The Learning Revolution is based on eight main beliefs.doc

The Learning Revolution is based on eight main beliefs:
1. The world is hurtling through a fundamental turning point in
history.
2. We are living through a revolution that is changing the way we live,
communicate, think and prosper.
3. This revolution will determine how, and if, we and our children
work, earn a living and enjoy life to the fullest.
4. For the first time in history, almost anything is now possible.
5. Probably not more than one person in five knows how to benefit
fully from the hurricane of change—even in developed countries.
6. Unless we find answers, an elite 20 percent could end up with 60
percent of each nation’s income, the poorest fifth with only 2 percent.1
That is a formula for guaranteed poverty, school failure, crime, drugs,
despair, violence and social eruption.
7. We need a parallel revolution in lifelong learning to match the
information revolution, and for all to share the fruits of an age of potential
plenty.
8. Fortunately, that revolution—a revolution that can help each of us
learn anything much faster and better—is also gathering speed.
This book tells its story. It also acts as a practical guide to help you
take control of your own future.
The main elements of the revolution are twofold. They link the
modern marvels of brain research with the power of instantly available
information and knowledge.
19
Introduction
History’s newest revolution:
the power to change your life.For the first time, we now know how to store almost all the world’s
most important information and make it available instantly, in almost any
form, to almost anyone on earth—and to link everyone together in a
global networked learning web.
This power enables even developing countries to bypass the industrial
revolution and leap straight into the age of information and innovation.
The obvious face of the communications revolution is the world total
of 250 million personal computers—growing to 500 million by 2002—
and the worldwide Internet that links them together. But “pulsating
below the surface are the invisible catalysts for change: the 6 billion
noncomputer silicon chips embedded in your car, stereo, ricecooker and
thousands of other items.”2 The computer in your cellular phone has
more power than all the computers used during World War II combined.3
More important is the network revolution. Says Canadian researcher
and author Don Tapscott in The Digital Economy: “We are at the dawn
of an Age of Networked Intelligence—an age that is giving birth to a new
economy, a new politics, and a new society.”
The seismic scope of this change forces us to completely rethink
everything we’ve ever understood about learning, education, schooling,
business, economics and government.
In fact, schools can successfully introduce information technology
only if they rethink the role of teaching and learning. If every student can
retrieve information when required, then the teacher’s main role is no
longer that of an information-provider.
At last we are also learning to make use of the most brilliant human
resource of all: the almost limitless power of the billions of cells and
trillions of connections that make up the average human brain.
The possibilities are breathtaking:
To prosper in the new one-world economy, would you like to learn to
speak a foreign language fairly competently in only four to eight
weeks?*
In a world where school dropouts have no future, would you like to
be guaranteed that your children will catch up at school in under ten
weeks—even if they are now three years behind?
In a world where knowledge is exploding, would you like to be able
21
* Breakthroughs summarized early in this book are explained fully later, and
some chapter notes are sourced to those fuller explanations..to skim through four books in a day—and remember what you read?
In a world of instant communications, would you like to be able to tap
into the combined knowledge and talents of humanity—on your own
personal computer or TV screen?
In a world where perhaps only a quarter of all people will have
fulltime jobs as we now know them, would you like to earn an excellent
living doing the things you love to do?
In a world where education systems are under severe criticism, would
you like some guaranteed methods to reduce the current failure rate?
In a world where everyone will have to plan for several different
careers in a lifetime, would you like to learn the key principles about any
new job simply, easily and quickly?
In a world where 20 percent of the population will soon be over 60,
would you like to know how you can go on enjoying life well into your
80s or 90s?
In a world where soaring taxation and deficits threaten to strangle
democracy, how can we achieve these results without spending an extra
cent?
If these questions sound like the start of a glowing advertisement,
relax. Every one of these results is possible right now. All are being
achieved somewhere in the world:
o In Finland, the Government has engaged 5,000 students to teach
their teachers how to use computers and information technology.4
The Learning Revolution model: Everyone is now a teacher as well
as a learner. And “for the first time ever children are taking over critical
elements of a communications revolution”. 5
o In China, eight-and-nine-year-olds at the Beijing 21st Century
Experimental School are learning to speak fluent English by playing with
giant crossword puzzles, quiz shows and other fun-filled games.
The Learning Revolution model: For most people, learning is most
effective when its fun.
o In New Zealand’s Tahatai Coast Primary School, six-year-olds use
computers to make CD-ROMs and plan their own “school of the future”.
Other six-year-olds build Technic Lego working models of their “21st
century home”. And they use computers to activate the solar- and wind-powered
units designed to make each house self-sufficient in energy.
The Learning Revolution model: Create the right environment and
23.25
even children from poorer families explode into self-directed learning.
o In isolated Montana, America’s least-populated state, all four-year-
olds at the Montessori International nursery school can now read,
write, spell and do basic mathematics even before starting school.
The Learning Revolution model: The best time to develop your
learning ability is before you start school—because most of your brain’s
major pathways are laid down in those vital early years. 6
o In California, former schoolteacher Jan Davidson and her husband
Bob, who borrowed $6,000 from their son’s college savings to start an
educational multimedia company, have since sold it for almost $1
billion.7
The Learning Revolution model: Great teachers can now teach
millions of people, through the marvels of interactive electronic commu-nications:
and make a fortune doing the things they love to do.
o In Christchurch, New Zealand, Michael Tan has passed his sev-enth-
form (13th grade) high school mathematics examination—at age
seven. And 12-year-old Stephen Witte—regarded by teachers as a
disciplinary problem—passed six university bursary examinations and
won the Papanui High School’s Physics Prize, but only after being given
the opportunity to bypass four grades.
The Learning Revolution model: People learn best when they want
to learn, not at some predetermined age.
o In China, a 24-volume set of color encyclopedias, that once sold
for $1,000, can now be pressed as a compact disc for less than 50 cents.
Bill Gates has become America’s richest person partly by giving away
such CD-ROM encyclopedias to sell other computer software.
The Learning Revolution model: Even the “have-nots” can benefit
from technology—but farsighted visionaries can do even better.
o In America, staff on one “accelerated learning” course at the giant
Intel group increased their subject-knowledge 507 percent compared
with a 23 percent gain by students learning by “normal” methods.8
The Learning Revolution model: The new methods are paying off big
in staff training.
o In Arizona, high-school teacher Leo Wood—using similar meth-ods—
has lifted his students’ achievements in chemistry from 52 percent
getting A, B and C grades to 93 percent.9
The Learning Revolution model: Even complex information can be.27
absorbed easily, and remembered, when learners are fully involved.
o In Hastings, New Zealand, 11-year-olds up to five years behind in
their reading are catching up in eight to ten weeks through a “tape-assisted
reading program”. A typical gain in that time is 3.3 years.10
The Learning Revolution model: Even if you’re well behind at
school, it’s not too late to catch up, using integrated learning methods.
o In California, the scientist who dissected Albert Einstein’s brain,
Professor Marian Diamond, is rearing the world’s most intelligent rats—
and providing big breakthroughs to speed up learning in humans.
The Learning Revolution model: The brain research shows intelli-gence
can soar in the right environment—and for humans too.
o In Beijing, China, the Clever Software Group Company employs
1,000 specialists to produce Computer Tutor and other CD-ROM pro-grams
that guarantee student examination passes. And CSC links all its
staff members around China in an internal Intranet, which is now also
being used as a model for schools.11
The Learning Revolution model: Interactive learning technology
provides some of the world’s best business opportunities.
o In St. Louis, Missouri, the teachers at New City School 12 have
collectively written an entire book, on how they’re teaching every
subject, at every grade, by catering to many different types of intelli-gence.
The Learning Revolution model: There is more than one type of
smartness—and we each have a learning style as individual as our
fingerprints. Effective schools should recognize that and cater to it.
o In Alaska, students at Mt. Edgecumbe High School run four pilot
companies. One order: $600,000 for smoked salmon to Japan—as they
study marketing, business, economics and Japanese.13
The Learning Revolution model: Use the real world as your class-room,
and to learn it, do it.
o Millions of youngsters have now learned the basics of geography
from a CD-ROM game devised by two young Iowa trivia-quiz fans:
Where In The World is Carmen Sandiego?
The Learning Revolution model: Computer games can transform
many aspects of learning.
o In Singapore, the Government is spending $US1.5 billion 14 to
bring the world’s best information technology to its schools and homes..29
All schools are getting at least one computer for every two students; all
students their own free Internet connection—to link with the 150 million
others already “Net surfing” in 1999. Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong
has laid out a vision of Thinking Schools, Learning Nation 15 as the 21st
century goal. The five-year IT budget totals $2.5 million per school.
The Learning Revolution model: You don’t have to be a giant
country or state to lead the world. Visionary government helps.
o In Sydney, Australia, students at Beverley Hills High School have
learned to speak fluent French by compressing a three-year course into
eight weeks—using revolutionary do-it-yourself learning methods.16
The Learning Revolution model: Accelerated learning has been
proven for years in foreign-language schools; now it’s everybody’s turn.
Those examples may look like isolated facts. Yet they typify the most
important revolution in human history. They hold the secrets to take us
all confidently into the 21st century, no matter how small, big, rich or
seemingly poor the country. But the flip side of the future is bleak:
o In affluent western Europe, 19 million people cannot find jobs.17
o In even richer America, almost 27 million people are now living in
poverty. More than 40 percent of that nation’s poor are children. Forty
percent of teenagers in New York City are unemployed; 20 percent in the
rest of the country 18 —while high-tech companies cry out for staff.
o At Britain’s worst-performing schools, the average 11-year-old is
reading at a five-year-old level, while top-achieving schools are three
years ahead of average.19 Some political leaders are talking about a ten-year
program to lift all 11-year-olds to an 11-year-old achievement-level
20 — while just one of the successful programs covered in this book
shows how that can be achieved in ten weeks! 21
o More than half of America’s young people leave school without
the knowledge or foundation required to find and hold a good job.22
o In America more than 270,000 students carry guns to school, and
the New York City school system now operates the eleventh largest
security force in the United States, with more than 2,400 officers.23
This book recognizes that downside, but does not dwell on it. The
Learning Revolution is about practical, proven alternatives: actions and
programs that work, effectively and simply, to build a better future for
ourselves, our families, schools, businesses, communities and countries.
Above all, it is a book about your personal learning revolution: how.31
to develop your own unique talents: to learn by using all your senses and
your natural abilities.
These guidelines have come not a moment too soon. The old school
model is as dead as the industrial revolution that spawned it. It may well
have been fine 50 years ago to “educate” 20 percent of the population to
be professional workers, 30 percent for trades and clerical jobs, and to
leave the remaining 50 percent to be largely-uneducated farm and manual
laborers. But to continue that policy creates a national and international
disaster. Nearly all students now need to become self-acting, self-confident,
creative “managers of their own future”. The tragic alterna-tive
is to continue to create a dispossessed, unemployed underclass, as
most of the old manual jobs disappear.
And even for graduates, knowledge gained in a degree course is often
outdated even before graduation. Overall, the instant-communications
revolution enables us to regularly update that information, and make it
available, on demand, when it is needed by anyone who possesses the
tools to access it.
We can thus now define many new models for the new digital age. In
the multimedia model, it means we can:
o Harness the ability of the world’s best “subject experts”;
o Link their talents with the world’s best specialists in simple, new,
interactive, fun-filled learning techniques;
o Marry them to the world’s most brilliant methods of interactive
multimedia communications;
o Crystallize that work into simplified templates that make it easy to
teach anyone anything in a way that suits each person’s own style;
o Make such courses available instantly, free, to virtually everyone
in the world through inexpensive network computer/TV sets—and al-most
as easy to operate as your TV.
o Set up intranet networks that can link each school with the Internet
in a way that makes individual learning much more effective and much
more fun—with teachers as professional managers and mentors, and
schools as new interactive lifelong learning centers.
Some of the answers are so simple and self-evident it’s amazing that
no country has yet adopted them as national policy:
o Fifty percent of a child’s ability to learn is developed in the first
four years of life. 24 This makes parents the world’s most important.33
educators. Yet not one government spends even one percent of its
educational budget on training its most vital educators.
o Self-directed learning is a major key. And if you provide the right
environment and tools for self-learning even tiny children become
enthusiastic and lifelong self-educators. Maria Montessori, Italy’s first
woman doctor, was providing such environments almost 100 years ago,25
and showing how three- and four-year-old “retarded” children could
“explode” into writing, reading and basic mathematics. Yet most
countries are still not achieving that result even for “normal” children.
o We now know that every one of us has a unique learning,
working and thinking style. Yet many high schools and universities still
“teach” as if every student learns in the same way—the academic,
abstract, theoretical way. “ Research clearly illustrates that only about 30
percent of people learn best that way.”26 The other 70 percent learn in a
wide variety of styles—best of all by actually doing.
o We are also living in an era where most people have the chance
to extend their active life to well beyond 75 or 80 years. Yet political
leaders are locked in debate about how to secure “retirement” benefits for
this aging population, when one of the real challenges is to create a new
third age of active participation in a lifelong learning community.
Fortunately we now know how to reverse those policies. All the main
answers are being practiced somewhere in the world.
This book obviously represents, of course, strong personal views.
Everyone’s ideas are mixed in a different cauldron. Ours have bubbled
through a score of different brews. From one author’s career that spans
50 years of business, marketing, advertising, public relations, journalism,
...