Video cassettes players…? Yes, they are outdated! Blockbuster made millions distributing video cassettes in the 1980’s, but the situation is very different now. The inception of the internet has completely changed the way we do things in the 21st century. This is not news, but it presents us with a classic example to demonstrate how times have changed. This shows how the digital revolution has changed the movie industry with respect to how individuals patronize movies. A report by business insider shows that since 2011, the number of Americans who use Netflix to watch movies has increased from 25 % to 55%. (McAlone 2017) This only emphasizes the fact that we are in an information age, and people, industries, governments need to adapt to a new way of doing things.
Regarding education, the internet currently serves as an invaluable resource for acquiring information and learning new things every day. The first electronic book (eBook) was available in 1971, as part of Project Gutenberg. (Lebert 2009) Currently, numerous electronic libraries facilitate the sharing and distribution of knowledge while making it accessible to many. These are just a few factors have made it possible to facilitate online learning, resulting in the bourgeoning of online universities. Yes, the inception of the internet has changed the way we seek information. When you need to find the meaning of a new word or a concept, you just google it!
Shouldn’t this change be translated into the way we learn and acquire formal education? There are currently numerous platforms facilitate online learning. (Zolfaghari 2011) In the past, we had to queue to get access to a book because there were not enough copies available in the library. Thanks to the digital revolution and the internet, this undesirable situation is history. Now, universities have online digital libraries form which students can access credible information. Knowledge and information, which we used to seek in the classroom is readily available on our smartphones. (Cruz-Jesus et.al 2016) If the physical interaction is what a student requires, then tools like adobe connect, appear.in, zoom, and skype make it possible to have a virtual physical interaction with you instructor.
Ultimately, we have all the tools required to acquire a formal education virtually without having to commute to a classroom daily. Several universities are currently incorporating the online form of teaching into their curriculum. These are exciting times, because it marks the beginning of a digital revolution that will reform the way we seek formal education up to the highest level of education. A few advantages of online education include reduced infrastructural cost (Ball 2012) and increased accessibility of qualified and experienced professionals irrespective of their location on the globe. Individuals who are working during the day would have access to recorded lectures enabling them to keep up with studies. There are currently virtual laboratories where individuals can perform experiments from a remote location. (Bodekaer 2015)
In this age virtual reality and holograms, it is difficult to envision the future of education without including the impact and changes that a digital revolution will play in education. This digital revolution in formal education however depends on access to technological infrastructure such as reliable internet and portable devices, but this hurdle is not unsurmountable since technology is evolving and becoming cheaper by the minute. Furthermore, this revolution does not suggest that tradition ‘brick and mortar’ classrooms should be completely abandoned. It is entirely possible that formal education could become mostly virtual in the future, but until then it can temporarily assume role of augmenting the effectiveness of traditional classroom learning. This, I believe, is the future of higher education.
References
Marie Lebert, A short history of ebooks, NEF University Toronto, 2009
Stephen J. Ball, ‘Show me the money! Neoliberalism at worm in education’, Forum, Vol 54, 1, 2012
Nathan McAlone, ‘55% of Americans watch Netflix’, Business Insider, Published 15/04/2017, http://www.businessinsider.com/percent-of-americans-who-watch-netflix-amazon-youtube-2017-4?r=US&IR=T&IR=T, accessed 28/10/2017.
Michael Bodekaer, ‘This virtual lab will revolutionize science education’, TEDxCERN, Filmed October 2015, https://www.ted.com/talks/michael_bodekaer_this_virtual_lab_will_revolutionize_science_class#t-284853, accessed 28/10/2017.
Frederico Cruz-Jesus, María Rosalía Vicente, Fernando Bacao, Tiago Oliveira, ‘The education-related digital divide: An analysis for the EU-28’, Computers in Human Behavior, Volume 56, March 2016, Pages 72-82.
Vahideh Zolfaghari, Mashhadi, Mohammad Reza Kargozari, ‘Influences of digital classrooms on education’ Procedia Computer Science, Volume 3, 2011, Pages 1178-1183.
Teaching and mentoring in theory and practice 
I like your point about how technology has rapidly advanced in our world; 20 years ago we probably would not have been able to even imagine the technology we have today. It is interesting to read that for example Netflix use has increased so much and so fast. I also find interesting all the option you list for sharing data and information and digitalized material.
One thing I ask myself, however, is do you see any potential downsides with the technology? Can virtual platforms really substitute the human contact and interaction? Does it need to do that? If you have the chance I would be interested to read more of your thoughts on the issue.
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Thank you
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I really enjoyed the enthusiastic way that you describe all the potential use of technology within education. The virtual lab was something I had not heard about before, and as a biochemist I was of course intrigued about the possibility of teaching laboratory skills outside the laboratory setting. However, I would have liked to see some comments about the possible drawbacks to the use of technology. The text would have been more credible if you would have discussed both sides of the coin.
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Thank you
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I concur with miaastrand. Your text in enthusiastic and you are definitely not wrong, but a more nuanced picture of web based learning in the future would have improved your credibility. There are definitely downsides and we are at a point in time when we have so much at our hands and even more coming, we simply cannot foresee the end result of it all. Go forward a couple of generations from today’s 2 year olds who are put in a corner with a companion species in the form of an iPad to keep quiet: what will the constant company of screens do to humankind? We are already seeing a trend of shutting down your electronic devices to spend time with other people. How can we know it won’t happen with web based learning in the future as well?
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Thank you
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The future is unknown so we can only speculate and try our best to shape it in the way we think is best. Lets see how things go in the future, but i think this will not be the case.
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The general trend in similar discourses is to focus on technology and leave personalities out. Similarly we may want to look for solutions to keep students’ attention in the class and keep students themselves out of focus. The internet is great, but it’s just more efficient at distributing information, and mass education usually means poorer education.
But why do we think that everyone needs higher education? People can live happy lives without it. What’s the purpose of education for concrete people? Do they want just well-paid jobs? Did their parents pushed them onto this? Was a decision to get higher education mindful? From the government point of view, skilled people are needed to maintain the country, and it doesn’t much matter what people feel about themselves until it makes them inefficient.
And speaking about the students. Sometimes they struggle to understand “why do they need to learn X, will that be useful in their lives?” And in many cases indeed, many university knowledge is never used in real life. For example, you don’t need a degree to be an efficient programmer — everything can be learn from the blog posts and practice nowadays.
So, my point (probably) was about the need to communicate better with the students, we need to explain them, why do they need the knowledge we teach them, why do they need to know some extra stuff. “Broaden the horizons” is not enough when you have studies all weeks and a part-time job.
Hope I didn’t offend anyone with this slightly provocative comment.
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I do agree with the point that higher eductation is not a must. However, the reality is that the better qualificatin one has, the better social position they enjoy in the society (better jobs, better chances for self-development, higher prestige etc.). And this is quite a desirable goal. So, the decision whether to study or not has very deep socio-economic roots and often outside the influence of university professors since they interact with students on a later stage. Their role is notwithstanding critical in order to help them develop critical thinking, question things that other see as something natural and thus find themself in one field or another.
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Yes, very good points. Thanks
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I enjoyed reading it and could see how technology has changed how we do things. Of course, it is an understood thing across the globe now if you do not know the answer google it, but before google, it was yahoo. The times have changed and so are the tools due to technology. I agree it has made so many things easy and will continue to do so, in all fields but one thing it has taken out or with increase in virtual usage is the human touch. May be the coming generations will not know how it feels to be in a physical classroom. It is a far off thing, but I feel the downside of technology is losing that. What do you think?
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Your are right. I will resopnd to this in another post soon. Thanks
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I totally support online education. I have two courses on pedagogy in parallel. One course is the classical one from the Open University with “offline” classes. The second course is this one, with online approach. The first course could collect about 15 students, not more than 10 were on the last meeting. Can I say that it was more useful? More interesting? I have not got credits yet, so I ca not tell the truth:) Online education opens opportunities that were not available earlier. Get an education when it needed. Be ready to take 15 minutes a day for a week, not several hours, when it is convenient for the teacher.
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Yes, it provides flexibility.
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It is really exciting times we do live at the very moment. Modern technology and Internet transforms our lives as well as education into a totally new dimension. There are though, several things that also bring up a challenge to a digital revolution at our universities. One is that at least 50% of the teachers within the universities are not familiar with a new technology and are too afraid, lacking time and energy, or simply not willing to learn. This stops the development. Another thing is that universities themselves do not provide neither to the teachers nor to the students suitable tools for being up-to-date. This is due to the lack of financing or some other reasons. My hopes are that this will change and university education can keep up with a changing digital environment,
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I completely agree. Thank you.
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Very well said.
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I like the virtual lab, it is a very good thing. It will go along way in spreading technical education around the globe. The biggest benefactors are student in developing countries where laboratory equipments are either absent or in bad condition. Virtual lab conducted by reputable universities will expose virtual students to laboratory exercises supervised by some of the best practitionals in the field. Having said that, it is important to consider the cost incurred by the host university conducting virtual lab and how much of that will be distributed to virtual students.
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Yes, the cost need a lot of consideration. Thank you
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Nowadays iIt is definetly very exciting and easy learn something new especially with today’s technology.I completely agree it will help to decrease the cost of all sort of education.For instance, very recently there is lot sof discussion and studies on the virtual reality simulated surgey trainings and the out comes reveals usuallys positive out comes.Today it might sound really high tech. application or training methods but I believe in near future it wil be applicaple for variety of subject. So i completely agree on that ” It is entirely possible that formal education could become mostly virtual in the future..”.
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Thank you Didem Sen. 🙂
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I do not fully agree with the writer, or probably in some disciplines it is possible to have virtual classrooms with interactions, e.g. Adobe connect. However, if oractical training for example in natural sciences are needed, I think the best way is kearning by doing. Then part of the education remains non-electronical.
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You are right that the best way is by doing, and this could include doing things virtually.
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