Digital Aristotle: Thoughts on the Future of Education

Well, I could be a spoil sport and say that this utopic vision will never come to be; but I’m actually in no doubt that the future of learning is going to be based around the intelligent agent on some smart digital device. What I don’t think this means is the death of the teaching profession. It means we are free to be what we do best: mentor, care and grow our students. The other thing that such projects ignore is a great deal of the research on the relative advantages of direct instruction and socialised learning. Digital Aristotle will provide a flexible learning environment, but the essence of learning is disequilibrium. Unless the program goes outside the learning comfort zone, learning will not be faster, just more ‘personalised’. There will be a balance struck!