- Charles Wedemeyer
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Charles A. Wedemeyer (1911–1999) Philosopher, scholar, innovator, university administrator, humanist, and pioneer of distance and independent learning, Charles Wedemeyer espoused ideas that were decades ahead of their time. A champion of non-traditional education who believed that there should be a diversity of options for learning, Wedemeyer challenged university administrators to expand access and opportunity to autonomous learners. “Educational change is evolutionary, and its tempo is glacial,”[1] he wrote.
What non-traditional learning does not need is anything that would diminish the freedom of choice, autonomy and independence that has kept this kind of learning vital, practical, resourceful, innovative, and humane from the beginning of this century.
—Charles WedemeyerCharles A. Wedemeyer 1930s English teacher—used WHA radio to expand access 1942-1946 Naval instructor WWII 1954-1964 Director University of Wisconsin’s Correspondence Study Program 1958 USAFI contract for course development for 250,000 service men and women 1961 Ford Foundation grant to study correspondence schools in Europe Research 1961 Chair Committee on Criteria and Standards (NUEA); Kellogg Fellow UK 1963 Criteria and Standards document — endorsement of 86 university-sponsored institutions 1963-1966 Brandenburg Memorial Essays on Correspondence Instruction 1965 Carnegie Corporation AIM grant 1966 World Trends in Correspondence Education Career 1967 William H. Lighty professorship in Education 1968-1971 Governor’s Task Force on Open Learning 1969-1973 UK Open Univ; ICCE/ICDE President; Institute on Independent Study 1969-1976 Research organisation EDSAT 1972 UNESCO Consultant at HSI University Ethiopia 1975 Doctorate Honoris Causa British Open University Major Contributions - Comparative studies to establish value of correspondence/independent/distance learning
- Expansion of access to education on six continents
- Research on learners, systems, institutional characteristics, media applications, software development
- Establishment of field of distance education
- Influence on open learning systems worldwide
Contents
Early years
Family and Education
Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1911, to parents of modest means, Charles Wedemeyer developed a sense of excitement for what he described as “self-initiated” learning. His parents, Adrian August Wedemeyer and Laura Marie Marks Wedemeyer strived to provide books and magazines and an environment conducive to learning. An avid reader, the young Wedemeyer made great use of his local library in his quest for knowledge.[2] He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Education with a major in English, later pursuing a Master’s Degree in English, both from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Northwestern University. As a young educator, he taught English and Science to disadvantaged youth. It was at that time that he began to formulate his progressive ideas on extending educational opportunities as integral to the democratic project.
The Great Depression
Radio
An enthusiastic instructor, during the difficult decade of the Great Depression, Wedemeyer began to use the airwaves to broadcast English lessons, using the University of Wisconsin’s radio station—a resource made available in accordance with the University Extension’s mission since 1919—in an attempt to reach an audience to that point excluded from the educational system.
NUEA Committee on Standardization
As early as 1891, the extension movement had been imported from Britain—championed by William Rainey Harper, with the founding of the University of Chicago—along with correspondence study.[3] In 1906, under the leadership of William H. Lighty, the University of Wisconsin became preeminent in the development of the extension movement and correspondence study. In 1915, leaders formed the National University Extension Association (NUEA); the inaugural meeting was held in Madison. By 1929, the NUEA Committee on Standardization created recommendations on such matters as course and credit equivalencies and instruction by regular faculty. In 1931, this committee identified the first standards for the new discipline, covering eight specific areas for the field.
WWII
As a naval instructor in World War II, Wedemeyer interrupted his doctoral studies to create effective teaching methods for the benefit of thousands of sailors deployed around the world in adverse learning conditions. This experience was instrumental in his development of a theoretical framework using innovative communication technologies adapted for non-traditional learners.[4] In the post-war period at the University of Wisconsin’s School of Education, Department of Continuing and Vocational Education, and at the University Extension Division, Wedemeyer pioneered distance and independent learning, although the “distance” descriptor was not used until much later.
Implementing a range of technologies as educational tools, Wedemeyer experimented with radio, television, records, tapes, film, telephones, and computers to enhance and reinforce learning for students near and far. His innovative approach impelled him to travel to six continents, where he witnessed much despair as a consequence of deprivation and neglect of educational opportunity.
1954-1964
Director University of Wisconsin's Independent Study
Wedemeyer’s advanced ideas on self-directed, independent learning emanated from his desire to extend learning opportunities beyond the university to traditionally excluded populations of “back door learners.” With correspondence study—later independent study—students engaged in learning on their own initiative, set their own goals, and exercised a high degree of autonomy. As Director of the University of Wisconsin’s Correspondence Study Program 1954-1964, Wedemeyer broke the mould for higher and adult learning. He initiated a number of research projects on areas of concern for independent study, such as learner characteristics, instructor characteristics, quality and effectiveness. From modest beginnings, he went on to publish a newsletter, The Correspondent, which solicited student and faculty contributions on the process of learning by correspondence (letter to Dr. Borje Holmberg 6/25/84). “There is nothing in our history that remotely justifies the derogation of any kind of learning as second class, when undertaken with purpose, initiative, energy and resourcefulness."[5] In 1961, he collaborated with Gayle Childs, from the University of Nebraska, to write New Perspectives in University Correspondence Study, published by the Center for the Study of Liberal Education of Adults (CSLEA). Also that year, Wedemeyer became Chairman of the National University Extension Association (NUEA) Committee on Criteria and Standards.[6] In Nebraska the following year, NUEA members ratified the 12-page document, establishing the standards as official NUEA policy.
At Madison, Wedemeyer organized and chaired a series of faculty seminars, each devoted to a particular aspect of correspondence instruction, led by a recognized educational leader who presented a paper on a given topic. Reading lists were distributed in advance, and library materials provided. Held twice a semester, the seminars produced articles which were subsequently published in two volumes as the Brandenburg Memorial Essays (1963–1966). Wedemeyer considered that "independent study in the American context is generic for a range of teaching-learning activities that sometimes go by separate names (correspondence study, open education, radio-television teaching, individualised learning)."[7]
A life-long advocate for independent learning, his best known project was the Articulated Instructional Media (AIM) initiative which proved influential in the establishment of Britain’s Open University, now known as the UK Open University.[8]
Notes
- ^ Wedemeyer 1981, p. xx.
- ^ Moore 2000, p. 1.
- ^ Watkins 1991, p. 6.
- ^ Moore 2000, p. 2.
- ^ Wedemeyer 1981, p. xxii.
- ^ Mackenzie 1971, p. 53.
- ^ Keegan 1990, p. 30.
- ^ Watkins 1991, p. 47.
References
Burton, Gera (2010). Opening the Great Gate at “the Palace of Learning”: Charles A. Wedemeyer’s Pioneering Role as Champion of the Independent Learner. Vitae Scholasticae Vol 27 Number 1.
Keegan, D. (1990). Foundations of Distance Education. New York: Routledge.
Mackenzie, O. & Christensen, E. L. (Eds.)(1971). The Changing World of Correspondence Study: International Readings. University Park: Penn State UP, 1971.
Moore, M. G. & Shin, N. (Eds.).(2000). “Charles Wedemeyer: The Father of Distance Education.” Speaking Personally about Distance Education: Foundations of Contemporary Practice. University Park, PA: Penn State UP.
Watkins, B. L., & Wright, S. J. (Eds.).(1991). The Foundations of American Distance Education: A Century of Collegiate Correspondence Study. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.
Wedemeyer, C. A. (1981). Learning at the Back Door: Reflections on Non-Traditional Learning in the Lifespan. Madison, WI: University of Madison Press.
Wedemeyer, C. A., & Childs, G.B. (1961). New Perspectives in University Correspondence Study. Chicago: Center for the Study of Liberal Education for Adults.
Categories:- 1911 births
- 1999 deaths
- People from Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Wisconsin educators
- Distance education
- Alternative education
- Writers from Wisconsin
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