Technology and Education: MIT Takes A Dip

It is possible that I have not searched diligently enough but I have not seen any publication with a coherent view for how education in general and learning will be affected by the rise of the new tools and ideas from the digital field. The closest I came to how much the Internet and related tools will affect education was in the Biography of Steve Jobs in addition to the report by MacArthur Foundation on The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age. The former states that Steve Jobs thinks that the major effect of technology would be in digitization of text books and learning materials. The advantage here would be that updates would be regular, less costly and that the parents and the public sector would take the initiative away from publishers.  I thought then that that was not really profound but that Jobs was being uncharacteristically real in the possible effects on education from technology. The latter publication was more sanguine but also profound in stating that most learning will involve de-centered teaching and with young learners getting skills from diverse places and methods.

I accidentally encountered this piece by Tamar Lewin of the NYT in which it is reported that the MIT has introduced an e-learning course for which it will be possible to gain certification and credentials. This new development is a step forward because open courses have been offered by leading universities in the world but many have not had certificates and my interpretation was that this would eventually lead to the death of certificates and "credentialism". My reading of this is that universities may be responding still to the heavy demand for certificates as evidence of proficiency.  What is profound is that the costs of acquiring good quality education are tending towards zero. This is worthy of keeping a keen eye upon.