The second educational revolution: rethinking education in the age of technology

Abstract

This paper drew upon a recent book (Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology) to summarize a number of prospects and challenges arising from the appropriation of digital technology into learning and educational practice. Tensions between traditional models of schooling and the affordances of digital media were noted, while the promise of these technologies for shaping a new system of education was reviewed. It was argued that new technology brings radical opportunities but also significant challenges. The urgency of seeking a coherent model for the future of education in a technological age was stressed. Keywordscomputers and education, educational technology, future of education, history of education, life long learning, schools and technology.The world of education is currently undergoing a second revolution. Digital technologies such as computers, mobile devices, digital media creation and distribution tools, video games and social networking sites are transforming how we think about schooling and learning. All around us, people are learning with the aid of new technologies: people of all ages are playing complex video games; workers are interacting with simulations that put them in challenging situations; students are taking courses at online high schools and colleges; and adults are engaging in social networks and online learning environments to manage their professional lives. New technologies create learning opportunities that challenge the traditional practices of schools and colleges. These new learning niches enable people of all ages to pursue learning on their own terms. People around the world are taking their education out of school and into homes, libraries, Internet cafes and workplaces where they can decide what they want to learn, when they want to learn and how they want to learn.School systems organized around age-grading, traditional curricular sequencing, accepted professional accreditation and long-standing funding models have struggled in adapting to new, learner-directed technologies. We often think that our current educational institutions have always been here, and have always struggled to adapt to change. However, the genesis of our current schooling system occurred in response to a similar technological and economic tumult -the industrial revolution. Our current model of schooling grew out of the technologies and social practices of the industrial revolution.The rise of the public schools moved from an apprenticeship era to a world of nearly universal schooling that came to identify learning with schooling. The current technology revolution differs from the industrial revolution in one important way. While the industrial revolution gave rise to a universal schooling system where none had previously existed, the information technology revolution presses a very real, active system to reconsider its fundamental practices. Our paper highlights some of the challenges involved when a technology movement seeks to redefine learning in the face of a vibrant, pre-existing institutional str...

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