By Linda Alepin
CEO, Pebblesoft Learning, Inc
Although technology has dramatically transformed many aspects of our lives, our paradigms of education go back hundreds of years.
Until recently, the way we learn hasnıt begun to keep pace with available technology. The only real difference in the way we teach in 1897 and 1997 is that today we use white boards and markers, not blackboards and chalk.
Overall, computers affect less than 20% of our learning. In fact, in the United States, a staggering 75 percent of all corporate education still takes place in the classroom. In the typical scenario, a teachers stands in front of a group of students who are expected to absorb information. Workbooks and other paper media are used for just 7 percent of the process and only 20 percent of the process is computer-assisted. More money is being spent on student food, lodging and transportation than on instructors and learning materials.
These figures are particularly startling when you understand the potential for more effective learning in an environment fueled by internet universities without walls.
Plato believed that learning is a process of active inquiry, not passive reception, but through the centuries we've abandoned that focus. Passive reception is the only option in teacher-focused education, but with computer driven learning, interaction is key.
Computer education is, in fact, characterized by "tions" ‹ interaction,collaboration, simulation and customization. Using internet technology, learners will be able to pretest into just the learning modules they need.
If they don't have an answer, they're assured access to the information.
Learning objects are dynamically customized to fit the learner's style, whether it is visual, text, tactile or audio. Online computers can be called upon on demand. Peers take part in real time, network-based dialogues.
Simulations allow them to apply what theyıve learned, applying the principle of "learning by doing."
This learning system is not only possible, but very close at hand. However, if the adoption of technology in education continues at its current pace, we will be well into the second half of the 21st century before you will be as likely to learn something from a computer as in a classroom.
If progress in transportation had progressed at a similar pace, we might still be riding horses. Instead, through the adoption of a series of technologies and infrastructures, we have railroads, cars, highways and airplanes.
Imagine a world where gender, race, religion and physical handicaps do not block access to knowledge and learners are no longer blamed for lack of motivation when retention is low or application is inadequate! Changes in the way we learn are imperative if we are to achieve this vision.
Contact: The classrooms of tomorrow, www.pebblesoft.com
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