Some community colleges may value having courses delivered from Rio Salado to students in their community that the college could not serve otherwise. Rio Salado, established as a distance education-based “college without walls,” has a long tradition of technology-mediated instructional services offering excellent curricula with outstanding support services. Some of the classes they offer, such as “Hispanic Heritage in the Southwest,” are unique, and few colleges can handle the rolling enrollment schedule that Rio Salado offers. Perhaps community college students taking classes from distant two-year colleges will gain a broader exposure to different types of people and cultures than has been missing from some community colleges among more homogeneous populations. Or perhaps it will allow Hispanic students living in areas where they are a small minority to connect with the larger “community” of Hispanic-Americans of which they are a part. 

Other colleges, however, may view this “opportunity” with alarm. They may see the listings for such courses as “Introduction to Psychology,” “Principles of Human Nutrition,” or “Introduction to Literature” as competition, perhaps even as “raiding” higher-income and better-prepared students who can afford the higher tuition and the technology necessary to access such courses, leaving the local college with the higher-risk, higher-cost students. Certainly, given the struggles many community colleges have had over articulation agreements with their university systems, there is reason for concern that students may take such courses and find later that they will not transfer. Or perhaps they worry that taking such fundamental courses as “College Mathematics” or “First-Year Composition” from another institution will orient beginning students in a direction that does not match that of their follow-on courses. And, of course, there are on-going questions by some about the value of distance education at all; does it impersonalize and/or diminish educational service and quality? 

These are legitimate concerns, questions, and claims that need to be addressed and addressed quickly. For students will not wait as we ponder the educational pros and cons of this issue; they are surfing the web at this very moment, and will seize upon what looks good to them if we do not guide and inform them. Today that might be Rio Salado, but tomorrow it could be Harvard University (which just announced its first completely on-line course) or the Virtual University (which already offers continuing educational classes to thousands of students at no charge)--or who knows what other more dubious “educational” organizations. 

Nor will students be served by sticking our heads in the sand, rhapsodizing over “the good old days,” predicting the downfall of civilization as we know it due to television and the computer, or finger-pointing at “trouble-makers.” Students will be served by those with differing viewpoints, issues, and experiences coming together and hashing out a new system, based on current reality, that works for all concerned--distant institutions, local institutions, transfer institutions, but, most of all, the students themselves. 

The League for Innovation has already been working on this issue through its collaborative project, the International Community College. However, that program is more oriented towards institutions, whereas TLC is aimed at individuals. We hope that TLC will be a vehicle to find and communicate with others who share your concerns, your questions, and your goals. We also hope it will be a place where we can discuss our differing viewpoints with people with other perspectives and perhaps resolve some of the concerns that plague us. We envision it as a service that you can use to target “what works” in your area, discipline, or even hardware or software configuration, by connecting with other people in the field who have innovated successfully. Most of all, we ask that we all bring what we have in common--a respect and understanding of education and the community college system and an overriding desire to serve students in their learning and personal development goals--to bear on issues surrounding the use of technology that might otherwise seem to divide or even destroy us. And, given that technology is the focus of our discussion, why not use it as our communication tool, thereby learning first-hand about the power we are attempting to tap for our students?