Trends in the Virtual Delivery of Education in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands

Introduction New Zealand and the Pacific Islands are like every country in the world, finding that the key to their future economic advancement and cultural integrity depends on the way their people are educated. At the same time advances in information technology has a great impact on all aspects of our professional and private lives, changing the way we learn, do business, bank, shop, and play. Increasingly, society is global and digital in nature, and the key to socio-economic growth and success will be education based on telecommunications-networked environments. The dilemma all societies face is that their education systems are designed to meet the needs of the industrial society of the past, not of the coming information society. We are preparing people for jobs, ideas, and values of a way of life that is fading away and for work in areas of shrinking labour requirements. What is needed is effective, cost-efficient instruction that matches the skills related to technological change, delivered interactively, at the convenience of the learner. This is distance education using new communications and information technologies (ICT)—virtual classes— so that no matter where people live, they can access education anytime, from anywhere. Equitable access means access to quality teachers and content to ensure effective learning outcomes. What kind of education system is needed to prepare people for life in an information society? What will be the shape of education in the future? It is the search for answers that prompted John Tiffin and I to write our book in 1995, In Search of the Virtual Class: Education in an Information Society. (Routledge, 1995) in which these questions are explored more fully. In this report, I examine the status of this new mode of delivery of education in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. I argue that education is communication and I use the following benchmark, building on Lev Vygotsky’s concept of the Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky, 1978). Vygotsky specifies three factors in the educational process: 1. Someone in the role of learner