How will education look in 5 years?
As a person passionate about education I am very interested in the question “How will education look in 5 years?”
Since I co-founded eSpok together with my friend and partner Francois Xavier around 2 years ago I have been wondering how strong Internet based learning can improve the existing educational model. Advantages like more “flexible” and more “convenient” are obvious but is it really as efficient as, or even more efficient than face to face training? What about the aspect of social learning: are a lot of people not going to schools to socialize?
Recently I spent a lot of time in China and got motivated to learn Mandarin. As my time is extremely limited I decided to take 30min of live training every day in our virtual classroom with a Chinese teacher and an additional 3 hours face to face training over the weekend. So far I am impressed with the positive result of the online learning part. The key to learning Mandarin is correct pronunciation of the different tons which is the greatest challenge for a good distance training solution. Using her webcam, my teacher allows me to follow her mouth at any moment, which I wouldn’t be able to do with her sitting next to me. Having a good headset and connection allows me to totally focus on her pronunciation, being alone in front of my computer to freely talk without repression. Receiving the vocabulary learned and the documents used after every lesson makes it extremely convenient for me to take 15min in the evening to review what I learned in the morning.
In the last month we twice skipped the face to face training and decided on online training even over the weekend. The fact that nobody has to move, that classes can be taken spontaneously in the evening in pyjamas and that all the materials including vocabulary are already online is very appealing.
After two months of both online and offline Mandarin training I consider both ways to be equally efficient. Because of online training being so flexible in a lot of aspects, I consider it to be a better solution for busy people.
After Facebook and co have shown us that online socializing is possible and practiced worldwide, I do believe that social learning has a great future as well. The idea of getting to know people online by studying with them and exchanging experiences and information with them sounds very useful, promising and exciting to me.
In the upcoming month I am planning to invite some passionate Mandarin learners in Shanghai and Berlin to join me on eSpok to test and experience social learning.
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