Let me start by saying this post is my attempt at bringing together a handful of ideas and information I’ve heard recently all having to do with technology changing the classroom.
First lets start with the qualitative plot to the left. This was part of a Forbes article about Apple getting involved in education. I don’t feel like I have to make much of a case that information is getting cheaper and education is getting more expensive (see college tuition). Not only is information getting cheaper and easier to find, but the technology that feeds it to us is cheaper as well. Almost ever moment of our lives are different because information is found and passed around so easily. With that broad, mostly unformed thought in my head, I ran into the following.
I’m a fan of the Freakonomics books and the podcast. I was listening to the podcast “How Is a Bad Radio Station Like Our Public-School System?“. The full transcript is provided, but I’d suggest just listening to it (its free and ~30min). One of the points they make is that if you fell asleep 150 years ago and woke up today, almost every aspect of life would seem very different. One thing that isn’t that much different is most classrooms. 25 kids, 1 room, 1 teacher, one style of teaching going on (most likely a “lecture”). One idea I took away from it, is if Pandora can customize your song list, why can’t we customize student learning. With all the technology and information at our disposal, why can’t we give the student exactly what they need? Well there are people out their trying to do that.
The School of One idea provides many modes of learning to the student: Large live instruction, small live instruction, virtual live instruction independent practice, small group collaboration and independent virtual instruction. This is like the synthesis of ALEKS, Khan Academy, traditional lecture, office hours, and peer learning all at once. Even better they track how the students are doing and if the student seems to learn worse in one mode than another, they stop putting the student in the mode that doesn’t help (i.e. saying you don’t like a song in Pandora).
Now the classroom 25 students, 1 teacher, and 1 room. The School of One classroom is whatever it needs to be for all the students. Without technology I don’t think this idea is remotely possible, but with technology it seems like this is something that could be managed. YouTube videos of lectures the students can watch, rewind, and skip through. Online homework/tutoring to support and access their learning. Small group work to give them a chance to work out their ideas. Larger univocal lectures to expand on concepts. In the picture you see lots of teachers, but you also see many more students because many students are working by themselves or with peers.
Everything I’ve linked above has to do with K-12 education, but it did get me thinking about what this means at the college level. If all a professor does is stand in the front of a large room and talk at students, we should probably just record them (assuming the talking is any good) then just provide the video online. Is it the professors job to provide various modes of learning to our students? Unlike K-12 where most classrooms are ~25 students, many college classrooms are much larger, does that imply a college classroom on average would require more diversity in learning modes? Why can’t we give our students exactly the kind of instruction that makes the most impact?