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.
 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
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