Some Questions about Quality and Equality
The real measures of quality and equality of learning are in the hands of learners, instructors, facilitators and coordinators who can provide direct information about how learning technologies affect them. These are some questions to ask about the quality and equality of learning:

• Is the new technology appropriate for the learning task at hand?
  
• Does this technology broaden, rather than narrow, the kinds of teaching and learning approaches that can be used?
  
• Does it support individual learning, by permitting self-pacing, ready access, learner control?
  
• Does it support social learning, by enabling consultation, peer learning, mentoring?
  
• Is the technology transferable so that it is useful not just in the specific learning context but in other learning contexts, at work and at home?
  
• What advantages does it offer over other methods, for example, classroom learning or other technologies?

Endnotes for Section Four

1. Ursula Franklin, The Real World of Technology, p.29.
   
   
2. Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development, Cambridge USA, p.62.
   
   
3. Dorothy MacKeracher, Making Sense of Adult Learning, Culture Concepts, Toronto, 1996.
   
   
4. Christine von Prummer, "Women-Friendly Perspectives in Distance Education," keynote address at International Conference, Umea, Sweden, June, 1993.
   
   
5. Gill Kirkup, "The Importance of Gender as a Category in Open and Distance Learning," keynote address at Putting the Student First: Learner Centered Approaches in Open and Distance Learning, Cambridge, UK, July, 1995.
   
   
6. For example, Burge, Lenskyi, Rossner and Cragg have documented women's response to conferencing technologies.
   
   
7. Interview with Dr. Vivian Rossner, Simon Fraser University.
   
   
8. Adrian Kershaw, "People, Planning and Process: The Acceptance of Technological Innovation in Post. Secondary Institutions," Educational Technology, Sept. -Oct, 1996.
   
   
9. Elizabeth Burge and Jennifer O'Rourke, "The Dynamics of Distance Teaching: Voices from the field," in Faculty Development in Distance Education, in press, 1997.
   
   
10. Lucille Pacey and Wayne Penney, "Thinking Strategically: Reshaping the face of distance education," in J. Roberts and E. Keough, eds, Why the Information Highway: Lessons from Open and Distance Learning, Trifolium, 1995, p.37.
    
    
11. Association of Canadian Community Colleges, "Responding to the Information Highway," presented to the Working Group on Learning and Training, Information Highway Advisory Council, Jan. 1995, p.4.
    
    
12. IHAC, Final Report, 1996, p.60.
    
    
13. Ibid, p.61.