E-Learning: A Blueprint to the Future-Part I--The Challenge

 Challenges in Education: The Need for A Blueprint

With the number of changes that are impacting education on a global scale, it is reasonable to ask the question:

"Where will these changes in education take us and do we really want to go there?"

In the education systems around the globe, we are seeing disruptions in the traditional ways of educating learners. Some of this is most assuredly due to the exponential changes that we are seeing in technology and the fact that technology is re-shaping all aspects of our lives.

Credit: www.beyondtechnology.ning.com

In the above diagram, change management might be a better construct than content since it is the interaction of these three elements that has been forced to the forefront of education.

With these changes learners have increasingly become disconnected from their education largely because of education's resistance to the changes occurring outside the walls of the school. Dr. Lee Jennings, a former California superintendent and researcher on learning improvement asked more than 2000 teachers what grade they teach and what percentage of their students love school. The results were that 95% of students love school in Kindergarten but by Grade 9, that love of school declined to 37% with a slight improvement to 45% by Grade 12. The obvious question to ask is:

"How do students view the present state of their education?"

In the following video, you have a student who expresses view of school and education.

"What do you think when you talk to your students about school and their education? Does the view of this student sound familiar?"

The big question is:

"Does our inaction have a greater cost than the cost of making a mistake?"

We need to create a blueprint to the future in regards to education. E-Learning has great potential but it can't be in the form that exists in today. In creating this blueprint, education itself will become a disruptive force.

Next.... E-Learning, its problems and how it needs to be a part of the blueprint.