Isolated facts don’t make an education. Meaning doesn’t come from data alone. Creative problem solving depends on context, interrelationships and experience. The surrounding matrix may be more important than the individual lumps of information. And only human beings can teach the connections between things.
Predictor: Stoll, Clifford
Prediction, in context:In his 1995 book “Silicon Snake Oil,” writer Clifford Stoll shares his take on the Internet’s future implications for education:”If computers, online networks and interactive video are so important to modern classrooms, why not eliminate the classroom entirely? Students of all levels could sit behind their computers at home, and receive quality instruction from the finest teachers. Electronic correspondence courses … The Internet can probably deliver all the information taught in a university, as can a good encyclopedia. So why go to college? Because isolated facts don’t make an education. Meaning doesn’t come from data alone. Creative problem solving depends on context, interrelationships and experience. The surrounding matrix may be more important than the individual lumps of information. And only human beings can teach the connections between things.”
Biography:Clifford Stoll was an astrophysicist who also wrote the influential books “Silicon Snake Oil” (1995) and “The Cuckoo’s Egg.” A long-time network user, Stoll made “Silicon Snake Oil” his platform for finding fault with the Internet hype of the early 1990s. He pointed out the pitfalls of a completely networked society and offered arguments in opposition to the hype. (Author/Editor/Journalist.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: E-learning
Name of publication: Silicon Snake Oil
Title, headline, chapter name: On Classrooms, With and Without Computers; Some Basic Astrophysics for the Intrepid
Quote Type: Partial quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 133
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Tencer, Elizabeth L.