DECADES before online education existed, Isaac Asimov, an esteemed scholar and science fiction writer offered a remarkably prescient foresight about computer-powered lifelong learning during an interview with veteran journalist Bill Moyers.
The 1988 interview, which was published in the book A World of Ideas, also consisted of Moyers’ conversations with extraordinary people — from poets and novelists to physicists and philosophers—on ideas shaping the future.
At a time when the Internet was still an infant, Asimov spoke about how public access to information would spark a revolution in learning as computers take over.
He said: “If you have a system of education using computers, then anyone, any age, can learn by himself, can continue to be interested. If you enjoy learning, there’s no reason why you should stop at a given age.”
Today, Malaysians are witnessing this movement of lifelong learning.
Early this year, Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh announced the national policy on credit recognition for the MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) as an effort to realise flexible education.
Just last month, two guidelines were launched, Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning Credit Award, or APEL (C), and the Credit Transfer for MOOC.
Developed by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA), the guidelines will allow individuals without academic qualifications but with working experience to pursue higher education. Learning is made possible for everyone, not merely for the young.
However, the question that has been asked many times is on the merit of online education. There is a common perception that online learning is very detached and too impersonal. Without the immediacy of contact with the teachers, it becomes an isolating experience for students.
What we might not realise is that online learning can help create contexts for student participation, accomplishing far more than typical offerings of the traditional classrooms.
For a start, that we speak more freely and feel less vulnerable about opening up on social media, is one observation transferable to increase interaction in online learning — both in quantity and quality, with and among students — if planned properly. One good example is that online connection and learning can be related to the first question Facebook asks us when we go to our profiles which is: “What’s on your mind?”
This is one aspect that shows how being online is affording students a chance to think aloud, ask questions and share opinions.
As a student, I was never an eager hand-raiser during lessons even when I thought I knew the answer. I did not want to be caught off-guard or forced to share my thoughts to an entire class without having the chance to think things through on my own. I am sure I was not the only one who was not comfortable to verbally participate in school. Some are painfully shy and perhaps even introverts.
Others choose their moments to speak carefully, participating in silence for long periods before they decide to speak out aloud.
With online education, every student can have a voice and be heard.
I was part of the team in initiating and creating FullAMark, an education portal of the New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) Bhd, launched in May this year.
During the initial stage of building up the portal, we decided that this aspect of interaction is vital to make it different from the rest.
Four months later, through wellregulated discussion boards, the portal has successfully encouraged interactive engagement promoting dynamic communication among its student subscribers. This environment allows all students, some who were probably like me in school when it came to classroom participation — to engage and actively participate in discussions, ask questions and share ideas comfortably.
These discussions are not constrained to a small window of time like in the physical classroom but can transpire over a period of time.
Expanded time for discussion permits students to reflect and explore additional information, and thoughtfully consider the views of others, before they take the time to construct their own contribution, which usually lead to higher quality responses. Compare this to a traditional classroom, where not all learning experiences are equal.
There is a significant difference between a lecture in a large hall with hundreds of students and a small room with 15 students where the discussion might be dominated by some, while the rest of the class is passive.
Most of the time, only a small number speak regularly, probably out of obligation while many others do not speak at all. Even in smaller classrooms, the most thoughtful, intelligent students can disappear in such environments.
Online learning can actually expand interactions we know that are fundamental to successful learning.
It can reach out to students through a number of different avenues that they are on already while creating opportunities the students and teachers to come together for an immediate and vital community of learning.
Asimov, in the same interview pointed out on the flawed industrial model of education 28 years ago. He said: “Today, what people call learning is forced on you. Everyone is forced to learn the same thing on the same day at the same speed in class.
But, everyone is different. For some, class goes too fast, for some too slow, for some in the wrong direction. But, give everyone a chance, in addition to school, to follow up their own bent from the start, to find out about whatever they're interested in by looking it up in their own homes, at their own speed, in their own time, and everyone will enjoy learning.” There is no end to learning but there are many beginnings, they say. And, it looks like Asimov’s prediction of the future is finally here.
Hazlina Aziz is NST’s education editor, and is an ex-teacher who is always on the lookout for weirdly-spelled words.