The Learning Explosion

The New (Virtual) Reality

The virtual classroom is “the new learning reality,” the boundary-free corporate training method of the future. Consider the possibilities: At the exact same moment, a Japanese teenager is using his mobile device to teach himself a new subject, an Australian entrepreneur is getting helpful advice from an online social network of peers, and a blogger in Denmark is sharing data with subscribers. This dramatic quest for knowledge – via the Internet, computers and mobile devices – represents a virtual “learning explosion,” whereby information comes in short bursts, practice and feedback mechanisms are instant, and the future is unlimited.

Thanks to rapid advances in technology, the traditional learning model has “exploded” into billions of discrete “learning fragments,” from blogs, social media and wikis to podcasts, apps and online communities. The learning explosion began, perhaps, when Johannes Gutenberg developed the Western world’s first printing press in 1439. Various catalysts accelerated the process along the way, from Guglielmo Marconi’s first radio transmission in 1907 to the invention of the computer at Bell Labs in 1937 and Tim Berners...