"School
days, school days,
Dear
old golden rule days;
Readin’
and writin’ and ‘rithmatic
Taught
to the tune of the hickory stick."
Few
remember that little ditty. Only the dinosaurs recall the hickory stick.
And nowadays the ‘readin and ‘writin are called
communications skills, and the ‘rithmatic is math.
Things
do change in the world of education, but not much and not very
quickly. Students
everywhere return to their rows of uncomfortable desks at 8 o’clock,
9 o’clock and through hourly tolling bells.
They listen to their teachers lecture to them so they can fill
their notebooks for the end-of-term exams.
Things
have changed in the world of education but not much nor very quickly.
Think of it: not
since the invention of the printing press has any of the new media had
much affect on education. Newspapers
and magazines were literally ignored except by journalism classes, and
those are only recent additions to college programs.
Educators
have snubbed radio and television until quite recently when
audio-visual aids gained some credence in academia.
Computers have just begun to find their way past computer
science departments and a few special purpose laboratories.
A cheerless truth: educational institutions have been married to book
publishers.
Earlier,
media outside of books--like newspapers, magazines, radio and
television--all carried information, but none of them had either the
breadth or depth to hold serious sway over schools or colleges.
But now comes the crunch.
Computers, especially when combined with other media, can and
will provide both the breadth and depth needed for incredible
educational innovation and reform.
The
result: much of what has constituted the inner workings of academic
worlds, including lecturers, classrooms and libraries, will soon
become obsolete. It will
soon be possible for young learners to get a better education, mostly
at home, than they now get in schools and universities.
If that doesn’t happen, we’ll know for certain that parents
send their children to school not to be educated but to get rid of
them.
Take
a close look at the present situation:
students sit for hours on uncomfortable chairs in overcrowded
classrooms at set times, and they listen to dull lectures that they
forget soon after the class bell rings. It doesn’t matter whether the learner is wide awake,
feeling ill, preoccupied with thoughts related to his or her personal
life or simply not in the mood for lectures at the assigned time.
Tomorrow’s learning will change that drastically.
Tomorrow,
the best lecturers in the world will follow the example of Jacob
Bronowsky when he produced “The
Ascent of Man” with the BBC.
His thirteen-part series was just the right amount of lecturing
for a college course in the History of Science.
I
can’t think of a duller topic in the hands of a bad lecturer than
the History of Science. But
Bronowski is an exhilarating lecturer. Combine that with being filmed on location with all of the
camera techniques and sound effects to enhance the lectures, and you
have a prescription for tomorrow’s great lectures.
A
unique bonus comes from filmed lecture series:
they can be viewed at home through a TV or PC monitor at a time
that’s convenient for the viewer and not at a set time that’s
convenient for classroom occupancy, regardless of the condition or
state of mind of the listener.
Add
to that the fact that a filmed lecture series can be replayed in part
or in its entirety for what the listener may have missed the first
time. It can be replayed as a review for an examination—something
that can’t be done with a live but lifeless lecturer on campus.
Another
miserable feature of the current situation in education has to do with
inadequate libraries. Since
academic institutions put so much stock in books, you’d think that
library facilities would be open round the clock and be chock-a-block
with books and periodicals. They’re
not, except in the rarest circumstances where learners happen to live
within commuting distance of the greatest libraries, like the Harvard
University Library, The British
Library, The New York Public
Library, the Library of Congress
or Bibliotheque nationale de France.
Even
the largest and best libraries have limited opening hours, which means
if you do your best research between Midnight and 3 AM you’re out of
luck. Most libraries,
regardless of their opening hours, remain miserably under stocked.
They just haven’t the funds to buy an adequate number of
titles to support any serious research.
Now,
the Internet holds the promise to someday provide the library of the
world. At present, some
huge hurdles remain in the way: publishers
would have to forego a lucrative market of thousands of libraries; and
authors would have to sacrifice a modicum of their royalties in favor
of service to the public.
In
the meantime, when the great libraries begin to realize a sense of
responsibility to public literacy, they will undertake
projects to digitalize their holdings of publications that no longer
have copyright restrictions. These
could then be made available on a well-stocked and catalogued Internet
public library.
The
much under-funded and under-supported Project
Gutenberg has at least made a start that provides the major
libraries with a model.
Some
potential exists for peer-to-peer sharing of books under copyright.
This
whole idea distresses the profiteers in the publishing
business. However, nothing in any copyright law should prevent people
from lending or giving their books to others.
How
many people should I be limited to lending to?
As a university professor, I loaned or gave my books to
hundreds of students over the years. The fact that we now have a
medium that makes sharing with thousands rather than a few or a few
hundred should not inhibit the practice of giving.
Book
publishers will simply need to adapt to their own areas of
obsolescence. Typesetters
had to find other employment when computers in the printing industry
replaced them. Why should
publishers have special privileges in stopping progress, especially
when that progress can benefit so many?
No one protected the scribes from becoming obsolete when the
printing press got invented. Yet,
somehow, modern-day publishers seem to think that they are a special
privileged class of profiteers.
Modern
technology has already been adapted to online tutorials.
A number of universities already offer online classes.
The World
Lecture Hall at The University of Texas provides a clearinghouse
of previously offered university courses on the Internet.
The courses are free, a truly admirable public service.
Some
services, particularly in technology areas, have developed quite
sophisticated and appealing tutorials.
Though most charge fees, they can be quite reasonable for the
content they deliver. Learn2
provides an excellent example of well-developed online tutorials at
practical costs.
One
of the most attractive features of tomorrow’s learning resides in
the ability to select the time that’s convenient to you.
That means no more rushing to get to an 8 o’clock class when
you didn’t get enough sleep the night before.
It means no more sitting at uncomfortable desks through dull
lectures when you’re feeling unwell or when you have personal
problems distracting you.
It
also means that you can learn in the comfort of your home (or wherever
else you and your computer can find comfort).
You can stop and take a break when you feel like it, eat when
you’re hungry and relieve yourself when necessary.
The
Internet’s learning conveniences will ultimately provide everyone
with the sheer luxury of becoming self-taught.
