A Tidal Wave is Coming

Whether we like it or not change is coming... Throughout the history of education we have had 2 major revelations. The first being the development of the written language, this allowed for the ideas and knowledge of one to transcend in both time and place. The second revelation was the development on the printing press. This allowed for the mass production of higher quality, relatively inexpensive texts that could be made available to a larger group of people quicker. 

And right now, we are in the mist of the latest dynamic educational revolution – the ‘e-education revolution’ as I like to put it, where knowledge is created and disseminated faster than ever before. It is no longer the case that we need to learn or remember information, but instead now the skill of quick searching and retrieval of information using new skill, like ‘key words’ and ‘direct searches’ have become in themselves desirable attributes. As with the printing press we are now able to share our knowledge but with technology we can share this knowledge with the world with just one click of a button. 

Take for example the skill of playing the guitar or piano, if a child from the UK or US wants to learn to play the piano or guitar today, their first port or call is not the music shop (as was the case to buy a text book 10 years ago) but today the first port of call is YouTube where they will find thousands of skilled teacher sharing their knowledge for free.

University, schools and other quick thinkers have been fast to spot this trend, with Salman Khan founder of the Khan Academy in 2006 a key example. Khan’s YouTube videos (originally made as a little extra help for his small cousin) have become largest and most watch online learning research ever with his videos having over 3,627,327 views.  Featuring over 3200 videos and 350 practical exercises. Khans mission