PHILOSOPHY PATHWAYS Issue 1

It is a remarkable fact that out of the 250 or so students who have enrolled on the Pathways to Philosophy programs since 1995, none to my knowledge have ever communicated with one another.

All that is set to change. I'm wondering if it is going to be a change for the better.

Pathways was set up as strictly a one-to-one distance learning program. The student-mentor relationship was sacrosanct. No-one need ever know that you dabbled in philosophy in your spare time. Pathways units arrived in anonymous brown paper envelopes. Your mentor was your personal philosophy therapist.

I wasn't deliberately trying to cultivate a mystique. It seemed the appropriate way to teach philosophy. The setup has worked remarkably well and there have been very few complaints.

What is even more surprising, however, is not one of our students has ever questioned the arrangement. I can recall only one instance in five years of a Pathways student asking to be put in touch with other students following the same program. Why the reticence?

Meanwhile, other internet distance learning programs have emphasized group activity: e-mail discussion lists, conferencing and live chat rooms. Everyone seems to be going down the road of technology.

A lot of it has of to do with hard economics. Increasing numbers of students are now instructed by computer programs, and tested by multiple-choice questions. Why expend valuable teacher-hours on lectures and tuition, when students can spend the time conferencing with one another, with occasional interventions from their instructor?

It is an interesting question, what students would choose, if they had the choice. But why choose? Why not have the best of both worlds? That's my idea.

Just to test the water, I have set up an online conference for Pathways and Diploma students on 'The Use and Value of Philosophy', hosted by the Institute of Education, University of London, with the assistance of Martin Gough, who is using the conference server as part of his UK Government funded project into the 'Wider Benefits of Learning'.

You don't have to be a Pathways or Diploma student to log in as a guest and use the specially set up 'Practice!' conference. The quickest way to get online is through a web browser. Go to http:---. Username and password is 'guest'. There's a 'Help' file too. I've tried it out and it's a piece of cake.

There is also a dedicated software program you can download called 'First Class' which adds a few refinements to the conferencing experience. Both PC and Mac versions are obtainable free by going to http:---.

My impression of e-mail discussion lists and conferencing is that the exercise can rapidly become a terminal bore. Endless wrangling and argy-bargy over "what I really meant to say was..." which you would never get in a face to face conversation (where participants have the added clues of facial expressions and body language, as well as tone of voice to rely on). Worse, the discussion tends to get dominated by two or three aggressive individuals who love to sound off. Students who are required to participate in online conferences as part of their university course describe the experience variously as depressing, intimidating and a complete waste of time. It just doesn't work the way it's meant to.

I have a theory about what the problem is, and what would put it right. The fundamental error is thinking that you can mimic the dynamics of a face-to-face discussion in an online environment. In reality, text-based conferencing is a poor substitute indeed.

Live video conferencing, if it is done well, can overcome most of these objections. Even better than a row faces on video screens would be lifesize holographic 3D images (which I am sure will come before long). But that is completely missing the point. Text-based conferencing is a different medium, a medium which educators have yet to learn how to use properly.

I can't think of an academic subject better suited to this medium than philosophy. Plato would have had a field day.

The subtitle of the Pathways philosophy conference is 'a Socratic dialogue'. That should give a clue. My idea is that the participants will be constructing, crafting a piece of text. Their role will be that of collaborators, rather than adversaries, like the collaborators on a script. All the conflict will be between the philosophical arguments, not the people.

Nice in theory, but can it be done? Frankly, I don't know. But the only way to find out is to go ahead and try!

- You can post messages, which can be read by any of the participants in the conference.

- You can chat with conference participants who are currently logged in, using your keyboard.

- You can send private e-mail messages to any of the participants in the conference.

- There is no set time limit. However, in order to provide a structure, the conference will be organized in separate Rounds, each lasting a set time.

- Each participant will be limited to posting a maximum number of messages in each Round. We will start with three messages from each participant, and see how that works out.

- The most important rule is, Treat the other conference participants with respect.

- The conference on 'The Use and Value of Philosophy' is open to all Pathways and Philosophical Society Diploma students, present or past. Just e-mail me that you are interested in joining, and I will send you a username and password, together with instructions for getting started.

- The 'Practice!' conference is open to all. Just go to http:---. Username and password is 'guest'.

- No. But why wait? The conference is all set up and ready to start. Jump in, the water's lovely!

www.geoffreyklempner.net

klempner@fastmail.net

International Society for Philosophers

Wisdom begins with wonder