Abstract
Developments in information and communication technologies play a major role in shaping economic, political, and cultural fields. Together with its inherent features, the internet, in addition to offering opportunities such as a new cultural space, freedom, and reality, has led the change of learning habits, cultural forms, and identities. Open and distance learning starting from correspondence education to computer networks-based education is one of the most affected areas by internet technologies. Various applications have developed in the field of open and distance education over time with the reflections of cyber culture. The aim of this study is to define cyber culture with its components and examine which areas it affects in our daily lives then to investigate the future open and distance education applications shaped by cyber culture.
TopCyber Culture
The Internet as a word is a combination of “interconnected networks” meaning “connected networks” and is an international network system of interconnected computers (Öner, 2003, p. 13; Young, 2000, p. 20). In this network, information is transferred between computers. Under favour of this function of the Internet, a user can communicate with any computer on the network, can access the data on another computer within the network under user's authority, and transfer data from his own computer to the others. Therefore, it can be said that the Internet is the international electronic network formed by the connection of computers around the world to exchange information.
When compared to other scientific and social studies, the innovations, applications and research results based on computer technologies are seen to get into human life much faster. The reflections of this situation can be observed in every other field, from politics to education, individual habits to cultural characteristics. The term cyber derives from its cybernetics origin (Louis, 1956, p.46) and was first used in 1958 by Louis Couffignal, who examined the communication between living organisms and machines, and is considered the father of cybernetics (Lee, 1996, p.225). Internet is cyber for communication method and is a virtual world in terms of the environment that it creates.
Cyber culture can be defined as a culture that describes the many manifestations of the use of internet for various purposes such as communication, entertainment and learning. Although it is difficult to determine the boundaries of cyber culture, they are usually thought to be cultural structures that are created by the activities of virtual communities on the internet (Bell, 2007, p.15; Lévy, 2001, p.115; Louis, 1956, p.46). Cyber culture is emphasized not only as a culture that emerges as a result of the use of computer and internet technologies, but also as a culture mediated by computers (Louis, 1956, p.46). In other words, it is a community culture created by people who have common interests and views regardless of geography.
Cyber culture should be studied as a social and cultural movement that depends on the development of internet technologies. The development of internet technologies have increased the opportunities offered by cyber culture; concordantly, all kinds of activities taking place in virtual communities have created a unique cultural structure. Initially, this culture was created by internet architects and its first users, but now it has become a product of all users’ habits, usage types and approaches. This being said, cyber culture is a set of norms formed as a result of the use of internet technologies. The elements that feed cyber culture and expressed as virtual communities are listed below but not limited to only those examples are;
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Blogs
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Social networks
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Games
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Chat rooms
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Discussion forums
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Virtual Worlds
Key Terms in this Chapter
E-Certificate Programs: Short-term education programs for personal and professional development of individuals designed on the basis of lifelong learning philosophy.
Cyber Culture: The culture that shapes with using of the internet for various purposes such as communication, entertainment, and learning.
Massive Open Online Courses: Courses that are generally free, designed for large groups of students, accessible by anyone with an internet connection and without any entry requirements.
Lifelong Learning: A learning process that continues throughout one’s whole life in order to reach the rapidly developing, changing and renewed information that will help the individual to succeed in social and professional life, cope with the problems, provide solutions when needed, and develop his competencies.
E-Learning: Learning process in which learning environments and activities are structured using internet technologies that provide individuals with the opportunity to access each other and collaborate with other learners and lecturers regardless of their location.
Open and Distance Education: Learning process in which learners are distant from each other and learning resources in terms of time and/or space, and their interactions with each other and learning resources are based on remote communication systems.