Beyond the Classroom:
New Directions in Learning and Work
by Charles A. Findlay

Early industrial training was modeled on the same rote, step-by-step
process that took place in the classroom and the factories of the
industrial era.

These educational methods and ways of organizing work met the needs
of a predominantly manufacturing society. However, the demands of a
new rapid paced information society are causing business and industry
leaders to challenge their old assumptions of training and the
characteristics of the human resources required to succeed in the new
workplace.

Workers have difficulty keeping up with the changing demands of their
jobs, and getting up-to-date information in a way that enables them
to do their jobs effectively. One issue is business competitiveness,
and the new balance of learning and work is of vital interest to
everyone who seeks a sustained competitive advantage in an
increasingly competitive business environment. Today, businesses are
employing different methods to help cope with the need to rapidly
learn new methods and ways of doing business.

Traditional training methods are not really adequate for today's
environment. They're necessary but not sufficient. Training,
typically is looked at as an end-point. It's just the beginning of
what could be going on in the workplace. As needs change, new
alternatives are demanded. Some take us Beyond the Classroom. Some
will utilize the classroom in new ways.

Today, there is a demand for a range of learning environments to meet
the increasing range of needs. We are exploring these now.

We are looking at new ways of helping adult learners and new
methodologies to meet the demands of an increasingly technological
society. And we are beginning to see that technology can be a great
help in all this. People are using the computer in new ways and
finding that advanced communications and computer technology can
create environments where the distinctions between work and learning
breakdown, permitting new collaborations and, equally, more personal
ways of learning.

At Brown and MIT, these explorations are taking education in new and
exciting directions where computers become tools for learning and for
working - real educational partnerships. We are also beginning to
see the use of electronic networks for distributed global learning
environments.

We are also beginning to see the need for new human relationships in
an increasingly technological workplace ... new relationships between
manager and worker, and as these universities show, new collaborative
relationships between teacher and learner.

Clearly, we are in a time of transition and there are as yet no
clearly defined solutions, no final answers. However, we do
visualize that the computer-supported environment of the present will
give way to a computer-integrated future where learning and working
become less and less distinguishable. Learning becomes part of a
person's ongoing job responsibilities - an active part of the job
rather than a passive endeavor.

The progress we are making today in artificial intelligence and
information technology will help us make these new integrated
environments possible. In the new industrial workplace, intelligent
job aids will reduce the learning time and the complexity of the job
for many workers. One form these job aids will take is that of an
intelligent tutor embedded into software programs.

In the new information work environment, physical environments may
begin to look the same - the difference will be in the information
handled. The information worker today is struggling to keep up with
an ever increasing amount and diversity of information. In response
to these increasing demands, individuals will begin to integrate
intelligent database management systems into their work. The
executive of tomorrow will have the opportunity to specify the way
she wants to organize, store, and retrieve information needed to do a
job. Personalized Decision Support tools will also help the future
worker monitor and customize information appropriate to the person's
specific learning and information requirements.

Many of the specific details about the future are still speculative.
But, one thing we can say for certain is this: our future still
depends more on how we use information than on the delivery of the
information itself.

It is a wide-open time - a time for research, a time for reflection,
a time for action, as together we collectively define what our vision
of what learning and work can be.

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Author's note: Charles Findlay, Senior Instructional Designer at
Digital Equipment Corporation, presented these ideas at a session
at "Education For the 21st Century", a conference co-sponsored by
the World Future Society Education Section and the Cambridge Center
for Adult Education (as part of their 50th anniversary celebration).
The session was called "Integrated Learning and Information Support
Systems for the Information Age Worker."