Re: SHAPE OF FUTURE SCHOOLING

["Lex Systems Inc." <lex@THE.LINK.CA>]

At 03:40 AM 6/3/97 Dale Copps wrote:

>Yes! Down with the three tyrants of public (or, for that matter, private)
>education: the clock, the calendar, and the physical plant. The WEB will
>dissolve all three rigidities, and our days will be spent on education,
>and not on controlling behavior in unnatural situations.

Glad to discover someone with matching conviction.  I am old enough
to have participated in the heyday of "individualized instruction" which
was usually unsuccessful because of the need most of us have for
group motivation and group learning.  Web communications can provide
both for individual and communal learning.  I have been experimenting
with Pow-Wow, a program for allowing groups to schedule meetings
on the Web and communicate with voice, text, or both.  It also
alows for group surfing, although I haven't tried that option.

Another development that will be somewhat frightening for school
districts will be the fuzzing out of boundaries.  There will be
a pressure by students and parents to participate in educational
programs from thousands of miles away.  Enterprising schools and
districts are going to accept enrolments on a fee-for-service
basis.  That should engender a massive debate on the merit
of education that offers virtual but not literal face-to-face
instruction.  Families from poor areas are going to be most
appreciative, they will be relieved from having to send children
into high risk environments.

The best teachers are going to find their services in demand by
thousands of students and other teachers.  The master-teacher
concept will become a reality, with the best educators gathering
other teachers and facilities around them in a virtual sense if
not a real one.

The concept of physical supervision has been a limiting force,
restricting the benefits that good teachers can render.  In our
web schools nobody will be at risk from abusive or chronically
reluctant students.  Nobody will have the power to be more than
a non-particpant.  Violent personalities will find themselves
screened out, much as what now happens on chat lines.

The negative side will have to be dealt with.  People will have
to actually elect to have more human-to-human interraction.
Web hermits will have to be encouraged to learn how to deal
with actual people.

...possibly to be continued.









Jim Bruce

LEX SYSTEMS
Box 178 Dalmeny, SK,
Canada  S0K 1E0

Phone: 1-800-665-4828   or 306-254-2040
Fax:      1-306-254-2612
Web:    http://www.link.ca/~lex/