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Abstract Computers and telecommunications are having a huge impact on businesses. They are also beginning to have some impact on the education and training of managers. The Open University's Business School recognizes that management learning has to keep up with changes in businesses, and is now using this technology for teaching. In particular, computer mediated conferencing is an important new way of sharing constructing and transmitting knowledge among students taking the University's management courses. The Business School has undertaken large-scale online training for its management tutors as part of an action research study. This article presents some of the findings from the tutors' and students' points of view, and discusses the problems of online conferencing, as well as the potential benefits.
The New Contexts of Information and Communication Technologies
Computers and the telecommunications that go with them are having a huge impact on businesses and managers. The personal computer is not designed as a specialized appliance, like a washing machine or a video player, but as a general purpose machine capable of running many different applications (Taylor, 1995). Since the early 1980s, the power of personal computers has doubled every two years and their cost has fallen dramatically (Donald, 1998). By the year 2010, they could be 1000 times faster than in the mid-1990s. Software has become easier to learn to use, and the richness of computer mediated interactions has increased with the addition of sounds, animations and video (Barker, 1995). In the near future, the use of the World Wide Web for learning and teaching is set to dramatically increase, with increased performance and the development of the use of meta data (information about information), increased control over style on the web, improved relationships between web documents and more (Riley, 1998). Technological commentators argue that computers will become faster, more sophisticated and more available, with even greater impact (Mercer, 1998).
In addition, there has been rapid growth of switched telecommunication networks that link computers together so that users can communicate quickly and easily. The 'mother' of global connectivity is the internet, an international collection of networks that has expanded far beyond its original military and academic uses through advances in accessibility, speed and capacity (Barker, 1995).
The world wide web enables internet users to...