ded with the same learning experiences focused around an white Anglo-Saxon curriculum. This cookie-cutter approach to learning works for a few students, but many do not learn, or learn only partially. Our classes are already too large to provide individualized learning. Domination of Lecture and Textbook The major learning modes in schools and universities are the lecture and textbook. Lectures date at least since classical Greece, 2,500 years ago; textbooks come from a more recent technological development, the printing press. Both textbooks and lectures provide little individualization, so neither work well considering the wide range of background and experience found with students today. The advantage of books and lectures is that they can provide integrated whole courses, not just fragments. Information vs. Learning A major problem with learning today is the increasing tendency to confuse information with learning. This is particularly a problem with the use of the World Wide Web in learning, although it is an older problem, predating the Web’s existence. Textbooks and lectures are primarily sources of information, rather than learning media. This confusion of information and learning is particularly important with areas that depend heavily on problem solving. It is also of major concern because it is immediate information, not problem solving and creativity, that is most easily tested. Low Quality of Individualization A problem often stressed is that our students are all very different. But almost all the curriculum approaches we have now (books and lectures) treat them alike. So it is not too surprising that existing computer learning material does the same. We need learning that is individualized to the needs of each student. The key to achieving effective learning is to use the interactive capabilities of modern computers. If computer learning material is to consider and assi...
