Learning & The Virtual Classroom

by Dennis Green

Very young children learn more readily from social interaction, a live teacher, than from a TV set. But by the age of five, those same children display an amazing aptitude to learn from a video or computer screen. The first evidence of this phenomenon may be observed in the aptitude children show in learning to play video games, from either the handheld sort, computer-driven, or on a TV screen.

Young children are also notoriously better at performing tasks on computers than grown adults are, the reason that person on the Help line often asks, “Do you have a child under 12 in the house?” But fogies old and young will say, “These kids of today spend too much time playing video games, or texting on their smart phones or fooling around on social networks instead of playing outside like we did when we were kids!”

Tut-tut.

And many educators — especially classroom teachers — feel very threatened by the notion that new technologies can not only enhance the learning experience, but in some ways revolutionize the classroom model that hasn’t otherwise changed in centuries. But I suspect that even Plato, Aristotle and Socrates would applaud the virtual classroom.

Pedagogues don’t have to be pedantic. Their resistance is understandable, a fear that computer learning will replace the live teacher, or somehow weaken his powerful dominance of the classroom, his fiefdom. But the economies of scale insist that in school districts where staff and faculty salaries and benefits equal 94% of the total budget, and deficits loom, some innovations in the classroom must come about.

Already, computerized lessons and supplements are enriching the learning experience for many students in America. Private, entrepreneurial geek squads are creating, for example, math lessons that can be streamed to laptops and, for students who need it, can be repeated and reviewed. Most of these lessons are distributed free of charge to school districts, and the companies that create them make an income offering special, tailored tutorials to students who fall behind, at a lower cost than conventional tutoring.

There are even online technology classes where students from across the country, or the globe, can study together.

Why shouldn’t students even in the poorest school districts enjoy the performances of the very best classroom teachers via satellite or computer networking? There will never be enough of such teachers to go around, and outmoded teachers’ colleges and programs aren’t turning them out fast enough. But the so-called teaching “shortage” is part of the mythology that says great teachers never burn out and begin phoning it in, let alone those who were mediocre to begin with.

The “15% Rule” — the one that says only 15% will excel at any trade, skill, craft or profession — is just as true of teaching as it is of medicine. You probably don’t want your kid getting a teacher from the bottom 15% any more than you want a cardiologist from that portion of the medical school graduating class performing your bypass.

But only 15% of the classroom teachers nationwide could educate ALL of America’s students if we gave the virtual classroom half a chance. Online education is becoming ubiquitous, and Phoenix University is only the best known of many such institutions, probably not even the best, but graduating thousands of students nationwide every year.

So as an old-time bikhu and former classroom teacher myself, I welcome all the new technologies and advances. And as a member of the top 15% of my graduate class, I never needed tenure or a union to survive!

©2010 Dennis Green