Learning Support System
We need a new system supporting:
·
perpetual learning of individuals
·
perpetual development of learning and teaching materials
and methods.
In environment with
deployed Artificial Intelligence and Robots, old skills become obsolete and
entire professions disappear, while the need for new skills and professions
appear. One has to learn quickly to acquire new knowledge and skills. Already,
a large part of the society, previously relatively insulated from pressures of technological
revolution, is affected by new technological developments.
The society has to learn
perpetually and learn quickly. People feel the pressure and they are ready to
adjust to new situation and ready to put efforts and resources into learning,
to be able to succeed in this new environment. Traditional education system cannot
support this effort.
Traditional education system shapes
students thinking to operate in uniform, “educated”, “rational” way, which
leads to uniform presentation of ideas. It has its advantages: people acquire
“common language” to communicate and to present results of their explorations.
However, the process of thinking,
which it shapes, is slow. There are so many different ways individual minds
operate; especially, innovators think in a highly unusual way.
In the environment of perpetual
innovation, a different approach has to be adopted. However the “common
language”, which traditional education system provides, cannot be abandoned,
the “common language” is needed more than ever, because the number of new
situations and new ideas is increasing and the need in communication of ideas
is increasing.
High speed of learning could be
achieved only with the system oriented on support of quick learning and
understanding, where presentation of ideas using some “common language” is
perceived as a process of “translation” of own understanding into a form
acceptable to a group, for which such presentation is made. Thus, the system should
be focused more on “learning” and “presentation” and much less on “universal
way of thinking”. Hence, what is needed is a “learning support system”, not an
“education system”.
Since, in new environment, learning
should be perceived as perpetual activity, an individual should be engaged with
the “learning support system” perpetually. This should be not difficult to
accept.
Obviously, such system has to use
all the possibilities provided by the Internet: learning materials should be
updated on remote sites and accessed by a user through connection to these sites.
Thus, the system should operate as a “service”.
The system should provide numerous
variants of learning materials dedicated to the same subject to allow an
individual to choose one, which matches his way of thinking better. Even more,
it should support such selection of an appropriate variant.
The selection of a proper variant
should be guided by the system itself and by teachers. Hence teachers should be
provided with their materials supporting such selection.
It is desirable to have a few
different entities engaged in development of learning materials covering the
same subject, where each such entity develops a set of variants of such
materials for an individual to choose. This way:
·
the number of different variants of learning
materials covering the same area of study
increases
·
competition between these entities improves quality
of learning materials.
There is one crucial element,
which has to be added to the system: examples of use of ideas, theories,
models, etc., found in “learning materials”, in some practical applications.
These examples have to
be artfully written stories, where one could see how subject presented in
learning materials could be used in real life situations, for example in making
some decision collectively.
These stories should be
aimed to accomplish two goals. First, they should become memory anchors, which
make ideas memorable. Second, they serve as examples of ways of actual
application of newly learned ideas in real life, which always involves many
steps and numerous attempts.
These stories could
describe real events, but often they could be works of fiction, with
personages, plot, etc.
It makes sense to built
specialization in the system.
One type of specialists and
organizations should develop learning materials for students and for teachers.
The other type of specialists and
organizations should write stories-examples of use of ideas presented in these
learning materials.
The third type of specialists and
organizations should serve as intermediaries between first two types of
specialists and organizations on one hand and students and teachers on the
other hand.
Intermediaries should handle
technical side of storing and providing access to learning materials and
commercial side of charging for this access and of compensating developers of
learning materials and writers of stories.
Sufficiently large number of
Intermediaries independent each from another, should support level of
competition between them sufficient for keeping entire system quick and efficient.
Alexander Liss 9/15/2019