Google School
Does the teenager who hacked the iPhone tell us as much about the future of education as about restrictive trading practises? Should your teacher be just another friend in your academic facebook?
In his keynote speech at the Association for Learning Technology's 2007 "ALT-C" conference, that's what Google's Head of Technology Peter Norvig seemed to suggest.
To crack the built-in block on changing service provider in Apple's iPhone, hardware whiz George Hotz learned new software skills through online social networks. Peter Norvig suggested this was a good example of how access to online information and discussion groups could transform learning.
Google's senior technology guru was responding to the ALT-C conference theme "Learning Technology for the Social Network Generation". His speech, "Learning in an Open World", argued that access to online services could challenge the limits of conventional one-to-many teaching. He linked poor learning performance to the traditional classroom environment, whose greatest asset is the efficient use of teaching resources. He suggested Internet search engines and peer support through online services could raise achievement closer to the results of one-to-one tuition, usually seen as too resource-intensive to be practical on a wide scale.
The online services he had in mind were, unsurprisingly, communication and collaboration tools like the ones at Google Apps, and the academic material filed under Google Scholar. He also mentioned Google's new partnership with academic copyright body Creative Commons, to index their material.
His speech puts the learner at the focus of a collaborative network, supported by peers rather than educators. One of his clearest arguments is that learning-by-doing is more effective than learning-by-listening. In a typical class or lecture, he said, most minds start to wander well before the bell. In pilot training, where paying attention in lectures is literally a matter of life-or-death, the FAA enforces a maximum length on lectures of 20 minutes.
Using George Hotz as a model, he argued learners will excel if they are engaged in real-world projects, directed by their own need to know, and supported by informed peers. The modern, online, socially-networked learner can instantly draw on a collaborative support network and has immediate access to information as they feel they need it.
Teachers are served much less well by this vision of the future of education. They seem to join the formal classroom, relegated into the second division. Toppled from their pedestal at the head of the class, they become the monitors rather than the guides of learners' progress, more concerned with quality control than the active direction of learning.
In conclusion Peter Norvig offered a four-point plan for more effective, online collaborative learning:
1. Centre the education on engaging real-world projects – if they’re excited about it they’re going to get better results, and it seems a project based approach is the best way to make it so
2. Explore in teams – you get much of the effects of the individual tutor, by people working together and helping each other
3. Teachers are facilitators and can point to theoretical knowledge when it is needed, which is less than you think – the learners are doing most of the work so the teacher is free to become a tutor
4. Different students learn differently, but let them figure it out from the world full of education, don’t try to create materials ahead of time
For full coverage of the event visit the ALT website.
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