June 1997 — Features

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The Future of Computers and Learning

  • The Open University and similar institutes show that we can provide quality education to large numbers of students at lower costs than now possible. Technology will enhance these factors, allowing us to respond more adequately to individual student needs.
  • Highly interactive material allows individualization of learning not possible with current class sizes, so much larger classes are possible.
  • We need far greater experience with such learning.
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    Fewer Teachers

    So far the use of computers in learning, with current non-interactive material, has almost always led to increased costs per person. It is typically a tag-on activity, an addition to whatever else is happening to assist learning. So currently, use of technology increases costs. But although education is a "high priority" in our society, the general opposition to increasing taxes, at least in the U.S., has restricted the possibilities for increasing funds for education. For success, in the money-conscious world of today, we must look at possibilities for improving learning that lead to lower costs per student, not higher costs.

    The major costs of education today are for teachers and administrators. So the only way to find additional funds for the use of technology or other new approaches in education is to reduce costs for teachers and administrators. Teachers are already underpaid, so our only possibility for the future is fewer numbers of teachers. Reducing the number of teachers is not likely to be a popular idea in many current educational circles. But I believe it is essential if we are to improve learning at all levels, and provide it to the billions of people who are currently offered inadequate learning.

    It is fortunate that interactive technology makes it possible to have fewer teachers. We can provide, through highly interactive computer materials, the detailed help that is needed for most students. We will need good empirical evidence that this is possible and that we can provide superior education with fewer teachers, at all levels of learning. So the evaluative studies referred to elsewhere in this paper will be particularly important here.

    Lower Cost Per Student

    We have already noted, even without interactive technology, that the U.K.ís Open University format allows classes of thousands. So even expensive curriculum development (or perhaps BECAUSE of expensive curriculum development) leads to lower costs, because the number of students that can possibly use such curriculum material g'es up exponentially.

    The ability to provide more effective learning at a lower cost per student is a great advantage of highly interactive learning courses at all levels of education. The interactive programs provide the individualized attention that today must come from highly skilled teachers.