The Scope of Progressive Education

Over time the concept of education undergoes revolution. This revolution in education is different from revolution in a general sense. Here it has more to do with changes in perspectives than merely proposed amendments. The perspectives change as learners’ needs change. There are many reasons for change in a learner’s needs. Life style evolves with newer generations and therefore dependency on the medium has to be different. Learning is also always through a medium be it classroom, conversations, computers, Internet etc. This medium is perceived by both the students and the tutors as enabling tools. This was not the case before because television and gadgets were seen as distracters.

The moment the world got more interconnected the advantages of television and gadgets were perceived in light of complete learning. Why call one form of learning complete and yet call another incomplete? Learning becomes complete only if we maximize our resources to educate ourselves. Learning through a medium is more complete than learning in a vacuum as you relate to the subject better. As learners relate to the medium prevalent in their times educators start feeling the need to become more flexible in their approach to pedagogy and andragogy. The strict classroom approach has many limitations that technology enabled education by-passes. There are a few disadvantages with a system of education that is purely online and they are usually social in nature. You do not get to interact face to face. But technology has itself brought about solutions to this limitation. Need we mentio
Skype?

One of the features of progressive education is that it caters to students of different backgrounds with different learning preferences. Students who find it difficult to attend long lectures benefit from the technology available to them such as the Internet. I-pads and I-pods are also tools to facilitate learning. Computer aided skills enhance the repertoire and the overall learning experience. The advantages when looked at in this manner outweigh the disadvantages as for every disadvantage there is a solution.
As education is not the monopoly of conventional people it must cater to all and sundry. The mistakes made in the past rose out of an attempt to overly systematize the student’s way of learning and therefore they have failed to cater to diverse learners. Online education is progressive for the reasons enlisted above as technology is seen more as an enabling boon than a bane.