illustrated by Leonardo da Vinci

Mark Twain once wrote that students should never "let their schooling get in the way of their educations'." If nothing else, we can take from this statement that for sometime education and schooling have been opposing forces. So why has traditional education lost sight of its original purpose? It is because it has lost sight of, or perhaps has never understood, the wheel of progress. Today, technology can be viewed as a major spoke on this wheel. It is for this reason that some educators and students have looked to embrace educational technologies, for they see in them the framework for the most effective classroom setting.

"Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom." (Albert Einstein)

There is a worldwide revolution happening right now. The revolution is centered around information and who controls it. Traditionally, big business and government controlled the flow of information and were reluctant to share it with the public, out of the fear of losing power. By keeping information exclusive, these "insider" institutions could protect their own interests, regardless of what would really benefit society. The revolutionaries ("outsiders") are working to share information with individuals, in order to empower them. Since its purpose is to significantly spread out and speed up information, it is only natural that the Internet be a powerful weapon for the "outsiders". 

"Start writing a new chapter, for if you live by the book you'll never make history." (Ben Sobel)

It is important to remember that technology is not necessary for empowering the individual. It is mentioned because of its value as a tool, but it is not the focal point. The focal point is changing the mindset of actual people, so that they will want to be empowered. The focus is on education. The traditional methods of education are not teaching children to be the self-motivated, independent adults the world wants them to be. Passive learning, or merely listening to a central authority such as a teacher, creates passive individuals. So a new method of education is in order.