Some Observations on Education
Technology can improve quality and reduce cost
- different people have different goals/expectations
Training (typically lifelong learner) and Education communities surprisingly far apart
- Training tends to have highly motivated learners with difficult time constraints. So asynchronous learning with minimal teacher in the loop is easier here than in education
Surely we need to support both asynchronous and synchronous (teacher in the loop)
- Note asynchronous supports exploratory learning
- Good synchronous support collaborative interactivity -- so both models are interactive
At a recent distance education conference, exhibitors show some 20 Web-based asynchronous systems,; only 2 synchronous