E-Learning

"Will electronics lead to a much smaller and less expensive educational establishment, as some hope and others fear? My expectation is that it will not.
This prediction does not deny the value of modern technology.
PCs and the Internet are powerful tools. Personally I am skeptical of the extreme claims for technology.

Technology can replace many teachers in their present roles.
If all we cared about was to produce what the current system does, we could indeed operate with fewer people.

The main reason for expecting no cutbacks in teacher ranks is that human contact is valued very highly.

Although education will continue to evolve, it is likely to be less affected by technology than is forecasted by many people, such as Peter Drucker or Eli Noam [Noam]. Successful institutions will have to respond to the need for life-long education, and distance learning will play a major role. However, that will only change, and not eliminate, the role of teachers."

Andrew Odlyzko



But electronics will lead to a much smaller and less expensive educational establishment. Not only. They will be essential for a future growth of education among the population.

Let's have a look at History.

Culture has been for century available to a small restricted area of the population who could have access to expensive teachers and expensive books.

The invention of the printing machine and the following widespreading of books and their much cheaper cost, allowed a much bigger number of people to have access to culture.

Number that is continually growing thanks also to the further evolution of technolgy.

PC and the Internet will play a major role in the diffusion of education, on one side with the low cost ebooks and on the other side allowing one techer to reach a bigger number of students from his own home.

Yes it is undoubtely right:

"If every institution, from a local community college to Harvard, uses the same holographic projections of the world's best lectures, and has access to the same digital libraries, how will Harvard differentiate itself?
The most likely answer is through stress on the quality of its teachers in their other roles. As with business travel, the leveling by technology of a part of the competitive landscape is likely to lead to greater emphasis on the human element, even when the results are hard to measure."



And if the quality of Harvard's teachers is NOT higher than the quality of other schools' teachers...

I see it as a positive sign.

Why should Harvard or another school have more access to culture, to human cultural inheritance, than any other school of this globe?

May be we will have an outsourcing also on education...

The Internet is exactly this: The Best no matter where...: