Last week, I participated in the International eLearning Summit, a gathering of educators and policymakers from 40 countries. It was heartening to see dedicated government representatives from around the world all talking and thinking about how an investment in technology can enhance their education systems.

Countries showing strong leadership in this area, including Portugal and Macedonia, are approaching it with a sense of optimism and hope. Their education ministers are saying what our own research confirms: that technology gives people new tools that are needed for thinking and problem-solving in today’s knowledge-based world, and that it provides access to a much broader range of learning resources than has ever been possible. These government ministers recognize that they have to adapt their schools to technology because the education of children is tied closely to the future hopes of their country. The intensity was high at last week’s conference as people talked about the possibilities for their countries going forward, from building a stronger workforce to creating nations with the capabilities to engage economically with other countries around the world.

My background as a social scientist and ethnographer makes me a trained observer, and as I listened to the various speakers, I could tell that investing in education is very hard for them. It’s hard financially and politically and socially and culturally. How do you argue for schools when there’s defense budget on the chopping block? But despite the unknowns, these first-movers are jumping in. They’re willing to learn as they go because they know their education system has to change as we make the transition to a global, information-based society.

The occasion of International Education Week (Nov. 16-20) seems like a good opportunity to reflect on this notion that education isn’t always easy. Education is an active pursuit and it often hurts. Sometimes it hurts for the right reasons, because learning by its nature isn’t easy. But it doesn’t have to be painful. And it certainly shouldn’t be painful for the wrong reasons.

Consider this: According to recent brain research, we learn a new concept better, faster and more completely when we’re exposed to it from several angles. This fact makes a compelling case for our newly gained ability to use computational tools and new media for learning. We’ve had many terrific learning tools over the past few centuries — the spoken and written word, lectures and texts, paper and pencil. But the tools we have in our schools today aren’t capable of representing multiplicity, relationships or perspectives. They convey meaning in one way, one element at a time. With innovative new computational tools, we have the potential for much greater reach, greater range and a greater ability to convey meaning.

There’s so much more to learn these days — more complexity, more relationships, more dependencies. Learning today requires the power of computing and communications to engage, to explore and to learn, to provide access to the right resources at the right time. Computing solutions that are appropriately designed and suffused with social and cultural relevance can be a powerful resource for kids and teachers around the world to broaden the range of their educational experience, to understand the relationships, to make the connections and to learn deeply.

At Intel’s Emerging Markets Platform Group, we’ve learned that this level of innovation isn’t likely to be free or easy. To achieve a first-rate educational system, governments first need to develop a thoughtful, holistic plan that involves the coordinated commitment of educators, private industry and the general citizenry. The best approach is one that recognizes the full impact of what it means to support technology in an education environment. In other words, it can’t be about sprinkling computers around for political largesse. It has to address software, support, training, maintenance, distribution and so forth, and it has to link the education system to economic development. Countries like Portugal and Macedonia recognize this too, because as they support schools and enhance the education experience for students, they are also developing new business models that create jobs and grow local industry. They’ve discovered that investing in education is a hard thing to do, but it’s the right thing to do.

If you’re reading this blog, I assume you’re interested in education. It’s your turn to comment. In honor of International Education Week, I invite you to share your thoughts on this site’s “Speak Up” section. How do you think your education system should adapt to meet the needs and hopes of your country going forward?

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 2:10 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.