I am no soothsayer..
but one doesn’t need another Nostradamus to predict the course of events
that would make the process of learning, new, challenging, complicated yet more
friendly. The last few decades have witnessed a sea-change in the processes
that define learning, the tools that empower learning and the environment that
provokes and compels learning. From a world where the “Joy of Learning” was
celebrated, we have moved to a world where the demands of Learning have
necessarily provoked stress and urgency. The challenges thrown by space and
time have been conquered to enable learning as an instant takeaway. The
emergence of “Learning Organizations” and “Learning Communities” appear to
impact our learning styles, targets and purposes. It leaves us with the
question.. Where we are heading to .. both as individuals and as a community?
The early steps
Learning is a natural inquisitive spirit of all living
species, in particular, of homosapiens.
History is evidence to the reorganization of the learning behaviour and
learning systems from time to time. The evolution of the Printing press as a
gift of the industrial revolution was the most prominent landmark that triggered
learning from indirect sources rather than one-to-one or one-to-many personal
contacts. The scope of learning enlarged given more time for consideration of
knowledge, its analytics, as well as its authenticity. It offered better scope
to scientifically evaluate the concepts, the proofs and the interpretations and
challenge the inputs as well as the outputs of knowledge processes.
The informatic society
The emergence of Informatics society ushered in a
technology driven encapsulation of knowledge and facilitated better analytics
at a reasonably reduced period of time. Further it brought down the distances
for knowledge sharing and triggered social construction of knowledge both in
the closed structures as well as in open structures. The resultant impact on
the knowledge economy was mind boggling. It impacted both the cognitive
dimensions of the universe of knowledge as well the fiscal considerations that
arise out of knowledge sharing and transactions. Transfer of knowledge from a
given domain to others became easier, cheaper, economical and speedy. Hence the
evolution of newer knowledge and co-construction and synthesis of knowledge
acquired a newer perspective.
The knowledge society
The Knowledge Society, given its multifaceted mobility
in all knowledge corridors, today calls for a purposeful reconsideration of our
existing understanding of the acquisition, management and processing of
knowledge as Knowledge has become a social and global wealth. The objectives,
processes and styles of learning have, therefore, to be in harmony with the
magnitude and direction of the flow of knowledge, as that would determine, the
wealth of a nation. Rightly says Peter Ducker, “In the Knowledge Society there
will no poor countries, but there will be only ignorant countries. Poverty will
be determined by the level of ignorance a country has.”
Impact
of Technology
The educational institutions of a country need to
respond meaningfully to the emerging scenario, by re-engineering their physical
and intellectual infrastructure. This is essential to ensure their learners to
be a part of the concurrent structures across the world. In this context, one
cannot underrate the impact of technology in learning spaces. Technology has
taken up the role of a culture catalyst. It has redesigned the way we
communicate, the way we store information, the way we process knowledge for
productive work.
In the new scenario, learning happens beyond the four
walls of a classroom. With better access to knowledge, the learners would
aspire for more freedom for examining their knowledge in classrooms,
questioning their credibility and contextuality. Learning will be a
co-constructive activity with the teacher, the peers and the physical support
systems in place as facilitators. The challenge of the classrooms would be to
overcome the boredom arising out of the repetition of knowledge that is already
contained elsewhere.
What are the directional possibilities?
1. There will be focus on construction of new
knowledge. Extended learning, collaborative learning and interactive learning
will trigger newer interpretations of the existing knowledge domains in the
emerging social and geo-political contexts. Classrooms would be expected to be
more open where the teacher would have no option, but to be a co-learner.
2. There will be a greater focus on the power of
knowledge than the content of knowledge. Emergence of newer knowledge systems,
apps that would provide packed skills embedded with knowledge and the speed of
delivery of knowledge applications would be better sought after. There are
likely to be repeated questions on – what do we do with this knowledge and why
do we have it? – rather than mute acceptance because of a top-down delivery of knowledge.
3. The styles of learning would undergo a sea-change as
more ‘encapsulated forms of knowledge’ would be available. We have already
started realizing its impact on the Reading styles and Writing styles The
emergence e-books has transformed the reading habits among learners. The
retention of knowledge over a given period of time is considered more as a pain
than a necessity as the same is available at the touch-down of a button. Short
reading, fast reading and time-bound reading skills are being practiced.
Similarly, the impact of technology has transformed the classical language
structure with new words, newer grammatical styles and newer modes of
addressing people and issues. Such changes would continue to evolve and the
learning spaces need to be conscious of this dynamics, whether they like it or
not.
4. With virtuality on the forefront, the experiences
with knowledge and skills would be more fun-filled, edutaining, with a greater
thrust on accuracy, accountability and authenticity. Performance evaluation
would become a more explicit profile input for learners than other modes of
certification.
5. The results of many neuro-cognitive researches that
explain process of learning more intrinsically would force a reconsideration of
our understanding of learning theories and appropriate our methods of
facilitation in classrooms to trigger learning. The teacher empowerment
programs will have to re-designed to bring contextual and global skills to face
the newer challenges.
6. The complexity and inter-dependency of various
changes will seek newer approaches to curriculum design with focus on
inter-disciplinary, multidisciplinary and trans-disciplinary learning to
consider knowledge in a holistic perspective.
The future of learning appears to be a scenario which
would be adventure driven, more targeted, with wider avenues for learning, yet
funfilled. The educational systems, wherever they are, would have no scope for
re-tracking their foot steps, but will be under an obligation to run a race
with or without a choice.
Meeting the challenge
Educational institutions would become “Learning
Organizations” – engaged in a continuous process of learning, both through
external knowledge inputs and of course, with their own periodic learning
experiments.
The words of Peter Senge in the introduction of his
book “The Fifth Discipline” makes an interesting observation:
“There is an old adage ‘The eye cannot see the eye’.
Learning, that changes mental models is immensely challenging. It is
disorienting. It can be frightening as we confront cherished beliefs and
assumptions. It cannot be done alone. It can occur only with a community of
learners.”
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