Learning is a human thing

"Learning is mostly about creating a context for motivation."
- Bill Gates, Time Magazine, February 12, 2007

Gates said this in response to a question regarding the role of technology in schools, education, etc. The interviewer wondered to what degree the internet would impact education in the next few years. Gates very wisely noted that television was supposed to revolutionize education upon its inception, as was videotape, as were computers in the classroom when they were introduced on a widescale.

What ol' Bill implies with the above quote is that technology (even the internet) cannot make people learn. Rather, someone's willingness and ability to learn hinges upon their desire to learn. This is always the difficulty in teaching - how do you make someone want to learn? It isn't easy. And it doesn't necessarily revolve around making the object of study interesting (although that is often important). Instead, students need to believe the possibility of their own success exists. Mastery over something - whether it be a sport, an obstacle, or an idea - feels good. So helping someone learn doesn't involve throwing a lot of information at them, but rather giving them opportunities to succeed at the task of applying and using knowledge.

This is not to say that the internet and computers are not useful tools for learning. They are powerful accessories that facilitate learning in incredibly efficient ways; however, they do not supply the motivation and sense of purpose that are required for learning to occur.

And in case you think I'm a stick in the mud, this doesn't mean I don't like technology (I'm practically married to my laptop). I just think we have to be judicious about how we use it, and how we let it shape our lives.

A very wacky sci-fi story about the internet: http://www.plexus.org/forster/index.html