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New Ways To Learn

 

6. Conclusions

In our view, introducing ICT to education involves not just new technology but a new process of learning. This process, when developed to the full, naturally expands beyond the boundaries of the classroom, and the fixed time patterns of conventional education. For this reason it has a powerful affinity with the new requirements of lifelong learning.

We consider what is happening to be a major transition in the way people learn, on a scale comparable to the emergence of mass education in Victorian times. As happened in the industrial revolution, both the nature of the demand for learning, and the means of delivering it, are changing simultaneously. We see evidence of this happening in all areas of education, and throughout the world.

Case examples (of which those quoted are only a sample) show a spectrum of responses to this dramatic change. At one extreme, individual learners are expressing dissatisfaction with the 'sausage machine' approach of traditional education, and are finding their own solutions, technological or not, to fit in with their own lifestyles and motivations. It is these highly motivated individuals who are most likely to become lifelong learners in the present system.

ladder of conventional education
                                                                                                                                                                                                      For those who fall off the ladder of conventional education, progress is rarely smooth. But even those who follow through are finding the same kind of problems in later life, as entire industries, skills and fields of knowledge become obsolete overnight.

Meanwhile, pragmatic initiatives in every area of education are discovering new approaches which work, often with the application of a great deal of trial and error. Many of these initiatives are designed to improve the quality of conventional education. But we also see ways to make the difficult process of lifelong learning very much easier.

In particular, technology can help to match needs to human and material resources much more effectively. It can solve the logistical problems of bringing teachers, learners and material together in an environment that supports learning. It can address the economic problem of providing a large enough market to justify investment in high quality resources, while making learning material available 'on demand' to satisfy the diverse requirements of real learners with limited time and money. Above all, technology can help to create new kinds of learning communities which liberate learning from the ghetto of school, college or campus, to make it a continuous part of everyday life.

©Mediation Technology 1999

Section: 6 - Conclusions


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