Great Report on education and technology

Instapundit points us to Katherine Mangu-Ward in the Washington Post talking about on line education.

I would add one thing. The brick schools do not completely go away, they remain for the irregular seminar, labs and extracurricular functions. But the books, notes, lessons all go on-line and the traditional class room is mostly gone.

Theachers no longer parent the parentless children, they can delegate the task.

Internet and Education

My town here has 15 charter schools, half rely exclusively or mostly in internet technology and individual studies. We might say the classroom is toast.

Even deeper the teaching profession is dispersing as technology allows self selecting specialty studies. To the extent that public education is babysitting, it will more explicitly do so, wihtout the facade of the classroom to pretend. Penetration of the technology into poor inner city schools will make the classroom untenable, soon. Around here all public high schools are adopting on line alternatives to compete with the charters. Public libraries always ensure availability to the poorest. Students will push the technology into the classroom, with wireless devices.

What remains of the classroom is two fold. The classroom itself becomes the seminar room, but students attend much less often, and do so with much fewer students for a longer period. The babysitting function goes out to the school clubs, sports, labs, events, and counselors. Attendance being irregular is nonetheless planned vie email, text, teachers blogs. Even grammar school teachers will have study blogs written and illustrated to match the student level. Advanced students will maintain course blogs, containing lab notes, writing assignments, research references, and comments for private interaction with the teacher.

Babysitting will become a profession, as in coaching mostly.