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Video and poll: What's the future of learning?

• In the coming weeks, we'll be posting interviews on topics that impact or are impacted by transportation. To help frame the future of transportation, it’s important to understand Minnesotan’s expectations and desires for the future economy, environment and quality of life.
  

  See the full version of Frank's interview.

• 1.

  Douma doesn’t extend his views to future student learning, but let’s think about that.

  • Minnesota already offers online schooling (EdVisions Off Campus and Blue Sky Online School are just two), where students work anywhere, anytime, and can even meet with teachers face-to-face online.
  • In Disrupting Class, Harvard Business Professor Clayton Christensen and his team predict that by 2019 (8 years from now!), half of high school classes will be delivered online and 25% will be online by 2014.
  • Policymakers might help this along because of the potential fiscal benefits it offers to the state.

  What will high school be like in 50 years?

  

  •  
    Nothing like it is today. Students will audit online classes around the globe (or locally, if they choose), and take them at their own pace and academic level, to meet education standards and the demands of globalization. They will use existing community resources, such as dance schools, chem labs, internships, or travel for hands-on learning (and we’ll have figured out how to award credit). With parents/guardians also telecommuting for work, this seems even more possible. The center of social and athletic events will move somewhere else.
  •  
    Students will choose between learning online or learning more conventionally, although what is offered in school buildings might evolve. Students might take a hybrid of online and traditional courses; or they might engage in self-directed learning. Students learning entirely online might use some school buildings, which will become more like supervision centers with learning equipment made available.
  •  
    High school will evolve, but not to a large extent. Online schooling will expand a bit, but most students will still go to school buildings and meet in classrooms for most of their learning.
• 2.

  Online graduate courses are growing in popularity each year.  At the end of 2010, Capella University based in Minneapolis had close to 40,000 students enrolled.  How do you think online learning changes education?  Its accessiblity?  Quality?  Other parts? 

  Recent answers given:

  • I recently completed a graduate degree that was a mix of both in-person and online classes. The online format worked very well for me because I learn well when reading someone's lecture instead of listening to it. I thought the quality was high, however, it was as much up to me to get a lot out of it as it was the instructor or classroom environment.
  • The online learning direction, being relatively new, needs refining. As technology changes (higher download/upload rates, access to technology, etc.) online courses will definitely become more popular. The quality today just isn't there yet but it's rapidly changing. The bigger question in the future will be regulating online schools/course to make sure the quality of the content and certain specification are met. There needs to be oversight and/or verification of those teaching the course to make sure that what you're getting (i.e. learning) is being taught by somebody that is qualified.
  • Online education definitely makes college education more accessible especially for those working full time. The real improvement here is at universities like the U that offer online classes in addition to their normal classes. I have reservations about universities like Capella. It seems difficult to enforce standards and the universities risk becoming diploma factories (if they aren't that already).