Innovate - Freedom and Empowerment: An Essay on the Next Step for

http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=63
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"The primary obstacle to growth is our unwillingness to experiment
outside the traditional confines of schools. We persist in trying to fit
new technology into the centuries-old molds for learning that are based
on the primacy of location—campus and classroom. Yet my continued
optimism for change is based on the belief that we, as educators, will
follow our instincts and learn to use instructional technology in the
most efficient and effective ways. And if it means abandoning
traditional practices, then so be it. For example, a critical outcome of
computers and the Internet is the removal of time and space barriers to
learning. We are beginning to realize that location is an arbitrary
barrier and that education can be far more dynamic when liberated from
the walls and gates of schools and allowed to flourish in exciting
real-world environments.

The catalyst for change is the human will. It simply won't be denied.
The confluence of technology and our natural tendency toward freedom and
empowerment will press against and eventually flow around and over the
physical boundaries of our schools. Freed from location, what forms will
Internet-based education take? How will our roles change? No one can
know for sure, but we can guess. Here is my projection."