Society’s changing fast and with it there is a requirement to be met in order to live a fulfilling life. Today, we are going to talk about e-learning and lifelong learning. Why are they needed and how do we get around to implementing it?
Before the internet, people were educated based on what the society needed the most at the time. If agriculture was the main export and the highest earning industry, those schools would accept more students than, say, the ones that deal with law. Formal education can last anywhere from 8 to over 20 years, depending on one’s ability and willingness to have a career in a certain field. Occasionally, the country in question would undergo certain changes, which offered older workers a chance to reeducate themselves in order to work in a new field.
With globalization and the internet, instead of responding to the demand of a single country, individuals have the opportunity to shift their education towards more fields. Being hired abroad or as an outsourced worker provides people with a stable income and competitive wages.
Here is the problem, though: how can we educate ourselves if our country’s education is not focused on a particular field? The answer: we use the internet. More and more people turn to online schools and learning platforms to update and improve their skills.
The thing about formal education is that it is supposed to provide you with a set of skills you are going to use for the rest of your life. This was when the changes in individual countries and counties were slow and only radical event led to shifts in employment.
Nowadays, the world is changing rapidly. The industries that were the very powerful yesterday are either obsolete or heavily automated, leading to losses in jobs and income for many people. One of the biggest fields people turn to in order to educate themselves online is programming, as it is both lucrative and most likely to be stable in the future.
Why Learn Constantly?
Writers and journalists used to need only their writing skills, whereas now it is practically necessary to know how to optimize their text and use CMS like WordPress. Teachers had to rely on textbooks and prepare students for standardized tests, but they are now able to work from home and have to focus on providing good customer service rather than simply conveying their knowledge. The point is that, in order to survive, people need to keep up with these changes, which is why lifelong learning exists.
The problem with providing education through the internet is that people often treat is as a commodity, rather than requirement for a certain position. As such, it is not uncommon for learners to sing up for a course and then quit at the first sign of trouble or even with no reason at all. This is especially true of children, who do not yet grasp the concept of responsibility and seniors who are set in their ways and find it difficult to obtain new knowledge.