Technology in Education

Technology, specifically technologies related to the Internet, have disrupted fields like journalism (think of how Twitter and YouTube have given a whole new meaning to the term “breaking news”) and publishing (everyone can blog or post a review or a comment; you don’t need access to a printing press). So is education the next port of call for the technology juggernaut?

It sure would appear so given how many American universities have started offering free online courses. And we are talking about the top ones here, like

Harvard and MIT.

But is there any downside to online education? Apart from the obvious, and very important, point that most of these online courses do not award degrees (No degree, no job).  I read this article that pointed several good reasons why online education cannot replace conventional in-the-classroom education. Education is not (should not be?) about ramming facts into your head:

“Education is not the transmission of information or ideas. Education is the training needed to make use of information and ideas. As information breaks loose from bookstores and libraries and floods onto computers and mobile devices, that training becomes more important, not less.”

The article pointed out that classroom teaching can (at least in theory) customize teaching to the individual as opposed to the one-size-fit-all approach of online education:

“...education, at its core, requires one mind engaging with another, in real time: listening, understanding, correcting, modeling, suggesting, prodding, denying, affirming, and critiquing thoughts and their expression.”

In other words, “A set of podcasts is the 21st-century equivalent of a textbook, not the 21st-century equivalent of a teacher”. Going totally online will also cause a loss of “the campus experience”.

How about reduction of tuition fees? Yes, online education would achieve that goal, but at what cost, asks the article?

“we will not make that core task significantly less expensive without cheapening it.”

So it looks like online education can be a helper, an add-on, but not a replacement to good old classroom education. Which is also perhaps why helper channels like the Khan Academy videos that work with schools to create synergies are so popular and even getting into the mainstream of classroom education. Check out Salman Khan’s TED talk for more on how the Khan Academy is already doing just that.