Futurists have predicted that between the years 2020 and 2025 all education will be delivered on an individual basis. Harvard professor Clayton Christensen in his book Disrupting Class has predicted that one half of all education will be delivered on an individual basis by 2015. Can this really be happening? Yes, because education could become virtually free through technology; education through technology could be delivered just in time (JIT) and any place; and education through technology can be as effective, if not more effective, than traditional “brick and mortar” education. These are very bold statements, but let me share my own education experience and research into our current technology revolution.

My first experience in education at a distance involved global video conferencing from my nonprofit organization’s studio in Washington D.C. From this location and with access to high speed internet we were able to invite local K-12 students to participate in the United Nations Cyber School Bus program. Once a year students from around the world would come together to work as a team on building resolutions in support of the U.N. Millennial Goals. One particular year was exceptional because joining the program were high school students from Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. The subject was “Water as a Human Right” (who better would understand water as a human right than Africans). The program also included participants in the video conferencing from six other high schools and 80 students physically participating at the U.N. headquarters in New York City. The final resolution at the end of the day was voted on, approved, and presented by the students to the President of the General Assembly who, in turn, presented it to the General Assembly, as a whole, for adoption.

Our students in the studio were so excited that their school class later raised nearly $800 to be used to dig two shallow bore holes in a village dependent on subsistence farming (bore holes are shallow wells which provide temporary sources of water and are essential for survival during the dry season in Sub-Saharan Africa). The exuberance shown by these students reflected both affective and cognitive learning. It is this kind of life event outside the normal classroom that could frame their future thinking and career paths.

Another video conferencing event involved students from the Ukraine, Poland and two schools from the United States who came together to discuss global politics. The student groups were required to act as the students from another country and the results turned out to be rather humorous. At one point the Ukrainians started scolding the Americans for, then, current Bush policies. But the Americans countered by saying they were the Irish, and the Ukrainians should scold the Polish students who were representing the U.S. The point of the exercise was to view the world through the lens of different countries and different cultures in order to arrive at common consensus leading to peaceful solutions to difficult problems.

Today, with the evolvement of Net 2, Net 3 technology, what we did globally through video conferencing, we have now expanded into a much larger global net. The global virtual community today allows students to interact with other students from around the world 24/7. The students can teleport anywhere in the virtual world and do their “Meet Ups” in a virtual classroom; around a virtual campfire, or any desirable scenario location. They would arrive in their Avatar bodies, dressed according to the local customs of the country, but speaking with their actual real time voices. When controlled academically, my scenario would have the students teleport to my island known as Pangaea which metaphorically resulted when the continental drift reversed itself returning our planet to its original single island state—“a place where students can learn that they are part of one world and not a world apart”. Here they can view world problems through different perspective lens and share their common future dreams and hopes with fellow students. This technology has serious academic interest (search Second Life. If you meet Colonel Watanabe in the virtual world—that’s me).

Let us return to the video conference experience I shared above because shortly following this session a significant world event occurred which demonstrated the power of another emerging technology, the mobile phone. The successful Orange Revolution in the Ukraine was credited in part to student activists who coordinated their activities via their mobile phones. Another significant international protest occurred recently in Iran where mobile phones powered by 3G technology allowed students to use Twitter to communicate and coordinate their activities. If you were on a Twitter Grid at this time in the U.S. you could follow the minute by minute events that occurred during the protest marches. It is predicted that this form of technology will result in significant improvements in democracy and economic growth around the world.

As an example developing countries, like those on the African Continent, should soon realize a technological revolution as 3G mobile phone use is introduced along the existing extensive cellular transmission tower infrastructure. It is predicted by this writer, who does extensive nonprofit work in Africa, that education provided via mobile phones when combined with existing microfinance programs will dramatically close the digital/economic divides that have been a major frustration on the continent. In our nonprofit work we refer to this as “Innovation X Implementation = I (squared).” The enhancement of communication will translate into economic freedom, increased democracy, and increased personal dignity among the African citizenry.

Teachers today should consider mobile phones, not as a nuisance, but as an educational asset. A recent observation of a very successful seminar started out with the speaker providing his Twitter address and encouraging participants to Tweet during the presentation. The audience shared their thoughts on the topics with other participants and with the speaker. The speaker could review the Tweets on break and address them when he resumed speaking. The speaker could also survey the audience and even quiz them on their understanding of the subject. This demonstrates how mobile phones can be a resourceful education tool promoting both affective learning and cognitive learning.

So far this paper has talked only about synchronous technology and social software tools. But to examine the bold predictions made in the beginning of this paper we need to understand the evolvement of asynchronous technology, referred to as online learning (learning at a distance). Let’s address this in terms of convenience, cost, and effectiveness.

We are seeing that post secondary education is rapidly moving towards online education. Almost half of education at this level is now offered online. The outreach to adult learners is proving successful because online education is convenient, occurring at any time, and at any place in the world. Phoenix University now commands impressive market share with its global online programs. Other universities are moving in this direction, but are encountering resistance from tenured professors, unions, and administrative bureaucracy. Community colleges are also moving in this direction, initially through their certificate programs. Virginia community colleges are expediting online training for their teachers because of the threat of the Swine Flu epidemic. This could become a permanent change in their future concentration. K12 schools are also exploring online education; initially, as an outreach to the rural communities, but also as an alternative to traditional secondary education schools.

In regard to cost savings, today we have free “open source” internet platforms such as Moodle (Modular Online Delivered Learning), which is gaining competitive advantage over more expensive, licensed, software like Blackboard. Moodle only involves server and administrative costs. The Moodle tools allow courses to easily be built by teachers themselves, thereby avoiding expensive designer and programmer costs. This disrupting technology will soon make education available and affordable globally. Like the mobile phones in Africa, this new pedagogical delivery will enhance global productivity; enhance economic freedom; promote democracy; and result in the Pangaea metaphor becoming a reality.

Finally, is online learning effective? As of this writing a 93 page report on online education was provided by SRI International to the Department of Education. This meta analysis, conducted over a 12 year period and representing 99 studies, compared online with traditional classroom performance on the same subject and reported that online students scored in the 59th percentile on tested performance as compared to the average classroom performance in the 50th percentile. There is increasing evidence to further support these results, but the key to effective online education is understanding theory behind the pedagogy.

Learning technology has outpaced theory development but “strong theory” is starting to catch up. One theoretical model advanced by R. Garrison is called the “Community of Inquiry” and has been validated by other researchers. His model includes three cluster constructs: social presence; teacher presence; and cognitive presence. The interaction of these three clusters results in the overall education experience: the social/cognitive overlap supports discourse; the social teaching overlap sets the educational climate: and the cognitive/teaching presence results in the proper selection of content. In order for teachers to be effective they must be trained in a Learning Course Management System (LCMS) that introduces them to the theory so that they can properly utilize the tools available on virtual platforms like Moodle and effectively deliver their education programs.

A very powerful aspect of online learning is that it facilitates constructivist pedagogy which is student centric. When we recognize that there may be as many as thirteen different learning styles (styles like Kolb’s Experimental Learning Theory (ELT) and as many as eight intelligence domains (Gardner), the student centric approach allows teachers to tailor education to meet the student’s individuality. Further, online constructivist pedagogy necessitates critical thinking and online learning accomplishes this through “threaded learning”. The threaded learning in turn is the opportunity for the teacher to demonstrate his or her academic knowledge. Although online teaching requires more preparation and attention by the teacher, the pedagogical rewards are decidedly more satisfying.

There is no doubt that our Y Generation (Millenial) students can adapt to online technology, for they are the “gamers”. A question that must be addressed is: at what age can students begin the transition to online learning? The answer lies with maturity, but researchers use the notion of “autonomy” or if we think of a continuum line for autonomy, at one end we would find structure and at the other end dialogue. The more autonomous (mature) a student is, the more the teacher can rely on structure: a good syllabus outline; thoroughly written lectures; clearly written declarative course objectives and assignments. At the other end of the continuum would be the word “dialogue” where less mature (less autonomous) students would require more verbal instructions through the medium of video, audio, chat rooms, blogs or face-to-face for example. The age of the student would require a careful evaluation of each student by the teacher. I would boldly suggest that this could be offered to students as young as K-5. Those students demonstrating the necessary maturity could start with blended learning (a combination of in class and online classes) and transitioning to full online when ready.

In closing, a question pertinent to the above must be addressed. With exploding technology, where information available to us is growing at an exponential rate, but can only absorbed at a finite level, how do educators filter out extraneous information? As a possible solution and for your homework assignment, please search: “Swarm Intelligence Theory”. Prepare a 500 word essay and upload it by the end of next week. Remember to demonstrate critical thinking.
Robert L. Frantz
CEO, Kepler Space University and President, Ashburn Institute

Ideal High School New School Day: Year 2020 (Log in: Cyber School Bus. World History. Teleport to Pangaea Virtual island in Avatar Dress Code (Arab). Prepare to Represent Palestinian Authority. Review Oslo Accords.

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