9] The course is given in two semesters as HIST-2201 and HIST-2202. This undergraduate course provides a historical background on contemporary Turkish history for the students.
In each academic year, approximately 3000 students are enrolled in this course. These numbers create crowded classrooms. Therefore, with the approval of the METU presidency, the department of history decided to organize this history course as an asynchronous course with the technical advice and support of the Informatics Institute. Two part-time assistants enrolled in the Informatics Institute worked with three full-time course instructors in designing the course. Instructors prepared a syllabus including the course texts and chose relevant pictures and maps. The assistants converted texts into HTML files and added maps, pictures and animation. After such preparations, the course was formatted according to the Asynchronous Learning Networks' principles. Because the instructors were not sure whether or not they would succeed in conducting and managing an asynchronous version of the course with approximately 3,000 students, they asked if the History department wished to conduct the asynchronous course with a limited number of second year students; this amounted to 500 students, only about one-sixth of the 3000 students would would normally be enrolled. In the first month, all students in the web sections were givena special password to enter the course structure. Then an additonal password was given to each student and to the instructors. With the exception of the demo page, entrace into the materials is possible only with the passwords. These measures were taken to prevent unauthorized persons and students from entering the course sites.
At the start of the fall semester of the 1998-1999 academic year, 15 students from each of the 44 undergraduate departments at METU were registered for the asynchronous version of the course. The other students followed the course in the classroom. For the next two years, the students were free to choose asynchronous (Internet) version or synchronous (classroom) version of the course. Since 1998, the instructors have monitored the course to see whether it would be feasible or not eventually to make the asynchronous version available for all 3,000 students. Currently, the lack of sufficient network resources means that the asynchronous course is only given to the limited number of students. For example, in the fall semester of the 2000-2001 academic year, 600 students registered for this course.
Communication regarding the course is possible via an online discussion forum. The students and instructors use the online forum to send questions and information to each other. The students are graded via tests, assignments, and final exams. Students are given two tests and one final each semester. The tests are given in two different ways according to the teacher's choice. One of the choices is to publish the questions on the forum, with students sending answers to the instructors via e-mail. The other is designed to be seen on the Student Tool as "Test". Evaluation of the grades are made automatically when the students submit their answers. Each student can see her/his results on their gradebook, where instructors can also see the student's results. The final exams are given in class according to established methods, since there is not a suitable computer laboratory that will enable instructors to make an exam for 200 students per section at the same time. [10]
At the end of the two semesters, students complete online evaluation forms. In the project's first year, the students identified the major problems as lack of face-to-face interaction, failures in the network, long texts and excessive homework. For the last two years they have only evaluated the performance of the instructors.
This online history course was introduced to the other Turkish universities by the Informatics Institute of METU. The main aim in initiating the course was to offer it to the other universities with the cooperation of the Turkish Council of Higher Education and also to provide technical and advisory help to them. The faculty members of the visited universities were surprised and impressed by the online history course. However, they did not prepare any online history course themselves, and only two universities entered into contract with the Informatics Institute to act as a tenure university.
At METU, although the online history course invovled no face-to-face interaction between the students and the instructors except the WWW discussion hours, interaction took place between the students and the instructors which was not only valuable, but which exceeded that attained during the equivalent classroom-taught course. In addition, students agreed that the Internet helped to improve learning by offering students flexibility in studying the course material whenever and wherever they wanted. The grades that the students took from the online course were even higher than the grades of the students who followed the course in the classroom.
When this project was first applied in 1998, the Turkish Council of Higher Education brought it to the wider attention of history academics and encouraged the adoption of the web-based history education. Discussion first took place at regional meetings held in 1998 and1999 with special reference to general required history courses such as the "History of the Turkish Revolution" course. Here, a report was submitted to introduce the ALNs to the instructors of history and to inform them about the advantages of the web-based teaching in the required and other history courses. [11] This report was submitted especially to suggest academic historians adopt online history education to solve the problem of classroom overcrowding and to enhance the attraction of courses with Internet technology. History instructors appeared to be interested in this subject, but as the course given at METU is still the only online history course given in Turkey, it seems they were not convinced by the report or by information disseminated by the author of this article. Why is this so? The answer to this question will illuminate the attitudes of Turkish history academics toward web-based and online history education.
.04. THE REASONS FOR THE ADOPTION OF THE WEB-BASED TEACHING IN HISTORY EDUCATION
Educational styles and concepts, as well as the expectations of current and future students and teachers, are undergoing change. Students desire new forms of education, and teachers want to submit information in different ways by adapting developments in science and information and instructional technologies. However, there remain some teachers, including history teachers, who resist changes in teaching methodology. In Turkey, most academic historians are reluctant to adopt new information and instructional technology and to implement web-based history education. There are many reasons behind this hesitation or resistance, but two are most clearly articulated, and a third may underlie them.
A) Technical Infrastructure
The Internet is in use in almost every part of Turkey. Many people use it for communication, information and/or education. The state departments and institutions also use computers and the Internet. The prime minister of Turkey, and the other ministries, all have web pages. State and private archives and libraries also have web pages: Libraries provide online catalogue services while the archives are working to create online editions of documents for worldwide use. Turkish primary, secondary, and high schools, colleges and universities are trying to supply their buildings with computers and Internet access. While all these efforts are paid, the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey and private software companies prepared software and CD-ROMS to be used as educational tools in primary, secondary, and in high school education. These tools constitute informational and instructional technology in Turkey. But an effort should be paid to develop as well the general use of informational and instructional technologies. For this reason, the hesitation of the historians as to the adoption of the web-based history education is, in a sense, reasonable, when the limited internet network in Turkey is considered. But this does not mean the situation in Turkey is hopeless. There are many ways to overcome this problem if there is a will to do so.
First, the use of technology in education is not a government issue but should be the concern of the educational institutions. The use of information technology in history classrooms needs to be adopted as a policy by institutions or departments or faculties. Such policies would encourage the government to construct the infrastructure for an asynchronous learning or web-based or online education. The universities and academics should lead the developments by providing projects such as METU's. In institutions of higher education, faculty can offer research projects to the Turkish government via the State Planning Organization (SPO). As soon as the technical infrastructure is established in a university for general use, all departments would benefit from it. The major universities, such as METU, constructed the computer network available for asynchronous learning and teaching via the SPO projects. The online history course mentioned above has been conducted using this infrastructure. The construction of these courses is paid for via a faculty-initiated research proposal. This is submitted to the SPO and if approved, funds necessary for the construction of the course are released. Then the university assigns technical staff and faculty to construct the infrastructure necessary for web-based/asynchronous learning.
Second, money and technical help for web-based education could also be secured by establishing relations with software production companies or with private companies in industry and commerce. Projects offered to such companies would provide mutual benefits to both sides. There are many potential history projects that history departments could offer that would be useful for industry and commerce.
Thirdly, programs prepared by teachers in collaboration with professional programmers as educational software as applied in other countries may also provide technical solutions. [12] It is generally accepted that such software is easy to adopt and does not require specialist IT knowledge. In particular, packages prepared by the universities and companies in the service of history education and applied via CD-ROMs could be another solution to technical problems in Turkey. Indeed, as is mentioned above, there are CD-ROMs already in use in primary, secondary, and high school education
Above all, prior to the adoption of IT in history classrooms or the asynchronous learning, in-service training will be necessary for history instructors to develop skills to implement IT in history classrooms. This training would provide some skills in preparing and arranging simulations of historical data, and in conducting asynchronous teaching. Collaboration between schools and higher education offers further potential gains. [13] Such resources and developments would demonstrate how new technologies can enable students to bring together text, images, and ideas to formulate their own interpretation of history. When starting to conduct an asynchronous course, academics need to follow IT developments because preparing a course according to the ALNs will necessitate knowledge and skill on the use of information and computer technology. For this reason, individual effort and skill will be required in the adoption of the ALNs.
B) Excitement in front of the Screen or in the Classroom?
Today, one obstacle in the way of adapting the IT or web-based teaching in history classrooms in Turkey is that the academic historians do not believe the history education in front of a computer screen is sufficiently enticing to students. Most of them embrace traditional teaching styles, and believe that history courses should be conducted in the classroom where face-to-face education facilitates students' understanding of historical events, and where the instructor can enliven the process of learning in a way which would not be possible in front of a computer screen. This argument is refuted by the successful results of the METU asynchronous history course, and by examples of asynchronous courses provided at universities in Europe and America. Today, students from one country can follow a program in another country via the Internet. Online distance learning courses are shared among universities and the number of tenure universities is increasing day by day. More importantly, a new history pedagogy is required; different types of classroom activities are called for. [14] In addition, the historical subjects taught are changing. Today, "historians want to explore relationships between the head of house and their occupation, the relative ages of the household and their sex, cause of death and average age of death" to enlighten the causes of historical events. [15] But are instructors of history and academic historians ready to meet the requirements of new forms of history? Because many still argue against the adoption of these new forms of history and of technological developments in history teaching, this question cannot completely be answered in the affirmative.
It is important for academics to recognize that not all students are necessarily satisfied with teacher-centered classroom instruction; "Classroom studies over the past two decades have made it clear that participants in learning situations are not mechanistic deliverers or passive receivers of undisputed knowledge, but players in a complex and dynamic process of social and cognitive interaction. Classroom action cannot be taken for granted, either as a predictable routine or as a smoothly cycling process." [16] Providing a course via the Internet might satisfy students equally; the experiment could at least be tried and results evaluated. It might be possible to overcome resistance and attract instructors to ALNs by emphasizing the positive results of ALNs. For example, the possibility of providing an enticing learning environment via an ALN through video, animation, and maps together on the same web page may eradicate the unresponsive classrooms that sometimes accrue from traditional teaching methods. It should not be ignored that people increasingly prefer to use the Internet in their everyday lives, and many students are not satisfied with classroom teaching environments (although it is true that some students are still apathetic about IT). Although such arguments seem to meet the reservations of historians and instructors of history, this does not mean that they "will be ready to jump on the ALN bandwagon" as Jaffe says. [17] "While faculty members may be unwilling to relinquish their attachment and devotion to the conventional classroom institution, they can better appreciate the reasons why other faculty might want to experiment with ALNs and they may even be interested in developing some kind of on-line web conference for their classroom course as a way to extend the classroom beyond the spatial and temporal confines of four walls and seventy-five minute time limits. This is an important intermediate application of instructional technology between the pure classroom and the exclusively online delivery modes." [18] In short, historians and instructors of history do not assume ALN technology to be a neutral value-free means for improving teaching and learning, but many can be persuaded that without the classroom, teaching can still be attractive when presented with appropriate tools such as animation, maps, and films. Such teaching materials need not be expensive, but will require time to prepare. History instructors are attracted to the idea of online education can be persuaded to make such efforts.
The role of history teachers is changing due to the new developments and expectations. The new forms of history explained above require the use of audio-visual tools together with the simulation of the historical data of every kind. Contemporary students want to see every detail about historical events and actors via simulation. The role of teacher has changed accordingly. It is expected from a history teacher to remain "…an expert, an authority, but one who sets activities, poses questions, offers advice, and may be consulted as required. She is, as classroom manager presented with [a] greater organizational load. Her role may also be more complex in the assessment process, involving the measurement of individual progress in the development of specific skills and understandings." [19]
Increasing engagement in learning can be achieved in front of the screen via the software tools pertaining to the ALNs. One can attract students to history courses and make it exciting for them by involving the students in teaching activities via work on the analysis of the historical actors and events and of other data that would ordinarily be problematic to present in classrooms given limitations of time and resources. Students can reach online course materials whenever they want. They can submit criticism on courses and be involved in arranging courses as in the case of the history course given at METU. Moreover, the links provided in an online course allow history students to observe events from different aspects.
Different aspects of historical phenomena (pictures, maps, graphics, and data) are readily available in an online view to provide a varied learning experience which could only with difficulty be replicated in a classroom. For this reason, online course would be accepted "…as a means of achieving history teaching objectives, by offering tasks which may be offered in non-computer-assisted form only with much time and trouble. The computer has often therefore not been used to automate existing classroom procedures but to introduce activities previously considered impracticable." [20] In the experience of METU, which may be generally applicable, such procedures bought the instructors more time during which to concentrate on teaching the course subjects and to apply to organizing the course according to students' criticisms and contributions. Second, online education furnished opportunities to instructors to reach students easily (sometimes not easy in classroom teaching due to student absences) because it was possible to make announcements on the forum to be seen by all students. Third, displaying assignments via course web pages is another way of enlivening instruction and reaching all students. Sometimes this was not easy under established education procedures due to lack of time to make classroom presentations. The publication of assignments on the web stimulated the students to prepare their work carefully, especially because they knew that the other students would be reading them. The availability of assignments on the Internet also provided the chance to get more information on contemporary historical events. [21]
Fourth, the students were given chance to design the history course that they wished to read and follow and had chance to read the course material whenever they wanted and as often as they liked. Importantly, online education saved time and space and left more time for the instructors and the students to plan, correct, and re-design the course according to feedback received. So the instructor's effort in managing the course and evaluating tests, assignments, mid-terms, and finals was rewarded. Online course directs both the instructors and the students to the subject without untimely losses of concentration becoming an issue. The near-constant availability of materials on the Internet empowered instructors and students. In web-based education, the instructor becomes a leader or a facilitator of the online course rather than the authority in everything.
Although it was a hard task for METU instructors both to teach in the classrooms and to conduct and manage the online course in the first two years of online education, it was necessary to clarify the benefits of these new forms of instructional technology "web-based/online education." The online history course at METU is really the outcome of the contributions of students and of the faculty conducting this course, and it is accepted that the course achieved the desired goals and that students seemed happy with it.
The reasons given by students who registered for this course included the wish to resolve problems with courses clashing, familiarity with the Internet, enjoying using computers, willingness to acquire IT literacy, finding online education stimulating, and the ease of availability in reaching the course materials. Moreover, since online history courses are required throughout secondary schooling and high school, students find it convenient to pursue the same online mode in higher education. However, there are still students who want to take this course in the classroom as well. We are still trying to develop the course material and techniques. Because of technical deficiencies, we call students for two hours a month to the classroom to show them films relating to the course subjects and discuss some matters relating to the course. There are also short films placed in the online text relating to the subject.
C) Human Factors in the Adoption of the Web-Based History Education
So, while the benefits gained from the online history course given at METU and in other parts of the world are clear, why do academic historians in Turkey generally hesitate to adopt web-based history education? There may be another reason which is not articulated by the academics themselves but which does appear in much international literature on resistance to web-based education. Such publications are informative for analysis of the reluctance of Turkish academic historians toward web-based education, which seems to have causes additional to those they put forward. These various further causes might be labelled "human factors." [22]
First, there is "the recognition of the classsroom as a sacred institution in higher education, and major source of professorial identity." [23] When we think of the institutions of higher education as "social organizations characterized by traditions, cultures, norms, and institutional missions…" [24] it is easier to understand "traditionalists'" suspicion of web-based education. Because the majority of academics have a vested interest in conventional classrooom teaching arrangements, those who apply strategies for persuading them of the usefulness of the ALNs should bear in mind "the actual actors and interests that either support or resist environmental and technical change." [25] They need to be persuaded to practice new developments rather than regard them as major challenges to their teaching environment. [26] Fear of adopting innovations or "resistance to change is an important factor to overcome." Because many claim that "in some circumstances the resisters may be more rational and reasonable than the advocates of change. Clearly, it is important to recognize the causes of resistance. Unless attention is paid to the underlying causes of resistance, the innovation is unlikely to succeed. If history teachers are reluctant to use the computer in their lessons therefore it would be pertinent to explore the reasons they give for not doing so." [27] Resistance to the adoption of online education or to the use of computers or of the world wide web in history classrooms is not only an issue in Turkey, but one of world-wide significance.
Second, for many faculty online education represents "a radical departure from prevailing practice" because they are used to traditional teaching ways as the "essential nature of teaching and learning." [28] Because new developments require changes in teaching pedagogy and teaching style, these innovations could create fear of failure in the new practices. Moreover, instructors want to escape the extra effort that these innovations might impose on them, and believe that they do not have the time or interest to update their knowledge, because they "already feel they have enough to do." [29]
Third, the instructors of history as well as the instructors and professors of other disciplines regard themselves as the center of teaching because they have the power in traditional teaching to decide what the students should learn and what the correct or incorrect answer is. [30] Thus, if they adopt the web-based education, they will lose "a considerable amount of power, authority, and control"[?], because "the classroom institution has historically centralized power and influence in the hands of the instructor." [31] However, any authority established over the students must serve the purpose of directing students to the main point of the course; that may mean giving necessary information about the course subjects, supporting the course text with films, animation, maps, and links, and providing questions on the subjects. Giving the students the chance to discuss the course and suggest new changes to the presentation of it via forums will also facilitate beneficial interaction between instructors and students and give the students enhanced confidence. Providing a satisfactory course is a way of establishing oneself as an authority and expert on the subject. Higher education has to respond to a changing environment by addressing concerns such as "what students need to learn, how students learn, who the students are, when the students can learn, where the students can learn, and what students can access while they learn." [32]
Fourth, many faculty may have a "vested interest in preserving and defending the classroom institution" [33] because they are afraid of losing their jobs if computers replace them and become "a threat to teacher autonomy." [34] However, if the future of the web-based education is considered from a broader perspective, the adoption of web-based education is unlikely to undermine academic employment opportunities. Courses will still require teachers: it may indeed be that instructors can best maintain their positions by following and applying new developments in education.
Fifth, for many faculty, web-based education is not attractive, because they identify themselves with the classroom. They are afraid of alternatives such as computers and the web. They do not consider the positive benefits of web-based education, and it seems hard to convince them because "teacher-centered classroom tradition has become the widely accepted standard for evaluating the appropriateness and legitimacy of educational practices" [35] Therefore, in so far as teachers are identified as the only expert or source of knowledge and information, alternatives may not be evaluated. [36]
Additionally, teaching via the Internet raises the issue of centralization. [37] There is a fear that centralized administrative policies and procedures regarding web-based history teaching will be an obstacle in the way of the de-centralized nature of Internet education because such procedures will be likely to limit subjects and undermine changes in historical methodologies and the administrative regulation designed for synchronous education may be efficiently employed in the evaluation of many asynchronous courses in history education. So, the centralization of web-based history teaching as in the case of general required courses such as "History of the Turkish Revolution" will produce a standardization of courses and knowledge. The same course will be taught everywhere. The centralization of authority and of decisions about the history courses to be taught would be inimical to diversity and freedom in history teaching. This will lead to an institution-centered education, instead of learner-centered. In fact, the Internet is no way national or restricted to any one country or culture. Web-based history teaching is, therefore, an attempt to overcome the constraints of ‘national' history teaching as well. But, various kinds of historical methods and the value of the new history teaching depends on the evaluation and acceptance by the scientific community at the global level and is not limited by the considerations of national political establishments about what sort of history is to be taught. So, if poltical interferences are avoided, web-based history education will likely correspond to developments at the global level in the methods of teaching history. On the basis of our expereience, we agree to this point as well.
So, how can one persuade academics who do not believe in the benefits of web-based education to adopt such methods? This could be done first by winning the support of those more interested in the use of the WWW and of computers. In the age of technological developments, it is not possible to run away from information technology. With the wider community embracing the advantages of this technology, faculty should also reap the benefits. The academics should not only keep pace in the adoption of new technologies, but should take the lead in its application. This should be possible initially by attracting academics who are interested in the new developments in hardware and software, and who are able to use this technology independent of any institutional assistance or support.
.05. FINAL REMARKS
In the case of Turkey, the Council of Higher Education and the academic historians who are familiar with computer usage and the Internet have embraced the adoption of the web-based education and encouraged all history departments to conduct online courses, especially in the cases of generally required courses. However, because of the factors cited above, it seems that it will not be easy to persuade all academic historians in Turkey to adopt web-based history education. University administrators and academic historians who embrace new forms of history and developments in informational and instructional technologies, however, need to persevere in their efforts of persuasion and in publicizing the adoption of IT in history education via in-service training, publications, and providing examples of the successful results of the online history education. Personal or institutional initiatives or efforts in encouraging government to fund and resource the technical infrastructure will also be an [38]
Of course, online education is not requisite at present, but can be regarded as a useful tool to be adopted. It will certainly take time to convince academic historians in Turkey, and in other countries where web-based and online education is a matter of debate, that web-based education is useful in teaching and learning history. So long as members of institutions of higher education insist on maintaining existing habits, traditions, and cultures, it will not be possible to adopt the innovations.
It will be necessary to persuade academics that using IT in instruction will bring them advantages such as more time to study, conduct research, and to organize their studies and courses. Preparing a course using IT will not undermine their authority or jobs. Instead of defending the imagined basis of their professional or personal status; academics' first responsibility is to satisfy university students, without whom they do not have a job. If academics believe and accept the necessity for web-based education, they can transfer first to partial use, and gradually to total asynchronous teaching in practice. This will enable them to conduct an interactive course and to educate students who will find enjoyment in history. As Andersen points out, "World Wide Web dissemination of departmental information, as well as primary source documents, has the potential to change the manner in which historians do their work. Since web technologies are still developing, maturing, and changing, all user popualtions, historians included, will need to find efficient ways of learning about and using these technologies without wasting valuable time and energy." [39]
George Bernard Shaw said that "the reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." In the case of Turkey, the future of online history education will depend, in this sense, on unreasonable people. The future will demonstrate whether technological developments can or could entirely obviate the need of face-to-face contact in education. This will be the biggest question in the teaching of history in the coming years.
06. NOTES
1. Richard Marius, A Short Guide to Writing About History, Third Edition, (Longman, 1999), p.78.
2. Francis Blow & Allan Martin, "Adopting IT in the History Classroom" The Proceedings of the First International Conference on Computers in the History Classroom, Leeds 1988, (Leeds; 1990), p.5.
3. Dennis A.Trinkle, "Introduction Technology and the History Classroom Where Are We? Where Are We Headed?", History.Edu Essays on Teaching With Technology, (Dennis A.Trinkle and Scott A. Merriman eds.), (New York; 2001), p.x.
4. Julia Almond, Peter Tomlinson, "Teacher Perceptions of the Microcomputer in the History Classroom", The Proceedings of the First International Conference on Computers in the History Classroom, Leeds 1988, (Leeds; 1990), p.34.
5. These universities are Middle East Technical University (Ankara), Hacettepe University (Ankara), Bilkent University (Ankara), Istanbul Technical University (Istanbul), Bosphorous University (Istanbul).
6. Information relating to the studies of the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey can be found at the web address: http://www.bilten.metu.edu.tr/
7. METU developed facilities for online education such as Net Learning Initiative(NLI), Ide_a (Asynchronous Internet Education, METU-Online, diL (Distance Interactive Learning), and Informatics IONline Master of Science Program. Information about them is available from: http://euclid.ii.metu.edu.tr/ .
8. Full details about the courses provided by the Informatics Institute can be found at the following address: http://www.ii.metu.edu.tr/metuonline/home/info/stuff.html
9. http://www.ii.metu.edu.tr/~hist200/demo.
10. The author of this study gave two assignments in the first years (1998-1999 Academic Year) of online history education. One of them was an interview with the war veterans of the Turkish War of Independence and the other an interview with authors who wrote a book on this war. The students were free to select and prepare one of these tasks. Some of them made interviews with the war veterans and some of them with the authors. The assignments topic of the first semester was decided by me, whereas the second semester was decided by the students via discussions on the online forum and during the Web Discussion hours. The second semester's homework subject decided by the students was to interview members of the political parties in Turkey. The topic was the parties' point view of the recent "secularism" controversy in Turkey. Each student conducted an interview with the representatives or the deputies of the political parties. Students were free in selecting the parties and the que [?]
11. Ramazan Acun, "Atatürk İlkeleri ve Inkılap Tarihi'nin İnternet'e Dayalı Öğretimi", (Web-Based Teaching of the History of the Turkish Revolution and Atatürk's Principles) Atatürk İlkeleri ve İnkılap Tarihi Yöntem Semineri, Hacettepe University, 14-15 December 1998, Ankara-TURKEY.
12. Blow & Martin, p.11.
13. "Keynote Address by Carole Baker", The Proceedings of the First International Conference on Computers in the History Classroom, Leeds 1988, (Leeds; 1990), p.27.
14. "Adopting IT in the History Classroom" Foreword, The Proceedings of the First International Conference on Computers in the History Classroom, Leeds 1988, (Leeds; 1990), p.6.
15. Deryn M Watson, "Not Just History-Consider the Humanities", The Proceedings of the First International Conference on Computers in the History Classroom, Leeds 1988, (Leeds; 1990), p.104.
16. "Section A. Contexts", The Proceedings of the First International Conference on Computers in the History Classroom, Leeds 1988, (Leeds; 1990), p.15.
17. David Jaffe, "Institutionalized Resistance To Asynchronous Learning Networks" JALN, Volume 2, Issue 2- September 98, p.9
18. Ibid, p.9.
19. Blow & Martin, p.7.
20. Ibid.
21. For example, my students' feelings as submitted about the assignments mentioned above were positive. They explained that they gained confidence in themselves while talking to the war veterans, authors and political parties, because they themselves decided on the questions to be asked. Among these authors were the authors of some of the reference books which were suggested reading for the students. Although most of the students were from the faculty of engineering and the faculty of architecture, they were successful in preparing their history assignments. It was important that the students' assignments contributed to oral history in both semesters' assignments. In the academic year of 1999-2000 students prepared webpages for themselves as homework. These web pages covered different subjects such as sports, music, cinema, electronic etc. Interestingly, only one of them prepared a web page on history. This assignment allowed them to study whatever they wanted rather than history in order to attract them to the course and web-based education.
22. Jaffe says that "in reality, organizational change [is] contingent on a set of social and human social factors and dynamics that are much more difficult to manage and manipulate. In academia, obstacles to change are closely associated with the established practices and cultural traditions of the teaching faculty". Ibid, p.3.
23. Ibid, p.1.
24. Ibid, p.3.
25. Ibid, p.5.
26. Ibid.
27. Almond & Tomlinson, p.32.
28. Jaffe, p.5.
29. Almond & Tomlinson, p.31.
30. Jaffe, p.5.
31. Ibid, p.5.
32. Ibid, p.3.
33. Ibid, p.6.
34. Almond & Tomlinson, p.30.
35. Jaffe, p.6.
36. Ibid, pp.6-7.
37. Recep Boztemur, "Prospects for Inter-University Web-Based History Teaching in Turkey: Lessons from the METU Experience and Some Questions for Research", Paper presented Association for History and Computing Recording the Past Conference 14-16 September 1999, King's College, London.
38. Blow & Martin, p.13.
39. Deborah Lines Andersen, "Academic Historians, Electronic Information Access Technologies, and the World Wide Web", History.Edu Essays on Teaching With Technology, (Dennis A. Trinkle and Scott A. Merriman eds.), (New York; 2001), p.22.