What future for education. My motivation

Я начала изучать МООК "What future for education?", на этот раз созданный нашими британскими коллегами из University of London & UCL Institute of Education.

Одним из элементов курса является ведение рефлексивных журналов. Собственно это и есть мои записи на тему будущего образования и той информации, что я черпаю из курса.

#wfe1

Week 1 Journal Entry: Based on your experience as a learner, what do you think you will be able to get out of this course? And what ideas do you already have about the future of education?

I have enrolled for this MOOC because of my curiosity for learning and education. Currently I work as an instructional designer and an analyst in Institute of Distance Education at a university. Taking this course, I would like to grasp the idea of the future of education in all of its aspects, its perspectives, risks and challenges for instructors, as well as students. Then I will be able to get prepared and to prepare our university instructors for that.

My ideas about the future of education are about the learning formats, type of knowledge and access to it.

As far as I am concerned, we shift from the model “instructor is a source of information” (back from the 18^th century, according to K. Robinson speech at TED) to the model “instructor is a guide in the world of information” that leads to the “sun fall” of lecturing. Instructors may use their precious time more effectively by conducting the learning process (expert sessions, more practice and case studies) rather that transmitting the information that needs to be taken into students’ notes. That is why the flipped classroom model gets more popular. Self-directed learning and learner-centered education are the trends, too. That is what I mean by learning formats.

Type of knowledge: there is an obvious crisis of Humanities all other the developed countries. People strive to acquire skills. That is what Eleanore Hargreaves in the lecture called "learning to do". STEM are the champions. Philosophy, Literature and Art are not prioritized. May be one day their time will come back. Unfortunately not today. "That is cool that you can tell what Greek myths are about but… what you need for life is data analysis". By the way, this phrase by Eleanore that we don't tend to teach "to be" and "to live together" was really impressive and thought provoking. Thank you, the MOOC authors, for that. 

Modern education requires a huge amount of money for e-learning platforms, apps building personal learning paths and many others. Not all of the schools and universities within one country can cope with that, not to mention the third world economies. That is why the educational gap between wealthy and financially deprived learners as well as rich and poor countries is going to increase. I hope that those students from the low-income families who wish to acquire simple manual professions won’t suffer because of that and will find a school for their purposes.