These days we just take it for granted that computer based learning is a powerful and efficient way to go about educating ourselves, our children, and our workers. We use computer based learning – or eLearning as it is often called – in our schools, in our places of work, and for our own personal self-development. But it has not always been this way.

Traditional educational techniques have been with us for at least two thousand years. The most common of these approaches involves a knowledgeable instructor imparting information and insight to one or more not so knowledgeable students. For centuries this is the way most schools have been organized. The central idea was that the educational process required the physical presence of an instructor.

However, there have always been alternatives to this fairly rigid idea of the educational process. In fact educational theorists from as early as Plato have suggested other ways to approach the educational project.

One such way looks at how we learn things like walking and talking – through a process of experimentation, trial and error, and “doing”. This suggests that education should be more active, more hands on, and that the instructor should be less of a lecturer and more of a facilitator: helping to set up “experiments” and real life situations where students can learn from trial and error.

Another educational technique that has existed from the beginning of human existence is self-directed learning. This happens when a person takes the initiative to study a specific field on his or her own. For example, many successful musicians learn their craft without formal training, and even intellectual giants like Albert Einstein were, to some extent at least, self-taught.

Since the beginning of the computer revolution in the late 1970s and 80s, education has broken out of the traditional student-teacher mold and begun adopting some of these alternative approaches in a serious way. As the power and sophistication of computers has grown and developed, the old landscape has changed in a major way. New technologies have made it possible to replace the traditional instructor-student approach with pre-programmed courses based on self-directed learning and “learning by doing”.

What has resulted is eLearning – a method of self-directed study using computer and internet technologies, with course material developed for each specific application. This approach has been adopted by educational institutions and businesses alike. In fact computer based learning has become the de facto standard for employee training in most businesses today.

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