I've been thinking about how we could use technology to radically improve education. This morning on Techmeme, I saw a couple articles on related topics, which prompted me to spill my thoughts... here goes:
It's well known that our public education system is far behind the technological advances we've had over the past couple decades. First and foremost, most students have a PC at home, and most of homes have internet access. This generation of students is well accustomed to online social networks like MySpace, and social media like YouTube. I'll assume from my own experience that students much prefer to spend their time on these things than on school work. In many ways, the traditional education method is outdated, and almost backwards in today's technological environment.
I just finished my final exams today, here at UCSC, and while studying for them I couldn't help but think about how technology could be so helpful... Imagine a system that knows everything that you need to know for a certain exam. It then gives you a quick quiz to assess your current knowledge, and proceeds to teach you what you don't understand yet. Something like that would make cramming for a test so much easier! (No more flipping through pages in the textbook, trying to find things, trying to skim chapters for some facts that might pop up on the exam...)
But such a system would not be limited to studying for final exams. The system I'm thinking of is a new paradigm of educational technology. Replacing human teachers with a computer. In today's crowded classrooms, curriculum is taught in a way that most of the students will be able to understand... not at all individualized, and we are rarely rewarded for doing the reading because we hear all the important points in lecture. This system would customize based on the student's learning styles... and also based on what the system already knows the student understands. This system could provide comparisons to previous concepts from different subjects, something that wouldn't be effective in a traditional classroom but highly effective for an individual learner.
But the teaching side is only one half of the solution. The other problem facing students today is a lack of motivation, or a lack of incentive. Most successful students in elementary school were so because they strived to please the teacher. In my case, I had no such interest, and consequently had a lot of trouble. I was more interested in learning things that I found direct benefit in. Like, simple electronics so I could make little vehicles... or chemicals that I could make explosions with. School was fun when I could work on projects like that, where I actually wanted to learn things so that I could do something. Unfortunately, most of my schoolwork was instead dry and tedious. I think technology will provide us with a solution to this problem as well...
Social Learning! Yes, we are social creatures. In every school across the country, students are writing papers on the same topics, but no one reads them except the teacher, quickly... and only because she has to. Let us interact with our work! Let us exchange ideas and be rewarded for it! I'm talking about a system where students submit their work publicly, and can reference each other's work and give feedback. Some educators have done this, but mainly on established blogging platforms. I'm talking about a centralized system (maybe built on a CMS like Drupal), that teachers would require their students to submit their homework on. It would provide a real incentive for students to work hard if they knew their peers might read it. If they got real feedback about their work. This system would not only provide a method for submitting assignments, but also collaborative editing, so students could peer-edit their papers... and also forums for discussion. Maybe collaborative white-boards and filesharing. Shared calendars and reminders. Collaborative lecture notes.
This magic system I've been talking about is a huge project, but I don't think the technology is beyond our capabilities today. However, whether this system will lead to a better or worse educational experience is debatable, but I think with certain controls put in place, Education 2.0 is going to change the world.
