network. Singapore probably
comes closest. Its 1986 National Information Technology Plan aimed to create the first
fully networked society - "where all homes, schools, businesses and government
agencies are connected through an electronic grid."5
Since then
it has done much more. Early in 1997, for instance, it outlined its master plan to spend
almost $US1.5 billion over the following five years to introduce the world's best
interactive information technology to its school system.
By the year 2002, Singapore's 450,000 students
will share at least one computer for every two youngsters. All its schools are already
linked to the Internet. Students are designing their own web sites.
And Singapore has also probably done more than any
other country to link schooling, international high-tech industries and full employment.
The Government has encouraged more than 3,000 international companies to locate in its
tiny city state. They provide the well-paid jobs for a fully-employed workforce. And the
country's education system guarantees that its school graduates have the necessary
skills wanted by the new industries that will dominate the 21st century. But their example
is unfortunately noticeable by its uniqueness.
Even more importantly, the digital revolution provides
the catalyst for a complete rethink of learning and teaching methods. In science alone,
around 10,000 new articles are published every day. No science teacher can read even a
tiny fraction of that output, let alone master all the details.
So where now the traditional role of the teacher as an
information-purveyor? As Carol Twigg and Michael Miloff put it in an article in
Blueprint to the Digital Economy: "Through the Internet, it is now possible to
offer instructional materials to anyone, anytime, anywhere. Students can access courseware
on information seven days a week, 24 hours a day."
Not to make full use of instant electronic
communications in education would be like our ancestors failing to use the alphabet,
refusing to produce typeset books or rubbing sticks together to start a fire.
According to Peter Drucker, America's most
respected management thinker: in 30 years the universities of America, as we have
traditionally known them, will be barren wastelands.6
But the first nation to fully capitalize on
the explosion in digital communications, and link it with new learning techniques, could
lead the world in education.
Contents Page Preface
Introduction
