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Underwhelming experiences of the evolution of education
I was last a student 10+ years ago, so will mainly focus on how my learning in less formal settings compares to my education then. And in general I would say it hasn't evolved as fast, nor in the direction, I would have hoped.
When I think how I've learnt in recent years, it has been via apps (e.g. coursera, duolingo), as well as new media such as video content (Youtube), or podcasts. While I do think this has made learning far more accessible, even enjoyable due to the more modular / granular nature allowing it to be adapted to one's interests and curiosity (thinking of wikipedia spirals some people often go down), it is far less regulated. Whereas, the education at universities and schools, appears to have evolved far less - potentially due to over-regulation.
Apps like duolingo at their founding, really felt like a new era for education. However, they appear to have gotten stuck somehow in old forms of education (learning by wrote) mixed with more rewarding gamification tactics.
I have learnt a lot from YouTube, but this sometimes worries me - who am I learning from? what are their credentials? am I media literate enough to separate truth from misinformation? who, therefore, are other people learning from? What might they be getting taught and what misinformation might be pedalled as facts?
I mentioned Paulo Friere in my comment and I will mention him again here - his Pedagogy of the Oppressed was a seminal piece from over 50 years ago, and yet, I see none of his ideas reaching a tipping point, especially not in the current phase of education's evolution - we are still being taught to silently digest content in order to pass exams OR, when we are learning in channels where there can be more discussion such as YouTube, we are in echo chambers with people that already agree with us.
I hope this new learning is what I'm looking for
Thanks for your comment @Jing Cao, I believe we are applying new technology to old methods of pedagogy (e.g. coursera, udemy, etc.) - which makes a marginal difference. Or applying long standing digital product patterns to education, which, again, provides marginal gains (e.g. duolingo).
Additionally, without education on critical thinking and reasoning, other platforms (social media) become sources of education, rather than sources of ideas to explore.
So I think the solution might be platforms similar to this one (maybe modernised) that provide the opportunity to publicise your thought and discuss, but also, ideally, educate on methods of learning, research methods, and critical thinking. And this could potentially be done very well with modern technology. The internet itself is a research playground, it just needs critical minds to research topics they're interested in, and receive critique
You bring up a great point about the lack of critical thinking in both traditional education and newer platforms like YouTube and Duolingo. While these tools make learning more accessible, the risk of misinformation and surface-level engagement is real. It’s frustrating that Freire’s ideas on active, critical learning haven’t been fully embraced, especially in an era where echo chambers and passive content consumption dominate. How do you think we can push for more critical engagement in these modern learning platforms?