Guest Commentary: A Pedagogical Divide in the World of Digital Learning

Paul E. Peterson is the editor of Education Next, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a member of the Koret Task Force on K–12 Education, and director of the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard. In a recent post on the Education Next blog, Peterson reported on a three-day Harvard conference that addresses virtual education issues. "If one flies over the digital world at 5,000 feet, one sees a grand consensus forming. As compared to the high school of today, digital learning is more efficient, more effective, more customized, and more in tune with the young people of the 21st Century. On that, digital enthusiasts from whatever part of the political spectrum can agree," Peterson wrote. "But when walking through the virtual forest, one stumbles up and down many an ancient pedagogical divide. For some (put me on this right-hand side of the canyon), digital learning provides advanced students with the opportunity to learn challenging materials at an early age, and students with limited backgrounds an opportunity to learn at the pace appropriate to their skill level, and all students a chance to learn at any time, any place, take any path, at any pace, as the motto of Florida Virtual School puts it," he continued. "But for others (on the left-hand side of the canyon), digital learning is not about learning fractions, long division, Mandarin, chemistry or calculus. It is about cooperating with diverse groups of students from across the globe, playing games, and creating new things. Through such unstructured activities, a student will acquire the 21st Century skills of creativity, openness, playfulness, and cooperation," he added. Click here to read his complete post.