Week 6 - Chapter 3 Trends and Issues

From what I know and what I have discovered in reading Chapter 3 of Trends and Issues, I believe that the Internet and the World Wide Web will have a major influence on the way instruction is presented to learners. The past has already shown the influence that technology innovations have had on our businesses and entertainment. It has also shown its affect on instruction and education, even though it hasn’t been as quick and whole heartedly affected. It has been affected.
Adult education in business, government, and military has shown its increase in the past with retaining knowledge from video trainings instead regular lecture learning. “Most training directors reported that the films reduced training time without having a negative impact on training effectiveness, and that the films were more interesting and resulted in less absenteeism than traditional training programs” (Trends and Issue). It also helped train effectively and efficiently large numbers of individuals with diverse background. “In recent years, rapid advances in computer and other digital technology, including the internet, have led to a rapidly increasing interest in, and use of, these media for instructional purposes, particularly in training in business and industry.” In 2003, instruction presented via technology rose from 10% in 1999 to 24%, and in 2004 up to 25%. The numbers even show the increase in instruction that is being provided in businesses.
As for higher education, this class EDT 5410 shows the increase in education via internet or the World Wide Web. In the past, colleges had no online classes. In 2002, 83% of colleges offered online courses and degrees. Now in 2004-2005, nearly all colleges support online learning through WebCT or Blackboard. However, in the past (1920’s) McCluskey indicates that while the field continued to grow, the educational community at large was not greatly affected by that growth. He also states that by 1930, commercial interests in the visual instruction movement had invested and lost more than $50 million, only part of which was due to the Great Depression, which began in 1929. These statements show that not only did education grow slowly with technology, but business had its up and downs with lots of cost in money. I wonder if that’s the main reason districts are so slow to jump into technology. When we know the best thing for each student would be a 1:1 ratio, districts are thinking what is going to come up next that we are going to maybe or maybe not waste all this money on computers.
I think technology is going to influence its path on its own pace. Businesses seem to be able to front the money more easily then educational systems, so this might have a reason to why they have initially gained more and gained it faster than the educational systems.