THES reporters turn the spotlight on the working groups set up so far by Sir Ron Dearing as part of his inquiry into the future of higher education. The impact of information technology on teaching and learning, the future of the academic computing network SuperJANET and copyright are all topics for the information technology working group.
Chaired by John Arbuthnott, principal and vice chancellor of Strathclyde University, the team includes Sir Ron Dearing. Other members are: Diana Laurillard, pro-vice chancellor in charge of technology development at the Open University; David Potter, chairman of computer firm Psion; Sir William Stubbs, rector-designate of the London Institute; Sophie Ansell, Sheffield University student union president; and Sir Ron Oxburgh, rector of Imperial College.
A House of Lords science and technology select committee report published in July said that both staff and students should be literate in the use of IT. Sir Ron's IT group is likely to be interested in finding out what the level of this literacy is, how it compares with competitor countries and the impact it is having on the nature and effectiveness of teaching and learning.
They will also explore the relative merits of the face-to-face relationship between students and tutors and the more remote learning possibilities offered by IT, and the "ideal" balance between the two.
SuperJANET is the nearest equivalent the United Kingdom has to an information superhighway backbone. It is capable of handling "real time multi-media traffic", enabling the transmission of sound and video as well as text and numeric data. It serves 130 sites in higher education and has had a substantial impact on interactive learning and research in universities as well as industry. Several national libraries including the British Library are connected to it. Many believe that the network has the potential for expansion. The issue though is how to achieve this, the level of investment required to do so and where such money would come from. The Lords have recommended that an official study be undertaken to assess the likely need of business access to SuperJANET.
If a clear need is identified, the Lords suggest Government should consider funding mechanisms that could permit such access.
A particular complex and problematic area for the IT group to consider is higher education's relationship with electronic publishing and archiving. As the Lords pointed out, the VAT regime for electronic publications is inconsistent with that for printed books and journals. Electronic publications attract full-rate VAT and paper publications attract zero-rate VAT. They recommend that electronic publications should be zero-rated.
The Lords report also points out that in the UK, legal deposit of printed publications in specified "copyright libraries" such as the British Library has been of vital importance in preserving the nation's written heritage.
The growth of electronic publications means there is a danger that much scientific, technical, cultural and social knowledge will be lost unless there are arrangements to archive machine readable materials. The Lords in principle support the British Library's push for a change to the laws of legal deposit so that it is extended to include material in machine readable form.