Talk by Peter O’Sullivan from IBM<\/p>\n
What will the future learner look like? – apparently:
\nVery motivated
\nDriven by interaction and trust
\nTime sensitive
\nGlobal Disposition (Think and Act) – don’t understand this
\nInformation savvy (resistant to overload)
\nTechnophilic – don’t think this is quite right – they don’t ‘love’ the technology – they just accept it
\nEstablished brand, individuality
\nVirtual and physical (Cyber children)
\nDiverse
\nComparison Shoppers<\/p>\n
24% of urban tweens globally use the internet as primary communication
\n21% find the Internet the easiest way to make new friends (this rises to 44% in China)<\/p>\n
OK – so this is a picture, but I think it saying that they will in some way like or love using the technology. This doesn’t quite ring true to me – it is important to realise, that they don’t see this as a choice they are making – they just do it. We need to get ourselves into this mindset. Think about things that you use naturally – e.g. telephone – but do you regard yourself as someone who ‘loves’ the telephone? I don’t – it just doesn’t occur to me that there is a different way of doing this, in the way it would have to my grandparents.<\/p>\n
I think it also paints a picture of a particular type of student. Although some may be true, I don’t think we are going to see a change in 18 year old undergraduates suddenly becoming a lot more motivated than they are at the moment. However, perhaps the truth is that this section of students will become less important to the HE market?<\/p>\n
So – the future shape of e-learning – seeing some common themes coming up here –
\nCollaborative learning
\nLearner empowerment
\nEmbedded Learning
\nEnabled via a blended approach<\/p>\n
Learner starts to be at the centre of the process\t<\/p>\n
Shame I can’t reproduce the slide up at the moment – an interesting breakdown of the IBM working environment ‘desktop’ – looks like a kind of portal, bringing together different aspects of a project\/job. Interesting to compare this to e-learning delivery.<\/p>\n
IBM have developed a 4 tier learning model:
\nLearn from collocation
\nLearn from collaboration
\nLearn from interaction
\nLearn from information<\/p>\n
This seems a very interesting way of breaking down the structure of how we learn. What PO says then is that this means the lesson planners (which could well be these self-motivated students) control the delivery – looking at which of the 4 tiers suits a particular learning objective…<\/p>\n
PO is just showing us some little visionary examples of the future of e-learning. Some of it rings true, and some of it not, but the general vision is embedding learning into life – using technology.<\/p>\n