Digital Hemlock: Internet Education and the Poisoning of Teaching

Tara Brabazon ,
086840781X, UNSW Press, October 2002, 240pp, PB , 235x155mm
Price: $39.95

Tertiary education is in crisis; increasingly its funding is reduced and its relevancy questioned. The use of the Internet in university education and the delivery of online courses is seen as a cure-all for tertiary education, allowing tailored courses to be delivered to a wide student base with unprecedented immediacy and with a minimum of cost to the institution.

In Digital Hemlock: Internet Education and the Poisoning of Teaching, Tara Brabazon questions these assumptions. She shows that the delivery of quality online education requires as much input and thought as conventional course delivery. She shows that, although online education is offered at minimal cost to the institution, it is the teachers who pay, in their own time and effort to maintain standards. She also shows that there is more to teaching and learning than can ever be delivered online. She argues that knowledge is not the only thing a university should teach; rather, students should leave university with a love of acquiring knowledge and the ability to do so.

This wide-ranging book examines the state of tertiary education in Australia and exposes the myths and assumptions on which current education policy is based. This book should be of interest to all academics and students in Australian universities and all those who care about the future of education in this country.