In a different twist on travel - Take Me There takes a two-part look at the global spread of E-Learning. In this Part Two of Two, we look at the future of studying, the libraries of tomorrow - and the line between the chalk board and wired generations.

Digital Native or Digital Immigrant: Which are you?

As the global web brings us closer, knowledge has started crossing non-traditional borders. USA Today reports that when engineering student Jeff Bowman recently needed help in calculus, he turned to a tutor – in India.

Each day after he finished his day job, Bowman logged onto the Internet, to get one-on-one tutorship from one of many overseas tutors, through a US company called Smarthinking.

Jason Sparks, co-director of Logical Steps says mastering the software design for E-Learning means understanding the ways in which we think and learn. "Cognitive psychology itself is as important to mastering the learning tools of tomorrow as technology has been up until now.

"Attention, memory, perception, the way in which information is presented, reasoning, problem solving - these are all domains within cognitive psychology and each must be mastered to deliver effective e-learning applications." Despite the universal elements of education, culture still played a part in the design process, he notes.

"In an ideal world, we'd always prefer to design content for specific cultures. This allows for local language, proverbs & cultural icons to be used for maximum effect. However it is possible to develop content for global use. But it needs to be designed this way from the beginning to support different languages and to use content whose context is universal.

"For example, in USA the expression "sacred cow" refers to someone that is unreasonably immune from criticism. In India, cows are sacred so this phrase can be demeaning."

New-generation learners

Sparks doesn't see a time when e-learning completely replaces book learning.

"Books are killer applications. They don't need batteries, they are easy to carry and they have a long shelf life. E-learning won't replace books, but rather coexist with them.

"But more and more of a child's initial experiences with computers now are to learn. Today's youth are growing up in a world where learning through computers is the norm. In some cases, this trend is displacing the use of books – think about the library compared to Google."

But even today's libraries are also going "online, all the time". To mark the recent reopening of Singapore's modern new National Library, the NLB announced its Digital Library (NLB.gov.sg) would offer unprecedented online access to library and information and resources such as digitised materials and 40 online knowledge databases from Singapore and around the world. These included materials from partner libraries like the British Library.

Dr. N. Varaprasad, Chief Executive of the NLB, said the portal's role was in helping tp provide credible information globally.

"It helps in making the quest for knowledge borderless – delivering to users in-depth and credible archives of information 24 hours a day to anywhere in the world."

The digital age gap

So will the difference in learning cement a big generation gap between those educated in a digital age, and those from the pre-Internet universe? With classrooms where children now have "virtual tutors" built into their learning programmes, the answer may well be yes. So are we really equipped to teach them?

"Today's students are not the ones our systems and teachers were designed to teach. Kids have changed," says Marc Prensky, chief executive and founder of Games2train.com.

Prensky draws a line at the year 1974. Born after 1974 he says, and you're a ‘Digital Native', immersed in the culture of digital technology. But if you were born prior to 1974, you are a Digital Immigrant, always with one foot in the past.

Prensky has one big idea on e-learning. He wants every school, college and university in the world to choose a single topic – and then maintain a website with everything new and interesting on that subject. "We can get a million people to do it in less than one year. This is what open software is about."

"The idea is to get the whole world working together and not to have to wait for a group of people to do it in 10 years," says Prensky.

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