:talkingfuture.com Come and learn about the future…

Martin: Last week we talked about a couple of new search engines. The internet has become an amazing tool for learning about anything. Google (or alternatives), Wikipedia, Blogs and many other sites can help you learn about whatever takes your interest today. Just the other week, I listened to a very interesting story about the Battle of Chancellorsville during the American civil war (isn’t it weird how other countries history always seems more interesting than your own). Since that evening I have done loads of research on Wikipedia and Google to learn about the civil war, this is fairly normal for me – I like learning. Recently I have researched all sorts of things from British Prime Ministers to the US version of The Office via U2 spy planes and the moon landings. The internet is an amazingly powerful tool for learning because so much information is so accessible for free. So, Thomas do you think it is possible that teachers can be replaced one day by online learning?

Thomas: Well first let me start by pointing out some great bits of British history you must have missed!

I think you’ve countered your own argument in a way, I was with you when you heard the story about Chancellorsville, and I came away from it with the same enthusiasm for the topic as you did. The point you skirt around in your description of the event though, was that it was one Malcolm Gladwell who told you the story. This is the same man who is paid $80,000 an hour to tell stories, so as you can imagine he’s a dab hand at it. The point I’m making here is that the teacher does much more than just dispense information, or at least a good teach does. When I was younger I had a great teacher who managed to get me to understand the Shannon limit without using the words noisy-channel coding theorem once. I’ll remember that forever, however if I just spent an hour in front on my computer reading this I’d struggle to remember much of it, never mind understand it!

It is also true that not everyone is alike. Now I am no longer in education I have much less opportunity to encounter great teachers and if I want to find things out I have to do the reading myself, much as you do. Not everyone has the self motivation or attention span to be able to self learn though. As an adult that’s rarely a problem, as learning is optional, but children have the right to a decent level of education and sitting them in front of Wikipedia is not an acceptable substitute!

How about as part of the education given to kids we give them the tools and skills to be to use the Internet and other technologies to extend their knowledge?

Martin: That sounds like a good idea, the education system needs to get to, and stay at the head of the technology curve. When we were at school, only 10 years ago, computers were still a side show. You learnt more from doing a Geography assignment on your computer at home in your own time than you would from the so called IT lessons that we had. Other subjects need to embrace computing and get pupils to use the amazing possibilities of software to research and create their work. Schools need to make sure that kids learn the basics of computer use as core skills alongside numeracy and literacy and then make sure that those skills are used and developed as they learn about the really important stuff.

Going back to the start of the article, there is no way that the internet can replace schools. It doesn’t give you great teachers, you don’t get to make friends and learn any social skills from the internet and you don’t have access to a proper library. The internet has opened up a lot of information, I don’t need to visit a library anymore to learn about The Battle of Chancellorsville or The Battle of Trafalgar, I can get a lot from the internet. If I was going to write an assignment on it however, I need the backup that comes from real books. Anyone can edit Wikipedia or claim to know about something on a blog, a text book has been peer reviewed and edited before publishing and approved by the school or college for its pupils. Maybe e-books will bring more, high quality information to a wider audience, but they still need sorting for suitability.

I suppose the lesson we all learn from this is that the Internet has opened information up, more people have access to more information than they ever have before. But all that information is useless without a good education to guide you through it.