During my youth, mass education was the norm. As a product of the industrial economy, this one-size-fit-all method of education was in tune with the times. During this period, the mass media and mass production were critical to our way of life and this educational format complimented that arrangement.
Fast forward almost 30 years and we find ourselves in a digital age, a time that has ushered in significant technological changes. For example, thirty years ago, a phone was a phone. Land lines and public pay phones were the norm. However, today, if someone tried to sell you a cell phone that was only used for talking, well, you’d probably be waiting for the punch line as you’d guess it was a joke. And where are all of those public pay phones? Plus, who just talks on a phone these days? The Apple iPhone has 16 applications. And at a minimum, today’s phones are equipped with a Web browser, digital camera, voice recorder, texting device, and GPS capability.
Jump over to Japan and you’ll find that the youth have taken cell phone usage to another level. In addition to having the above functionality, Japanese youth use their mobile phones as train passes, to listen to music, watch movies, buy food at vending machines and to read books.
With the Net generation tethered to Google, MySpace, Second Life, etc, is mass education sufficient today? Or should we be seeking a more customized educational solution? Most studies indicate that today’s youth have a very different view of learning and working and if research is correct, lecturing and working 9-5 isn’t gonna cut it for most of this Net generation. This is a generation that wants to discover knowledge versus being lectured, desires collaboration versus individualized learning, and seeks a more customized approach which puts the student at the center of the educational journey versus a teacher-centric approach that teaches everyone the same information.
Today’s technologies, such as wikis, blogs, YouTube, Google, Facebook, and Skype offer incredible opportunities to enrich the learning experience for today’s youth and truly puts the world at their fingertips. For example, MIT posted all of its 1800 courses online for anyone to access (http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm). This is truly a step in advancing the frontiers of knowledge.
When reflecting on the early years of my education, we basked at the feet of our teachers as they imparted their knowledge (okay, maybe I exaggerate, but you get it). This approach just might need some changin’ today. I believe we’re on the cusp of a revolution in education, one that will take advantage of today’s technologies and advance knowledge at breakneck speed.
