At a recent discussion on Learning innovations, the favourite topic turned out to be eLearning. What was interesting though was the attempt by more than one speaker to capture the classroom experience and bring it online. The lecture was largely attended by lecturers – mostly the arts and science colleges. It seemed like the whole discussion, for them, was zillions of miles away from their reality.
In an era where the student is perhaps more clued in to what’s happening around the world, the teacher will look woefully out-dated. They seem quite out of touch with the progress that’s happening in their own sphere of competence. This is one instance where the old adage “Content is King” has been dethroned. The new era demands that the teacher is able to reinvent himself and create pedagogical constructs that puts the content in the right context.
“Koshwan Acharya” (The one with the book is the teacher) is out. Google has replaced the book. The teacher will have to become a facilitator – bringing the appropriate pedagogy into play to make the content relevant and transform it into knowledge.
On a related note, ( pkmadhu's post) talks about the huge opportunity in the content development space. For this to become a really huge opportunity, I think the learning context needs to change. Can Kindle replace today’s textbooks? Is that again the right approach. IMHO, that again is just one more way of recreating the old paradigm in the new world.
If the Gutenberg press was in a big way responsible for changing teaching methods, moving it away from the spoken word to the written and read medium, and in the process also making it available to the masses (and not restricted to the elite few), I wonder what will drive the next revolution in teaching.
Any bold predictions?
