Classroom Lecture is dead. Instructor ego's are irrelevant.
Yes its the internet. The internet has changed learning. Students have moved beyond the egos of instructors.
There are times when lecture works but for some, otherwise its online study. Demonstration and performance works, but that is ONE on ONE. Demonstration and performance is a big part of military training (simulations) and flight training.
Online learning is an extension of demonstration and performance learning.
Absolutely! While there are some reasons to have some classroom meetings most of what is taught in college can be taught online at almost no cost and tested using privately administered certifying exams.
Even in professions such as medicine, dentistry, nursing ( etc.) many of the courses in these programs involve very routine knowledge that should be placed on-line (for free or very **low** cost) and tested using privately administered certifiable qualifying exams.
” The internet has changed learning. Students have moved beyond the egos of instructors.”
I’ve read quite a bit about teaching methods, and I am always puzzled as to why educators like to maintain that students need to “discover” or “evaluate” concepts on their own, as in math. If a student is totally ignorant about a subject, how can he understand and evaluate? Historically, teachers are supposed to be credentialed in their subject matter and able to guide the students’ understanding about something they know nothing about. If they want to extend their understanding by their own research, that is great. An anonymous presenter on a web site can be invaluable, but most students need someone in charge to get them started.
When I need to learn a new graphics package for work, I play around with it as much as I can, and then look up how-to's on YouTube. Within 3 days of getting a new 3D package, I was able to do brief, usable animation. As time went on, I filled in knowledge gaps as necessary, project by project.
Sitting in a classroom for a semester and learning the software from top to bottom, and features that I may never use, is an enormous waste of time.