New conflicting trends in education
There was a time when the basic needs of the human being were only food, clothing and shelter. With the rise of the industrial age, education was added as one of their basic needs. And now education is one of the world’s leading industries, producing graduates to run and manage the economy, politics, and the transmission of culture. But with the information age gaining more and more ground in our society, we are seeing conflicting trends in the education system.
The first conflicting trend is in the area of cost. While the cost of formal education at colleges and universities is rising, the cost of education through the Internet is getting lower. In many countries, the observation of educational administrators is that the cost of education is rising faster than a country’s rate of inflation. And yet, obtaining information, which is the raw data of education, is becoming cheaper through the Internet. Students can cheaply connect to the Internet through Internet cafes and access information that would previously cost them a lot. They can now download e-books, many of which are free.
An article about Academic Earth is written on the Personal Money Store website. He says that while Academic Earth is not an organization that can provide a student with college credits, it can provide them with almost all of the same material that they would receive in a traditional college classroom, whenever they want it. , without the hassle of transportation and clothing costs. There is an advertisement on this website for “Great College Lectures, FREE”.
The second conflicting trend I see is in the area of methodology. With more information to digest and more books to read, students have an increasing burden to read, memorize, and understand the content of books and lectures from teachers. And yet, on the other hand, there are so many individuals and groups trying to make learning fun and enjoyable, not a burdensome experience.
There is an article on the DNA Read the World website titled “New Trends in Teaching That Make Learning Fun.” In this article we read: “Making students enjoy and understand at the same time is the key principle on which educational institutions must work.” There are also online experiments with mnemonics to make memorization fun.
The third conflicting trend is in the realm of results. Almost everywhere in countries with a Western type of education, the complaint has been that the educational system produces unemployed or underemployed graduates. There is no guarantee that there will be a job upon graduation. And yet, jobs are being generated through the Internet. Some get jobs writing book reviews, reviewing shows, creating websites, programming, etc., not to mention the many scams online.
Website engines for education are trying to “raise awareness of the changes needed in our educational system.” Hopefully these changes will also solve the problem of unemployment or underemployment of our college graduates.
What do these contradictory trends tell us? It seems that the following trends are possible.
As the cost of formal education goes up and up and the cost of non-formal education via the Web gets lower and lower, only the rich will be able to access formal education while the not so rich will be content with non-formal education through the Internet. The Web.
As the process of education becomes more and more onerous for students, more and more educational games will be placed on the web where students will spend more and more time. There are already signs that students are skipping classes to spend time playing games in internet cafes.
As our formal educational system produces more and more unemployed and underemployed people, more and more jobs will be created through the Web.
The changes in the educational field are not so clear at present, but it seems clear that there are signs of substantial changes in the near future.