My comparison to other visions:
I agree with Tsui-Ju Chen that
universities will not dissapear even when technology takes such an important
place in higher education, and it will let older learners start a career,
as Mika Saito says an older range of the population will become potential
learners. This will be so for a number of reasons. First because
people will be in constant need of education and self improvement, to be
able to cope with constant changes in labour. Secondly, because people
will have better opportunities to study since they will be able to do it
at home, at any time of the day. Third, people will have possibilities
of access to important universities without moving and this will enrich
programs, as Xiao Yu points in his vision "... UI-Online and Stanford’s
planned online degree programs, IT-based educational facilities or
systems will enrich universities’ program types, instructional tools, and
organization structures, and expand their functions, and thus make universities
even more important to the society in the new century, rather than result
in their demise"
I do hope that Aime's positive vision
becomes true, since technology is the ideal tool to engage learners in
cooperative learning, and maybe schools will be able to better address
the learners needs since, as So-Young Kim says, "students will be taking
courses which mostly fit their needs regardless regional factor."
March 1st, 1999