科技重塑未来课堂

    说起教育的未来，常常会引发这样的想象：学生人手一部iPad，机器人监控课堂甚至授课，老师随时可以通过网络摄像机向成千上万的学生讲课。

    有些已经以这种或那种形式实现。毫无疑问，技术将成为未来教育的重要组成部分。全球移动通信系统协会（GSMA）和咨询公司麦肯锡（McKinsey & Co）在2012年进行的调查显示，移动教育市场（囊括了从电子书到平板电脑授课再到教学管理软件的方方面面）目前的规模为34亿美元。到2020年，这个涵盖了苹果（Apple）iPad和谷歌（Google）安卓平板等设备销售的市场预计将达到700亿美元。

    然而，尽管对电子产品和新软件的宣传可谓天花乱坠，但教育的未来实际上取决于老师和学生的角色转变。“主要的转变在于逐渐放弃我所说的以老师在课堂上授课为主的模式。”比尔和梅琳达•盖茨基金会（Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation）的项目官员斯科特•本森解释道。本森指出，学生们将按照各自的进度，使用适应他们优缺点的软件来进行学习。换句话说，在新兴技术的帮助下，师生关系以及课堂本身将得到重塑。这就是即将来临的教育革命。

    老师将不再在讲台上授课，而是监督学生们的学习进度，在特定时候出面帮助那些遇到困难的学生。理想的情况下，老师将让成绩好的学生自己学习，把更多的精力用在那些需要帮助的学生身上。

    “有了这种新的方法和能力，你会发现老师们突然之间可以应付更多的学生了。”麦格劳-希尔教育集团（McGraw-Hill Education）总裁兼CEO、绰号“噪音”的劳埃德•沃特豪斯说。该集团和培生（Pearson）等出版业的竞争对手正在竞相打造能够实现这种未来愿景的数字产品（更别说确保他们不受到这种商业模式的干扰）。“突然之间，生产力有望提高到原来的两倍或三倍。”

    在上周二的消费电子展（CES）技术会议上，麦格劳-希尔教育集团推出了一套面向大学生的自适应学习新产品，其中最引人瞩目的是“SmartBook”。它能够根据学生的个人需求进行调整，可以说开创了教育界先河。这种常常被称为“个性化学习”的方法在近些年里日渐流行。该教学方法的部分依据来自于芝加哥大学（University of Chicago）教育心理学家本杰明•布鲁姆在大约30年前进行的研究。布鲁姆在上世纪八十年代早期发现，参加一对一辅导的学生表现明显好于接受普通课堂教学的学生。

    但为每名学生都聘请一位导师是不可能的。因此，很多新兴科技公司、出版商和教育机构花费大量的精力和资金，使数字课程进入全国各地的课堂，模拟那种能够适应学生个人需求的一对一教学。

    我们正在取得进展，但还没有完全成功。盖茨基金会的本森说：“如果我是涵盖了110万学生的教育系统的首脑，我不可能只采用一种模式。我们绝不会这么做。”

    盖茨基金会已经向非盈利教育组织EDUCAUSE管理的一个项目投资了近900万美元。作为“下一代学习挑战”（Next Generation Learning Challenges）计划的一部分，该项目将使200间学校找到一种可靠的、在经济上可持续的方法来实现个性化学习。获得款项的所有学校将同时使用数字和传统教学方法。

    When people talk about the future of education, it often triggers visions of an iPad in every student's hands, classes monitored—or even taught—by robots, and teachers lecturing via webcam to hundreds of thousands of pupils at any given moment.

    Some of this is already happening in one form or another. Without a doubt, technology will be a crucial part of the future of education. The market for mobile education—which encompasses everything from e-books to courses delivered to tablets and learning management software—is currently worth $3.4 billion, according to a 2012 study by GSMA, an association of mobile operators, and consultants McKinsey & Co. The market, which includes device sales like Apple (AAPL) iPads and Google (GOOG) Android-based tablets, is expected to be worth $70 billion by 2020.

    But despite all the hoopla over gadgets and new software, the future of education really hinges on the shifting roles of teacher and student. "The main shift is away from what I'll call a teacher-in-classroom-centric model," explains Scott Benson, a program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Instead, Benson says students will learn at their own pace, using software that adapts to their strengths and weaknesses. In other words: aided by emerging technology, the teacher-student relationship—and the classroom itself—will be remade. That is the coming education revolution.

    Instead of lecturing at the front of a classroom, a teacher would monitor students' progress and assist those who are struggling on an ad-hoc basis. A teacher will, ideally, be free to let advanced students do their own thing and pay more attention to those who need help.

    "With this new method and capability, all of a sudden you could see a teacher handling many more students," says Lloyd "Buzz" Waterhouse, president and CEO at McGraw-Hill Education (MHP), which, along with publishing competitors like Pearson (PSO), is racing to build digital products that fulfill this vision of the future. (Not to mention ensure they aren't disrupted out of a business model.) "All of a sudden, the productivity could double or triple."

    On Tuesday at the CES tech conference, McGraw Hill Education revealed a set of new adaptive learning products for college students, most notably a "SmartBook" that changes based on a student's individual needs, arguably a first in education. This approach, often referred to as "personalized learning," has picked up steam over the years. It is partly based on research conducted around 30 years ago by University of Chicago educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom. In the early 1980s, Bloom observed that students who engaged in one-on-one tutoring performed significantly better than those who had a typical classroom experience.

    But hiring a tutor for every single student is not possible, so a whole slew of tech startups, publishers, and educational institutions have poured significant energy and money into placing digital courses into classrooms across the country that simulate the kind of one-on-one tutoring that can adapt to an individual student's needs.

    We're getting closer, but we're not there yet. "If I were the head of a 1.1 million student system, it's not like I could pick a single model; we are by no means near that," says the Gates Foundation's Benson.

    The Gates Foundation has invested just under $9 million in a program administered by education nonprofit EDUCAUSE that will allow 20 schools to figure out a solid, financially sustainable way to achieve personalized learning as part of a program called Next Generation Learning Challenges. All of the schools awarded grants will use some combination of digital and traditional instruction.