http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/archives/002446.html

Our learners don't have the skills they need to learn today. We've taught learners how to learn in a classroom, how to emorize, how to take true/false, mutliple choice test, etc. Essentially, we've given our learners the skills they need o navigate our education system today. But things are changing, and unfortunately, it appears that our educational Institutions are slow in responding (Dave Warlick has recently done some good thinking on this subject with his notion of "flat classrooms"). Our students are graduating with skills that would have served them well 20 years ago. Today, a learner needs a skill set that reflects the environment in which they will be working (The Partnership for 21st Century Skills has some useful publications in this area). The Chronicle recently ran an article on the Governor of Michigan's requirement that all students must take at least one online course before graduating high school. It's a start...but far too little. We need to teach learners the skills they will need tomorrow - pattern recognition, not information processing, connection-forming, not content consumption, critical thinking, not memorizing. It's a huge task, and I don't feel that many institutions "get it".