The Wikiness

…education (via web 2.0 apps) will be there, freely accesible to all learners. And via ipod-based lectures, discussions, workshops, and other programming students customize their learning.

With all sorts of metrics, educators can assure themselves that a 2.0 student’s curricular content is sound and meaningful. Apple’s iTunes U is organizing it delivers a customized education to each and every learner. What potential for more democracy in public education!
No child, in fact no thinking human with ears need, be left behind on this education wave.

But conservative administrators who try to maintain the status quo in their districts might see giving students the freedom to use ipods with iTunes U as reckless. The new model trusts the learner much more.

The traditional school model is based on group conformity, and giving kids educational choices works directly against what has been called “public education” in the USA. And look at the possible economic ramifications of the new schooling: sectors of the economy that rely on K-12 schools remaining as they are, teachers unions, and educational publishing companies could be severely affected–might even be eliminated–after web 2.0 apps become more prominent in schools.

More reasons for sticky wiki adaptation.

Where, how often, and in what capacity will teachers, support staff, and administrators continue to work in the increasingly virtual future of education? It is possible that the best education will soon be avaiable at iTunes Ufor free. The education it provides happens outside the home, and nowhere near the old schoolhouse. Learning is about to leave the building.

What changes will the next two decades bring to k-12 learning? How will time-tested methods of peer review and large group discussion be translatable to the hundreds of thousands of possible peers in a virtual learning experience?

Let these virtual learning media be subjected to the same rigorous testing that educationalists bring to bear on schools in the post NCLB USA.

Won’t you converse with me, internet reader? Tell me how you see education evolving in the next twenty years or so, and how we might best adapt ourselves to its new features.