"Universities, schools...do any of you remember them?"
Sounds like a crazy statement to make, but bolstered by my opinion that crazy is (sometimes) good, let me forge on. For hundreds of years we have been teaching in much the same way; teachers and professors standing in front of classes spewing out fonts of wisdom that are excitedly lapped up by their captive audiences.
The centuries have moved on; technology has advanced, and in its wake corporations have risen and fallen (Encyclopaedia Britannica, PanAm, Kodak) , jobs appeared and vanished (lift operator, switchboard operator, typesetter) - yet somehow education remains impervious.
A wayward time traveller flung unwittingly into our time from 100 years ago, suddenly appearing in a univeristy lecture theatre would have no angst besides possible confusion relating to the topic. Yet if our unwitting time traveler were to appear in a business office, he'd need to be tazered to quell his hysteria at the ominous "machines" surrounding him. How can this be? How can commerce and industry have moved so far yet education (largely) remain frozen like a long lost mammoth in the icy grip of tradition?
Maybe it's fear of change. Maybe it's the cost of change? Maybe it's access to the right people? Maybe...maybe...but whatever the "maybe" one thing is certain, an avalanche is coming. In the words of an essay recently published...
Sounds like a crazy statement to make, but bolstered by my opinion that crazy is (sometimes) good, let me forge on. For hundreds of years we have been teaching in much the same way; teachers and professors standing in front of classes spewing out fonts of wisdom that are excitedly lapped up by their captive audiences.
The centuries have moved on; technology has advanced, and in its wake corporations have risen and fallen (Encyclopaedia Britannica, PanAm, Kodak) , jobs appeared and vanished (lift operator, switchboard operator, typesetter) - yet somehow education remains impervious.
A wayward time traveller flung unwittingly into our time from 100 years ago, suddenly appearing in a univeristy lecture theatre would have no angst besides possible confusion relating to the topic. Yet if our unwitting time traveler were to appear in a business office, he'd need to be tazered to quell his hysteria at the ominous "machines" surrounding him. How can this be? How can commerce and industry have moved so far yet education (largely) remain frozen like a long lost mammoth in the icy grip of tradition?
Maybe it's fear of change. Maybe it's the cost of change? Maybe it's access to the right people? Maybe...maybe...but whatever the "maybe" one thing is certain, an avalanche is coming. In the words of an essay recently published...
"The solid classical buildings of great universities may look permanent but the storms of change now threaten them...the obvious strategy – steady as she goes – is doomed to fail; the one thing you don’t do in the path of an avalanche is stand still!"
We cannot just sit here and think our education systems, as they are, will not be swept away. If the avalanche of change has toppled "mighty" institutions like Kodak, Britannica, and others...do we think that traditional education stolidly ignoring the mounting pressures around it, will somehow survive?
All over the web more and more articles are appearing that sound the warning about the death of the lecture theatre. These are not from crazies (like me) but from revered educational institutions like Cambridge or MIT. Even the popular media is waking up to the impeding avalanche, as the New York Times recently said;
Institutions of higher learning must move, as the historian Walter Russell Mead puts it, from a model of “time served” to a model of “stuff learned.” Because increasingly the world does not care what you know. Everything is on Google.
Yet despite this rising maelstrom of warnings, most institutions stoically persist with a way of teaching that has served them well for centuries. "If it was good enough for our grandparents, and their parents before them," the custodian says, "it should be good enough for our children and their grand children after them," he continues while reaching for his mobile phone to check a message.
But the avalanche is coming! An article published by MIT warns of the rise of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) that are sweeping the world. No longer are learners confined to learning from their local university - now they can pick to learn from the top professors from the top universities in the world - and often for free! These courses, using the power of the web provide complete courses on everything from medicine, to engineering, to business and more - Check our Standford's MOOCs.
But the avalanche is coming! An article published by MIT warns of the rise of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) that are sweeping the world. No longer are learners confined to learning from their local university - now they can pick to learn from the top professors from the top universities in the world - and often for free! These courses, using the power of the web provide complete courses on everything from medicine, to engineering, to business and more - Check our Standford's MOOCs.
Already the developing world is waking up to this amazing opportunity as is depicted in the chart alongside. Thousands of students are dropping out of traditional learning institutions and signing up for these life-changing opportunities. All of a sudden the world is a lot smaller - and third world countries suddenly have access to some of the best educational opportunities on offer.
When prominent U.S. universities began offering free college classes over the Web this year, more than half of the students who signed up were from outside the United States.
Call me crazy...but how much longer can we ignore the changes that are coming. It's time we look up the slope and face what's happening. It's time we stop the excuses...fear, cost, training...and step forward into the new world of e-learning. If we don't, our children will learn all about us, in the not too distant future, on their iDevice, from a professor in another country, on a course attended by thousands from all around the world.
"Welcome class to your first MOOC lesson on History," the Professor says in the introductory video, "Universities, schools...do any of you remember them?" he asks.
"Welcome class to your first MOOC lesson on History," the Professor says in the introductory video, "Universities, schools...do any of you remember them?" he asks.