From kids learning mathematics with educational software to jobhunters teaching themselves web design online, people are now learning on their own terms — at home, in the workplace, in libraries and in Internet cafes. A new book by Allan Collins, professor emeritus of education and social policy, reveals how new technologies are changing education. Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology: The Digital Revolution and Schooling in America brings to light the need for a new concept of education, new educational leadership and a new vision of the education system. "New leaders will need to understand the affordances of the new technologies, and have a vision for education that will bring the new resources to everyone," says Collins.
A new web site at http://allancollins.northwestern.edu presents an overview of Collins's thought-provoking ideas as well as videos of Collins discussing design-based research and how the digital revolution is transforming education.
"To be effective in this changing environment requires that the builders of the new education system understand the imperatives of the technologies driving the changes in education," he explains. These imperatives are customization, providing people the knowledge they want; interaction, giving learners immediate feedback and engaging them in simulation; and control, putting learners in charge of their learning.
Education leaders need to provide tools not only for people to learn in school but also on their own, Collins maintains. Examples include computers for preschools, web-based tutoring programs and online learning games. He also envisions computer-based national certifications in various areas and teenagers taking different paths to prepare for certification exams.
"Technology is changing what is important to learn in a variety of ways," Collins contends. For example, literacy has expanded in new ways to include the ability to create animation, web sites and videos, and mathematical reasoning is more important than memorization.
From 1991 to 1994 Collins was co-director of the U.S. Department of Education's Center for Technology in Education. He also served as a founding editor of the journal Cognitive Science and as first chair of the Cognitive Science Society. Recently he was chosen by French psychologists as one of 37 living scholars who have had the most impact on the field of psychology.
Collins is best known in psychology for his work on semantic memory and plausible reasoning, in artificial intelligence for his work on reasoning and intelligent tutoring systems, and in education for his work on situated learning, inquiry teaching, epistemic forms and games, design research, and cognitive apprenticeship.
Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology: The Digital Revolution and Schooling in America was published by Teachers College Press in August 2009.