Klein: “A big shift away from the classroom as the predominant locus of instruction”

Joel Klein, Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, was recently interviewed at the Aspen Festival of Ideas. He says, and I agree: “I don’t think the school system will look in twenty or thirty years remotely like it looks today.”

On the impact of technology, he says (starting at about 5:05 in this video):

We’re so far behind in using technology and how we deliver instruction, you know, that, if you had fallen asleep, literally, one hundred years ago and woke up, you could walk into the classroom and there would be one teacher and 25 to 28 kids and not much more would have changed. In virtually any other field, if you had fallen asleep fifty or one hundred years ago, you wouldn’t be able to practice. You’d have no clue what to do.

So the use of technology, I think, is going to become a major, major factor….

….I think we are going to see a big shift away from the classroom as the predominant locus of instruction to the individual as the recipient – and multiple modalities, whether it’s online platforms, whether small group learning, and kids moving much, much more at their individual pace, rather than what goes on now....

Comments

[robertg12]

I am a corparate instructor at a large utility company which is shifting from classroom and instructor led training. We are making a shift to use more Computer Based Training courses. I am finding much of this training is called "One shot training". My question is when is training enough and employees must be held accountable for their performance. Any suggestions or ideas? Can you let me know of any articles that might address this?

Thanks