Suddenly, education is more than a political hot button - it's one of the information industry's hottest new growth markets. Disney, for example, has been diversifying into "fun-filled learning" on the Web, "edutainment" CD-ROMs, and high tech Club Disney multimedia centers whose business plan includes high-volume student traffic during school-day "field trips." Education Technology LLC, another major new edutainment outfit, is being backed by formidable profit seekers Larry Ellison and Michael Milken.
There is nothing inherently wrong with trying to make education fun, of course. It's almost impossible to learn in the absence of inspiration. The problem comes when we start pretending that good old-fashioned diversion can, with a few new charts and quizzes, easily be converted into something worth learning. We certainly want tomorrow's children to have more than a Mickey Mouse education.
David Shenk (dshenk@bigfoot.com) is the author of Data Smog and a columnist for HotWired's Synapse.
IDEES FORTES
School Bells and Whistles
