Chris Dede and eLearning taking Education out of Dark AgES

Eb60726ChrisDede

I just listened to a short (seven minute) talk by Chris Dede. Chris has been a long time thought leader and researcher on what has emerged as eLearning. He was at George Mason and is now at Harvard. The following may sound familiar since eSATS design and advocacy has “borrowed” freely from his work for the past 15 years.

Chris believes this is a dark age for K-12 education. Naïve ideas abound on learning. Economists have sold the public that they are better off if jobs to move oversees and they are. Health specialists are convincing people that many things which feel good are harmful to health.

But attitudes about learning is still rooting in the 1800’s. The model of learning that drives K-12 education is out of date. Policies continue to expound that basic skills lead to a capable workforce, academic success can be measured with one number, and that all simple learning must be complete before complex learning can take place.

The next decade needs a globally competitive knowledge workforce, and these world views are not up to the task.

When the industrial revolution started in the early 1800’s England took a solid lead in adopting technology and a trained workforce with resulting global dominance for over a century.

The dominance countries in the information age will be those who use education system based on the integration of information technology with learning technologies (i.e. eLearning Ted the ed.) But our country is moving backward. Support is decreasing. (For example only 25% of the planned funding for federal support of eLearning is being appropriated: Ted the ed.)

All the major attributes our society we enjoy, including education, needs a flourishing and competitive economy. But education attitudes must change if we are to transform education for the information age.

In other countries, companies are focusing on higher level skills and educational technology. In the U.S. we must band our business, education, governance and technology communities together to promo educational technology and a 21^st century perspective. Public awareness is key.

The one thing that parents agree on is that they want more economic opportunities for their children than they had.

The federal government has made a good start with standards, assessment and access policies. But they must realize that this is just a start. It is now time for a next generation policy

The newest educational technologies must be applied to the skill building and education needs. But the teachers hold the key. There must be significant rewards for teachers that transform their practice to effective use of technology supported learning. – end –

Note: eSATS task team is having a wide ranging set of meetings in July and August with Arizona’s thought and influence leaders across the communities that Chris mentioned. We are seeing a profound change in attitude and awareness of the effect of an eLearning system design of which Arizona would be an early adopter. These folks are now fully aware that the key is the teacher who can transform the classroom to fully use the digital curriculum. We now need to bring the message to Arizona citizens.