By

Nitin Garg

The guru-shishya parampara in the Indian culture has always been an important aspect of learning. In some sense, it is the very soul of the tradition, and embodies the living and breathing relationship between the master and the pupil. Having evolved from the era of seers, the tradition signifies complete emotional, intellectual and spiritual surrender of the ardent shishya to the guru.

That was in the pre-digital age. Much has changed now. Today education is a method of learning. The role of the teacher has undergone multifarious changes. Playing a major role in this metamorphosis is technology. It offers powerful learning tools that have not just blurred the boundaries of time and place, but redefined the very concept of a teacher itself.

We now live in a world which is digitised and that digitisation is increasing at a rapid rate. We inhabit a world where classrooms are being slowly replaced by virtual learning environments. Instructor-led training is substituted by self learning. Machines are gradually emerging as teachers.

How did this happen? It sure didn’t happen overnight. Over the course of time, purely classroom-based sessions (push-based) where the teacher had to be physically present to deliver the learning have given way to systems that use the internet to deliver learning — giving birth to online learning (distance learning). This was bolstered by the increase in computer use and development of new technologies, thus leading to individuals developing their own personal learning environments — underscoring the power of pull. Virtual classrooms which possessed the inherent benefit of making scarce resources accessible to a wider audience at a lower cost and enabled the learners to share their experience in a virtual environment too made their presence clear and strong. You can find blended learning, which enables teachers to create a perfect mix of media and delivery, and apply it in an optimum way to learn and teach more effectively.

After having seeped into popular culture, today, mobile technologies are finding widespread acceptance as pedagogical tools. Schools have started adopting mobile learning to create a one-to-one environment between students and teachers and improving student engagement in classroom. Mobile learning is not limited to schools or colleges, it is making its mark in the workplace too. With younger individuals entering the workforce in larger numbers, tools like IM and other real-time applications will gradually replace email.

We live in an information-dense world. We can access any information, in a way that matches our unique learning styles. Learning by oneself (informal learning) is prevalent everywhere — from school classrooms to corporate boardrooms.

Humans are social learners. We leverage our social bonds and connections to constantly learn and deal with problems or situations. Such social learning has grown by the incorporation of social networking tools like micro-blogging modules, blogs, and wiki engines. The tools let students leverage their social connections in ways that were not possible ten years ago. Another advantage is in providing a way to capture various types of tactic knowledge.

As the learning paradigm shifts, learning management systems will change and  focus on managing learning and not just checkbox compliance. They will evolve to support (not manage) formal + informal + social + non-formal learning components.

As the culture of gaming becomes more pervasive, and the cost of game development decreases, games and simulations have huge potential in the learning domain. Also, as the semantic web starts to form and common ontologies for various types learning content are developed, intelligent personal learning software agents will emerge as learning content mediators. The artificial agent can become a constantly evolving, personally involved, ever available teacher, or a teaching assistant.

Second Life, a virtual world, which enables its users (called residents) to interact, participate in individual/ group activities, socialise with each other through avatars, is increasingly finding application in learning. It is being used as a platform for education by many institutions.

A lot of training will take the shape of performance support. Learners will start accessing learning content just when they need it (just-in-time learning). Augmented reality (it allows computer-generated content to be superimposed over a live camera view of the real world) will also play an important role in sophisticated advanced performance support systems.

The demand for eLearning is growing at a five-year compound annual growth rate of 12.8 percent and revenue will reach $49.6 billion by 2014. The size of eLearning market in India is expected to grow from $27 million in 2008 to $280 million by 2012. These numbers show the pace of change in learning methods across the globe.

The future of learning and the role of teacher are being shaped by the advancement in learning technology. Education and learning need to redefine their purpose, process, and structure. Education in whatever form comes down to similar factors of success. It’s got to be relevant, it’s got to be challenging, it's got to be useful, and it’s got to be inspiring. Here the role of the teacher becomes crucial. No matter what the delivery method and the technology used, it is certain that learning is at its effective best only when it has been designed correctly and delivered well by a teacher.

The author is the director of Content Solutions, Upside Learning