In the era when the Internet changes everything, people expect the Internet to become an artifact to change education, just as the Internet subverts the business model and financial system.
In fact, the Internet is already changing the world. The combination of education and internet is much earlier than business. In the 1960s, when computers began to appear, people put forward machine teaching and "school extinction theory". After the emergence of the Internet, the efforts and investment to change education by using the Internet are far greater than that of business. However, until today, the changes in education have been very small.
It is said that Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, put forward a famous "Steve Jobs Question" before his death: "Why did computers change almost all fields, but the impact on school education was surprisingly small?" 20 1 1 in September, the American federal education secretary Duncan gave the answer: the reason is that technology has not brought structural changes to education.
It is generally believed that the application of information technology in the field of education can be divided into three stages: the change of tools and technology, the change of teaching mode and the change of school form. Audio-visual education, PPT courseware, etc. They are all changes in tools and technologies, while a large number of online courses are opened and classrooms are flipped. It is a change in teaching mode. It is very difficult to completely change education if the school form does not change profoundly and the educational structure does not change accordingly.
100 years ago, Dewey once said that there is no essential difference between sitting in the cinema and listening to the teacher, because real learning is an interactive process, which requires active social participation rather than passive observation. Transferring boring educational content from one medium to another will not make it lively and interesting, nor will it improve the learning effect. Unless technology can integrate the existing learning methods and let teachers teach learning in a better way, as far as educational reform is concerned, technology is doomed to failure even if it has great potential.
However, on the whole, the human brain is still a black box to us, and there is still a long way to go for human beings to truly know themselves. Therefore, education is far from as simple as buying and selling goods. As a national behavior, education also has political, cultural and ideological problems, and the change is more restricted. This is the reason why education reform is so difficult.
In a word, education has a long way to go to solve human problems. Don't expect us to solve the education problem through the information technology revolution. This is impossible and unrealistic.
So how can we change the structure of education? This requires rebuilding the school. In fact, at the beginning of mankind, schools did not exist. Everything always has its cycle of emergence, development, prosperity, decline and extinction, and I believe schools are no exception. As we know, the modern school system came into being with the big industrial era, and its defects are becoming increasingly obvious with the development of society and the progress of science and technology. Since the 1960s, some people have "bad-mouthed" schools and thought they should "die". One of the representatives is ilic. He said: "For generations, we have tried to make the world a better place by providing more and more education, but so far, such efforts have failed." He called on educators to enjoy the right to choose education, become active consumers, and create opportunities for everyone to turn their life into learning, sharing and nurturing.
Strictly speaking, schools will never really "die out", but it is inevitable that the transformation of schools and their unique position as providers of educational resources will be challenged. Now many extracurricular tutoring institutions-from "New Oriental" to "Good Future", and many online education institutions-come from Hujiang. "Who to learn from" is rising rapidly. In the future, these institutions may be "grave diggers" of modern schools.
Of course, strictly speaking, or from a more rational point of view, they are intertwined with modern schools, creating a new educational ecosystem and a future-oriented educational model.
The future is not where we want to go, but where we are creating. In fact, the emergence of so many educational institutions outside the school system, so many "network celebrities" teachers, and so many small-scale innovative schools have already predicted the direction of education reform. The future is not far away, the key is to have innovative thinking. Many things that were unimaginable in the past have been realized in the Internet age. In many countries in the world, and in many places in China, many people are quietly changing and creating in one way or another.
It is very likely that one morning, when we open the window of education, we will suddenly find that a new picture of the educational world has appeared in front of us.
(The author is the vice chairman of the Central Committee of China Association for Promoting Democracy and the deputy secretary general of China People's Political Consultative Conference.)