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IMS
Global: Do you think we will reach a point where learning
will become on-demand, where ours will become a society of lifelong,
fully-engaged learners?
BL:
I think we've moved beyond learning as most think of it today. We are
beyond what most consider "online learning." Yes, we will become more
engaged, more flexible, more independent. Those are terms that are
performance based and people can do them. But I think now, with the
coming of the dynamics of the Internet and fully wireless
communication, learning has become more of a self-actualized
experience. You know, learning is an exercise of the mind. You can put
thoughts together as fast as you are capable of assimilating and
assembling them. And so, I think the learning experience is a
self-development experience that people will be able to pursue at
lightning speeds. The present traditional structures are so far behind
the power curve in the way that we measure and support, reward and
record, all of that mitigates for a different kind of future that goes
beyond even the traditional ways that we explain them. The academy,
writ large in education, is a huge monolith with a lot of costs and
moves like a giant iceberg. It's hard to get things to change. But they
are changing, they will change, and you can't stop them. All the pieces
are here now, and, slowly, we are putting them all together.