[quoting Oliver, 1 Apr 96] I was mystified by the paper--at first. The opening line "There is a revolution taking place in education..." is so familiar to anyone who has been in the business a long time.
Ah, I love cynics.
Of course, if you read a bit further along, you will find the line "At the heart is a powerful pedagogy, one that has been developing over the past hundred years."
Which indicates that we fully realized that the ideas were well known.
But the change has not yet happened in American schools (nor anywhere, else, for that matter). So that is why it is still a revolution--a revolution in waiting, if you will.
One reason for the lengthy transition is that the technology has not yet supported the promise. Does the new technology of computer simulation and other tools really support it? Well, to be truthful, not yet. But we are indeed getting closer.
You do have to remember that the paper that I circulated was not an original research paper. It does not pretend to have original ideas. We were asked, Jim Spohrer and I, to write the introduction to the Communications of the ACM's special issue on instructional technology. It was our job to introduce the papers in a positive vein (the introduction is not the place to critique the papers).
When I was asked for a paper relevant to this Forum, I thought that the paper was a good starting point. It was not the end point, nor was it a complete summarization of my personal views.
So, the questions I would ask of you (plural) are these:
What do you think of the initiative toward a learner-centered education, one that involves the students in a constructive activity more than is today traditional in the lecture-centered curriculum. Note that I am not asking whether this is a new idea: the question is whether it is a good idea.
And if it is a good idea, and since the ideas have been around for a long time (perhaps since Socrates, certainly since John Dewey), then how come they haven't yet taken hold?
Am I a fan of computers in the classroom? Nope.
Am I a fan of multimedia? Nope.
I am a fan of deep, constructive thought.
If you want to know more about my personal beliefs, read:
Donald A. Norman (1993). Things That Make Us Smart. Addison-wesley. (available in paperback). (Also available in multimedia format on a Voyager CD-ROM (First person). But the book is a lot easier to read. The CD-ROM does let you get to know me better as a person.