Virtually universal access to the Internet has changed the way knowledge is transmitted, and the advent of artificial intelligence in public access only increases the pressure. Digitization in general (video, audio, VR (virtual reality)) makes access to knowledge ubiquitous (anywhere, anytime). This affects our way of teaching at least as much as the arrival of the printing press did in its time. Before the printing press, education had nothing to do with the practices that followed. The printing press made it possible to transmit complex knowledge, unaltered, to large numbers of people. Education then underwent its second mutation, after the one that followed the invention of writing.
An exponential increase in knowledge results in the extension of the duration of studies and an increase in the need for training in just about every innovative field, for a population that is also always growing. This leads us ineluctably to a third mutation of education.
The school model of a disparate group, forced to progress at the same pace, to learn subjects that interest only a minority, that stretches training with strange standards, are mostly inefficient, exhaust both teachers and students and make administrations harden. In short, we can do better on all fronts: pedagogical, human, and economic to take advantage of the changes that are coming.
The state can't do it alone. The conclusion is that any help will be appreciated and that new ways of learning and teaching are needed: more effective, better targeted, more diversified, better integrated, less costly, more accessible. The democratic state has a responsibility to ensure equity, but nowhere does it say that it responds better to needs than its citizens themselves, or that a monopoly, even a state monopoly, is the best solution in all cases. A little competition encourages overachievement.
People are eager to learn but do not like to be imposed upon. They can recognize the effort it takes to master a skill or achieve a goal; they come to it when they are ready, or not. If they can't, the community can help them. Many approaches are possible; many models are better than one; now is a good time to create new ones.
Good reading
Denys Lamontagne
Illustration Dall.e 2
Prompt : Young professor in formal suit teaching geeks with virtual reality
