The Present & Future of Digital Learning in Education
Panelists (see my previous post for names) provided an interesting range of responses to the questions posed by the moderator:
What's Working in the Present?
- The power of the Internet for learning is being recognized and utilized more.
- Homeschooling is creating demand for mathematics instruction software. Most parents of home-schooled children are not able to teach algebra and calculus.
- Kids with health and emotional issues who can't make it to school can be served with online learning and digital instruction.
- Online learning is increasing high school graduation rate. 33% of the students who took courses with the Digital Learning Commons would not have graduated otherwise.
- Online learning provides access and options, in an environment where schools are currently driven by test scores.
What Challenges Do We Face in Realizing More of the Benefit of Digital Learning?
- Technical challenges, including bandwidth and multiple platforms.
- Cultural challenges: People in different cultures learn differently.
- Pedagogical challenges. There is a social aspect to learning and the absence of it sometimes turns people away from online learning.
- Student-to-computer ratio (WA avg.=4:1) is still too high to enable delivery of online courses.
- Inadequate teacher training re use technology in classrooms.
- Inadequate funding for development of good content.
- Need for better distribution of content.
- Need for better content. There's a lot of content, and much of it is not very good.
- Challenge of structuring information so it's easy to learn.
My consulting practice addresses this need through the creation and use of visual knowledge in the form of concept maps and knowledge models. Concept map construction is rooted in David Ausubel's Theory of Meaningful Learning--see my blog post from Sept. 16, 2006.
Prof. Joseph D. Novak has proposed a_new_model_for_education based on the use of "skeleton expert maps" provided to, and progressively improved by, the learner. Sound Knowledge Strategies is using this model in a consulting project with the Center to Strengthen the Teaching Profession (CTSP).
What's The Future of Digital Learning in Education?
- Use what's out there in a simpler and easier way--cleaner interface, better presentation of progress.
- Continued social bonding through instant messaging (IM) and social networking.
- Blending of intuitive intelligence and online learning.
- Learning that includes kinesthetic engagement. Ksenia spoke of the compelling engagement she observed as young people used "Wii," the new gaming device from Nintendo.
- Platforms are moving to be more open so that content will not be tied to platform.
- Wikis enable individuals to contribute to content, however, quality control can be an issue.
- Higher-ed will offer more on-line learning.
- Platforms will merge, e.g., cellphone and iPod. In the future you will be able to connect both to a server in your home.
It's interesting that these glimpses of the future of digital learning in education are not that much different from the current situation--so unlike the rapid pace of change in the cyberworld world at large. YouTube, for example, burst upon the scene and was bought by Google a year later for $1.65 billion in stock.
Recent results from the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) demonstrate again, as standardized tests always have, a direct correlation between socio-economic status and test scores. This most pronounced in science and math.
Neither our state or our nation can afford to leave the challenges of effective use of digital learning unmet. If schools are to enter the global wired world, this will mean investing in broadband infrastructure for schools. A good mission, perhaps, for the Bill & Melinda Gates?
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