E-Learning: The Future Trend

The internet is the largest source of information in the whole world and whatever your needs the internet can provide. What started as a bubble has soon become a massive tidal wave and online education is one of the areas that is still increasing, probable more than ever before.

You can shop online, watch TV online, book your holidays online and even do your banking online. There are no boundaries to learning when using the internet. There are no travel costs involved with online education and no travel time whatsoever.

Some e learning programme provides interactive learning methods that indeed attract students without the burden of heavy textbooks. The paradigm shift from text books to e-books has very much to with the development of Information Technology over the past decade. The fact that computers are more affordable and the internet is more accessible, it is no longer a luxury to own one. As a matter of fact, it would soon be a necessity if you do want to live in the dinosaur age without a computer at home.

Singapore have started giving students iPads to replace the use of textbooks and desktop PCs for their studies. Nanyang Girls High School has spent S$135,000 (about $100,000) to buy 150 iPads for 140 students and 10 teachers in a pilot project. Users connect to the Internet using the tablet, and download books and course material.

Now let’s take a journey way back to 1990. Remember the time when hand phone make its first intro into the market. At that time it would be a true luxury to own one, a status symbol. It’s okay if you do not own a hand phone because it’s not a necessity and your life goes on with or without it. Moreover, most of your friends don’t have one, so it really doesn’t matter. Fast forward to 2010, how many people that you know that DOES NOT own a hand phone? You get the idea now.

Most parents had the problem with their kids spending too much time on the computer with online games and social networking websites. It would be a good idea to introduce their children with an interactive e learning programme as an alternative learning tool.

25,000 students in Terengganu are equipped with
INTEL-powered  PCs

By 2012, the Malaysian government is targeting for 100% smart schools in which all the primary and secondary school would be equipped with computer labs. And in the 9th Malaysian plan, 150 million is allocated for the development of e-learning. In fact, quite a number of schools already using computer as part of their teaching tools. E learning is going to be the trend of the future whether we like it or not (fast forward 20 years from now).