Perspectives on Learning

In the decades since the 1969 landing on the moon, the world of technology has been changing at a mind-numbing pace. This past June, I attended my college reunion for the first time. Some of these MIT classmates played a part in these innovations. One comment that fascinated me was that the computing power in today's mobile devices is greater than what would have been found in the mainframes of just a few decades ago. 

I remember the days of the card catalogues in the local library. To find the information you were looking for, you had to go through a very manual process. Google would still be many years away. "Googol" was just a large mathematical number. Now, even young kids are familiar with the expression "Google it" -- essentially a verb for when you want to research something. At one point, it seemed that the world wide web would make libraries unnecessary, but we see that, if anything, the skill of librarians as experts in managing information is even more valuable these days. Most libraries are now accessible online, as are museums and college courses. 

In 2012, thousands and thousands of apps make the idea of a truly personal computer closer to reality than ever. It's easy to forget that the iPhone has an iPod built into it. My daughters can learn vocabulary and spelling words, math, and a host of other subjects, besides realizing that the iPad in effect is an extra TV with our cable provider's app. With iTunes U, there are even more tools on both the K-12 and college-graduate level. Speaking of MIT, recently it announced edX, a new initiative with Harvard and now UCal at Berkeley, with free online courses: https://www.edx.org. My wife can enhance her learning and what she can pass along to her students with online webinars and training sessions by professional musicians. On a personal level, as I have transitioned from a career on the corporate side to one as a sole proprietor, I find the web to be a fountain of ideas - some good, some not, some practical, some not.

While the spread of information can have unintended consequences, from a purely educational perspective, it is amazing what we can learn online in today's world. For individuals, first it was via a desktop computer, than a laptop, and now in the palm of our hands on mobile devices.

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