Learning to unlearn

As we hurl ourselves at the speed of light in to the information tsunami, our mind needs to figure out a new way to process all this information. With or without our knowledge mind is already doing that, we all love to watch a video picture rather than read loads of information available on the same topic by just "Googling".

We would rather get lots of information in 127 characters or less with a tweet and capture the essence. We would rather browse at the pictures in the Facebook with thousands of friends. We would rather Skype and chat in real time rather than write a letter.

We are slowly unlearning what we had learnt about dealing with information. This learning to unlearn is also true about education and delivery of education in any chosen field. We the on-line curriculum/content developers are at the forefront of learning to unlearn the traditional ways and adopt new ways and new methods to be learner-centric. It is slowly becoming difficult to say who is learning from whom, even this has to be unlearned.

My Crystal Ball for On-Line Learning

Predicting the future is just like predicting the weather, it is always 50% correct. This applies to everything including learning and training.

Fortunately, there is new domain of knowledge that is taking up the challenge of teaching on-line, on demand, on any device.

On-line learning will evolve to dominate pretty much in all domains of knowledge. The power of context sensitivity and collaboration will come together to make active learning and on the spot and on-demand learning a reality.

On-line learning will also be enhanced with Sensor technology, GPS, 3D and other new ways of integrating data to make learning both purposeful and realistic.

What does your crystal ball say?

Basic Elements of On Line Teaching

The greatest strength of instructional design for on-line teaching is leveraging active and collaborative learning. I rank those two elements on the top because they can really improve the quality and quantity of learning.

Other elements like defining the end goal, measurement and assessment of what has been learnt, remediation and enrichment are traditional aspects of instructional design that have existed in the pedagogy. What is new is the virtual class room where everything happens asynchronously and learning happens on the forum and discussion group.

Learners become teachers and teachers become mentors and guide the discussion to reach the end goal. The fear of public speaking, being shy and any kind of handicap is swept aside and unified goal of pursuing or understanding a concept or an idea becomes the object of intense scrutiny and search by the virtual student body.

As a developer of online instruction the basics are still true: Motivate the learner, Explain what is to be learned, Recall and rehash any previous knowledge, Present new concepts to be learned in more than one way, Challenge students for active involvement, Assess the learning, Re-mediate if necessary and Enrich.

In a way everything has changed but feel like nothing has changed

Rolling stone gathers no mass?

I really don't feel like the stone that did not gather anything rolling in the river. On the contrary the journey through this amazing on-line teaching has been very insightful, rich in focused knowledge, huge opportunity for creativity and incredible on-line interactions with strange peers who contributed to exponential growth in learning.

Learning on-line to teach on-line almost borders the definition of circular reference but some how we were not stuck in that infinite loop. The diversity of age, skill sets, gender, hobbies and passions wove a tapestry of knowledge fabric which made the entire journey of learning to teach on-line both frustrating some times and very positive learning curve most of the times.

The knowledge and pedagogy followed by the instructors were excellent examples to emulate and learn. More importantly the creativity of the "learning mob" took the knowledge gathering to new heights through discussion groups and on-line forums. some of these techniques will be almost essential for any new courses that I will be developing.

As I am going through the school visit ritual with my son for his college admission, we went to Claremont-McKenna College in Los Angeles, which reminded of the famous management guru Peter Drucker who used to teach there and his famous quote on learning that is so true.

“We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn.” ~Peter Drucker

In this connected world, on-line learning is the way forward and I am so prepared to learn and teach!