The teacher goes from “the sage on the stage” to “the guide on the side.” Even the teacher’s relationship to her colleagues changes, for where she was once isolated within her classroom, she now has access to thousands of other teachers via computer networks.
Predictor: Ohler, Jason
Prediction, in context:In a 1993 article in Wired magazine, Jacques Leslie looks at the potential of the Internet in education, quoting Jason Ohler of the University of Alaska’s educational technology program. He writes:”Many educators say the emergence of educational telecomputing presages ‘a paradigm shift from a teaching to a learning environment’ within the classroom. The relationship among students changes as they find that instead of competing, they must cooperate to carry out the various tasks their network assignments require. The teacher’s relationship to the students shifts from one of all-knowing authority to facilitator; Jason Ohler, director of the University of Alaska’s educational technology program, puts it succinctly: ‘The teacher goes from “the sage on the stage” to “the guide on the side.”‘ Even the teacher’s relationship to her colleagues changes, for where she was once isolated within her classroom, she now has access to thousands of other teachers via computer networks. The shift makes sense for all sorts of reasons. One consequence of the information explosion is that teachers can’t know everything of value to their students, but with the aid of telecommunications, they often can guide students to the information they seek. Furthermore, demands on the 21st-century work force are likely to include not just familiarity with computing but a capacity for cooperative learning, both of which are fostered by educational networks. The networks also blur social distinctions: Race, gender, disabilities, physical appearance, even social status lose their significance in cyberspace, where all that matters is one’s capacity for expression. As Ohler explains, ‘You have a computer conference in which a 12-year-old and a university professor have an essentially peer-to-peer conversation, because neither has the social and cultural cues that would prevent it from happening.'”
Date of prediction: November 1, 1993
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: E-learning
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: Kids Connecting: You’ve Heard it Before, But This Time It’s True: Online Technology Can Reform Our Schools
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1.05/kids.connecting_pr.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney