In
high school, we had a lesson by name ‘The Fun they Had’ written by Isaac Asimov
in 1951. Two kids Margie and Tommy, are surprised to know that centuries ago,
the teachers were humans. Their mechanical teacher appears on a computer and teaches
them fractions.
In 2007, while working as an engineer, I took an online
class. It was English literature and Creative Writing classes. In place of
workshop in the class, which is a common form of critiquing your classmate’s
work and offering them feedback for work, Microsoft word was used. Word was convenient
in commenting on the essays as part of the coursework in providing feedback. In
online courses, responding to your classmate’s discussion is a common
requirement of engagement with other students work, to make up for the lack of
face to face interaction.
At that time, I didn’t realize that one of the
benefits was commute time saved. In 2014, I volunteered for Foodbank of Santa
Barba County. I had just read a book on Salesforce. As a campaign management
volunteer online, using what I had just learned, I could make impact sooner
than I could, driving to the Phoenix Zoo, where I volunteered too. That is when
I realized the overhead of commute that could be done away with online
engagements.
Maggie
wonders "And all the kids learned the same thing?"
Few years ago, due to my interest in creative writing,
I saw a parallel in content marketing. I took some digital marketing course on
Lynda.com. Over the holidays, I accomplished a Content Marketing certificate on
Linkedin. The interesting thing, I didn’t have to go research what courses
would be needed for a Content Marketer. It was motivating to see this
researched goal of well-planned courses designed to learn a career path
requirement. Linkedin calls these “learning paths”, a set of courses to equip
the learners with skills needed for a specific role like digital marketer,
small business owner, project manager etc. Irrespective of your background, you
can explore new areas and acquire skills, if you happen to like what you are
learning and become an expert at that.
I now have a certificate on Linkedin that shows this
accomplishment. Being able to share this on social media is like having a
graduation party, where you let others know how you are constantly improving
your skills. With the network effect, there might be some employer or recruiter
interested in filling a job that requires those very latest skills. You have
now taken the oats straight to the horses’ mouth. Even if you are not currently
looking for a job, this continuous learning speaks to your curiosity which is
needed for any job in the current dynamic market and industry conditions. AT&T
CEO Randall Stephenson said in a NYTimes interview that people who don't spend five to 10 hours a week
learning online "will obsolete themselves with technology."
“mother
said little girls learned better if they learned at regular hours.”
Lynda.com acquired by Linkedin urges you to learn a
new skill online, on your time. The courses are taught by industry experts. It
is true to the limitless learning, limitless
possibilities it touts. It shows you how “Learning can happen anywhere with our
apps on your computer, mobile device, and TV, featuring enhanced navigation and
faster streaming for anytime learning”. It is this flexibility and catered to
your schedule learning that speaks to people with a busy schedule. Life
happens while learning. You don’t have to put it on hold.
Around the same time, I took a Poetry class on
Coursera. Modern & Contemporary American Poetry (“ModPo”). Modern & Contemporary American Poetry course from University of
Pennsylvania English professor Al Filreis is a MOOC - "massive open online
course”. A MOOC is a virtual, free class available to Internet users around the
world. What I liked best about the class is the small group discussing the
poetry online. After so many classes, I feel like I know them from their
impromptu discussions. If such an attachment can be made through the online
classes, then we know its not the doom of a ‘mechanical teacher’ but a vibrant
community that interacts through the online forums. Students appreciate the different
perspectives that come with diversity of people from different backgrounds and
nations.
Recently few months ago, I took Economics 101 course
from Stanford University. It was free and online. Learning from John B Taylor
himself was great. He has a great passion for Economics. His hope of passing on
that enthusiasm, keeps you motivated to finish the course. I realized that economics
is fun, and I never had a class on it in my undergrad. You can always add a new
skill to make a full-fledged arsenal through online learning.
“I am learning all the time. The
tombstone will be my diploma.” ~Eartha Kitt.
With our current changing world, there are always new
technologies to learn. You must be a continuous learner. According to
Lynda.com, Educational technology too has evolved to help teachers and students
leverage new technologies and the latest instructional techniques to increase
engagement, be more productive in the classroom and maximize the potential to
learn remotely.
When
Maggie’s mom says, “a teacher has to be adjusted to fit the mind of each boy
and girl it teaches and that each kid has to be taught differently"
The online material lends itself to reuse. You can go
back to them for refreshing your memory, whenever you need to use the concepts.
It also removes the limitation of instructor writing on the blackboard speed
and demands on the voice to reach an audience. A class could be distracting for
some learners. With online learning, if a student thinks, they have not grasped
the concept the first time, they can rewind and listen to the lecture again,
essentially making their own customized teacher.
During a Global Case competition, I was amazed to see
students use slack to collaborate with each other, who were in different parts
of the country. The team also used google Docs, so that each member could
update the report, and everyone could stay up to date on the latest status,
without any rework. Now social media like Facebook groups for class, blogging
for student’s homework assignments, twitter for fun, Instagram for annotating
notes are being used by students for effective learning. Most course material
is available in digital format. You don’t spend as much time in taking notes.
Time is better used in learning the concepts, rather than rushing to take notes
while the professor is teaching in the class. You can count on online learning
for reliable delivery and expedited learning.
Wharton professors have done a study on binge reading on
Coursera. They found that there are two kinds of binging. Temporal binging
where you take module after module at a stretch. Content binging where you
finish all modules of a course on one subject and move on to another. The
research found that the bingers did better on tests. Since the online platforms
release the course at once, instead of traditional episodic format, a student
who is curious and wishes to learn more at once, can pursue the learning at
their own pace, fast or slow, to suit their learning style.
Pat Wadors, senior vice president of global talent
organization at Linkedin wrote an article in Harvard business Review titled,
‘To stay relevant, Your Company and Employees must keep learning.’ Online
learning is effective in workplaces not only when mandatory trainings are to be
done but when new technologies must be taught to employees in waves as they
occur. It is a logistics problem to hold employees captive in a room when the
business is live. With the flexibility offered by online classes, now they can
not only learn all the required things as a supervisor for workplace safety but
also the complexities of benefits and technical knowledge at their own pace.
Pat Wadors has also written that, “AT&T has launched a program that
combines online and classroom-based course work in subjects like digital
networking and data science, and looks at old skills that can be transferred to
new careers.” Many companies now use hybrid format, where employees learn some
modules online and then discuss them with each other through a web conferencing,
to maintain the community interface of learning and amplify the collective
intelligence.
Online learning has changed knowledge management. With
many online group collaboration tools like Google Docs, Skype and others,
learning and working with others remotely is no longer a barrier to a team’s or
organization’s loftier goals of being agile to changes in the marketplace.
Learning has now been democratized with MOOCs. The best universities too have
realized this and made some of their courses available to students worldwide.
In this age, everyone is a learner, novice or an expert.
With all the above reasons in mind, I am doing an
executive MBA online. My kindergarten child still has a non-mechanical teacher.
Even though the mechanical teacher has some time to reach each and every class,
I am sure when that happens, that the teacher will be as much fun as Blippi, a
creative entrepreneur with a background in brand development, digital content
creation, and online marketing whose goal is to bring positive emotions and
memories to the act of learning.
