Why it is so much easier to motivate students with digital media than without them?

Rick Noble: I think that each generation that comes along is a lot more comfortable around technology than the last, and that comes as a result of our being exposed to it at increasingly younger ages. My wife and I have three-year-old twin girls. The first time they got their hands on my wife's iPad, they easily found their way around it without any assistance or instruction, and in very short order they had figured out right where to go to find the games, photos, and art programs they wanted to use. They are eager to try our phones, remote controls, electronic games - anything that looks like it might do something interesting.

When these kids get to school - even in the early grades - they not only want to use technology to learn, they expect to. Compare having to read a chapter in a history textbook to viewing that same information on a colorful screen with links to audio, video, photos, and an infinite number of other resources that simply cannot be captured in print alone.

Add this capability of interacting with the information to being able to post comments to classmates, communicate about it with teachers via email, submit related homework, and see their grades using the same devices, and it all becomes far more engaging than it was when I went to school. And it is analogous in so many ways to the way they communicate, retrieve information, and live their lives outside the classroom.

You held a lecture called "Revolution Happens - with or without You". Are you convinced that the digital media are changing every aspect of life?

Rick Noble: I think digital media and the capabilities they bring have changed a great deal in our lives, with more to come. Going back to the iPad I mentioned earlier, or any similar device for that matter, think about all of the things you can do today without ever leaving your chair - which isn't all good of course! You can read most newspapers in the world; make a travel reservation; answer emails; buy and read a book; buy, listen to, and create music; check the weather and sports scores - the list is endless.

Thinking only of education, the digital media revolution is equally impactful. As mentioned above, you can interact with and create content, check grades and schedules, retrieve and submit homework, communicate with classmates and instructors - even attend classes, and do it all from almost anywhere.

What does putting the students in control do to the position of the teacher?

Rick Noble: I believe that digital tools and content give students more control over how and where they do their work. The technology provides them with additional options in terms of how they can seek supplementary information and get help or input from their peers and instructors, and it can offer them the opportunity to receive feedback more readily than might otherwise be the case.


The position of teachers is in many ways enhanced using technology. They can more easily integrate additional resources into their lessons (one company I know constantly tracks 300,000 free, safe web-content resources that are tied to standards, for example), communicate with students and parents in a multitude of ways, easily share content, and communicate with other instructors. And perhaps most importantly, by deploying digital tools in their classrooms, instructors can better prepare their students for the world they will be facing when they graduate.

How do you imagine learning scenarios in twenty years? What will be taught and how?

Rick Noble: We all wish we knew the precise answers to these questions, of course, because it would greatly assist us in helping our organizations prepare for the future, but I think we can make some fairly good guesses. I believe that there will be a lot more virtual learning than there is today, even in the early grades. While there is no substitute for some aspects of learning face to face with a group of peers and the lessons in social interaction that brings, I think we'll see more virtual classrooms, distance learning, and -œhybrid- programs that incorporate both traditional classrooms and online settings.

I hope we will also see more interaction between classrooms and learners around the world. If a teacher in London conducts the quintessential class in frog dissection, why shouldn't it be available to students in Buenos Aires or anywhere else in the world for that matter? While there will always be regional differences in education, the core components of math, science, etc., are the same the world over. We have the opportunity to raise the quality of education up to the standards in the very best classrooms, schools, and universities, wherever they might be, by eliminating physical distances through the use of technology.