Panels Tackles Digital Learning

Professors, students and alums debated how the Internet should reshape Harvard’s campus in a two-day conference this weekend.

The conference, entitled “What is Harvard’s Digital Identity?” featured a distinguished group of speakers—including University President Lawrence H. Summers and former President Derek C. Bok—who argued that the Internet should not change the University’s academic aims.

Despite the advantages of technology, Summers said, “it should not bring change in the values that animate an institution like Harvard.”

The weekend’s panels, which attracted more than 100 participants, addressed intellectual property rights, virtual classrooms, availability of Harvard’s resources online and the importance of financial profit in education.

The conference—which is the fourth sponsored by the Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society—follows last year’s debate whether mid-career students should be required to spend at least a year on campus to earn a degree.

Although Harvard is able to digitize its library resources and classroom lectures, access is currently limited to Harvard students.

“We don’t know yet what the best investments are, what works best, what changes education in a positive way,” said Provost Steven E. Hyman.

Both Bok and Summers expressed concerns that online instruction would undermine the quality and exclusivity of Harvard courses.

“It has the potential to make physics instructors like Britney Spears,” Summers said in Friday afternoon’s keynote address. “The best physics instructors, through some type of technology, will be available to everyone. The process of teaching will come to have more of a superstar effect.”

The speakers also cautioned against using the Internet to exploit the Harvard brand name, by packaging and selling classes.

“Universities are quite capable of sacrificing basic values in order to make money,” Bok said.

But Summers said such a scenario seemed unlikely.

“I suspect that the classroom will be with us longer than some of us have suggested,” he said. “It is less easy for remote, indirect experience to replace the communal experience than we suppose.”

He gave the example of a football game, which people will pay to see live despite the convenience of watching it on television.

Saturday’s speakers cautioned against abuses of the Harvard name, mentioning organizations unattached to Harvard who used the name to enhance their credibility—like the Harvard International University in China and a Harvard plastic surgery clinic.

Despite related concerns over lessening the prestige of the Harvard name, many of the speakers said they still felt Harvard should be more open in disseminating information and resources online.

“Yes, it will dilute the brand name. Yes, we should do it,” said William W. Fisher III, professor of law and faculty director for the Berkman Center.

Pforzheimer University Professor and Director of Harvard University Library Sidney H. Verba ’53 said he wants to make Harvard’s library resources available to the world through the Internet, including some of Harvard’s rare historical artifacts and original manuscripts.

“Harvard serves its own purposes by serving the world...We are an international institution, not a local institution,” Verba said.

Some panelists compared Harvard to the Ferrari company, saying that it pursues an aggressive policy of brand name protection.

They also argued that Harvard should be less exclusive in sharing its academic advancements.

Saying that doctors often provide inadequate medical care to patients, Harvard Medical School Professor Anthony L. Komaroff said he hopes the Medical School make information and general advice in maintaining a healthy lifestyle available digitally .

“They’re not looking for a Harvard degree...they’re not even looking for a Harvard education. They’re just looking for an answer,” Komaroff said of the patients who would potentially use this resource.

Professors also demonstrated ways they use technology to aid their classes, which include animated diagrams of DNA strands, films of field trips that some students could not attend and interactive portfolio managers.

“[These Internet tools] are a more interesting way than reading out of a book about basic concepts,” said Judy E. Stahl, chief information officer at Harvard Business School. “Students can use them any time they want.”

But Stahl said these tools would not replace the traditional classroom instruction.

“My bet would be that the larger application will be as a complement and supplement to traditional education, rather than a replacement,” Summers added.