不論你是否覺察到，我們的工作與生活環境正迅速轉變中，變化的內容與速度也遠快於以往。2006年火紅的YouTube影片”Did you know?”，不但探討教育的未來發展趨勢(http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=xj9Wt9G--JY)，並從「世界是平的」作者、教育界的知名人士、美國前教育部長、美國勞工部、麻省理工學院等處蒐集許多具體數據佐證，造成相當大的轟動，即使兩年後的今天再看，仍然感到震撼不已！
”Did you know?” 提到，現在的競爭來自於全世界，包括快速崛起的中國大陸與印度，在知識十倍速增長的時代，「我們必須教導學生畢業後投入目前還不存在的工作，使用根本還不存在的科技，解決我們從未想像過的問題」，這兩年從就業市場的競爭與國際市場的發展趨勢來看，我們確實目睹了整體學習與工作的大環境受到的巨大衝擊。
不只外在環境，我們的學生也在快速轉變，美國Kansas State University大學由200個學生自行剪接了367個訊息完成的一段影片”A vision of student stoday”，在YouTube上受到廣大重視(http://www.masieweb.com/students20)，在場的每個學生都發表了對當前學習的看法與意見，「我的作業只有18%和我的生活相關」、「我今年會讀8本書、但會看2300個網頁、1281個Facebook profile」、「我這學期會寫42頁的作業、但會寫2500頁email」、「我一天要有26.5小時、因此我必需是個多工作業者」…，這些心聲充分反應出現代學子的學習方式，已迥異於過去傳統教室的教學。
學習的內容也在變，由學習者產生的內容正顛覆著過去一言堂的模式，我們看見很多使用像blog, Wiki,podcast, videocast, Facebook等工具於教學的成功案例，如夏令營的小朋友製作podcast，讓每位小朋友對全世界講3分鐘話、美國畢業生在畢業前各錄一段YouTube影片、用podcast學中(Chinespod)、用個人blog寫作業或用班級部落格討論功課、有.edu帳號者才可參與的college blog network、還有引導如何應用21世紀新興學習工具的Wiki，各大學的大傳及新聞等系所相繼開辦social media的相關課程，以及其他許多社交網站、社交書籤、RSS等等，把今日之學習逐漸引領向由學生參與、學生創作、與學生主導之方式，應用的領域與類別也不斷的推陳出新。
學習的外在環境、學習者、學習的內容、學習的方式、以及新興的學習工具正在快速轉變，21世紀我們可能必須放棄以前的學習方式(unLearn)，重新學習如何去學習，因此國外已有專家大聲疾呼「學習如何學習」(Learn how to learn)是當前重要的課題。身為教學者，也身為學習者，我想這也是我們刻不容緩應思考及去面對的議題。
You may not have noticed, but both our working and living environments are being transformed at an incredibly rapid pace, much faster than in the past. In 2006, a film on the immensely popular YouTube entitled
“Did You Know?” discussed anticipated future trends in education (
“Did You Know” made the point that, with the rise of China and India, competition today is global in scope. In an era in which knowledge is expanding at an exponential rate, “We need to prepare our students for jobs which do not even exist yet, and make sure that they will be able to use technologies that have not yet been developed, and solve problems that have been posed yet.” Judging from the trends in employment and in international competition and international markets over the past two years, it is clear that there really has been a major upheaval in both the learning and working environments.
It is not just the learning environment that is changing; the students themselves are being transformed. A film put together by 200 students at Kansas State University from 367 individual messages entitled “A Vision of Students Today” has attracted a large number of viewers on YouTube (
The content of education is changing too. Increasingly,the content is being produced by the learners themselves, rather than being force-fed to them. There have already been many successful examples of the utilization of tools such as blogs, Wikis, podcasts, videocasts and Facebook in education. These include summer camps in which children produce their own podcasts, giving each child the opportunity to speak, to the world for 3 minutes. At some US high schools, each student records a YouTube video before graduation.
People around the world are using podcasts such as“Chinesepod” to learn Chinese. Students use their own blogs to produce homework, or use a shared class blog to discuss their homework. There is a college blog network that only individuals with an .edu account can use, and Wikis that teach people how to use the new learning tools that are emerging in the 21st century; the broadcasting and journalism departments in many universities have established social media courses. At the same time, social networking sites, social bookmarking, RSS fees etc. are pushing education in the direction of increased student participation, student-created content, and student-directed learning; new types of application are appearing all the time.
With the rapid transformation of the overall learning environment, the learners themselves, the content of education, and learning methods, as well as the emergence of new learning tools, the 21st century may require a process of “unLearning”, in which people relearn how to learn. Experts in many countries are already appealing to people to “learn how to learn”. For anyone involved in teaching and learning, this is an important issue that we cannot afford to ignore.
(Chen, Min-Tsuei is Deputy Director of the Digital Education Institute, E-mail:
