XLP-Manual Chapter 2. Why XLP? Why Now?
XLP did not spring fully formed from a vacuum. There is a specific context surrounding the framework and its development:
Computing Power
Roughly every 2 years, the number of transistors on a computer chip doubles1 <ref>Mollick, Ethan. (2006). Establishing Moore’s Law. Annals of the History of Computing, IEEE. 28. 62 - 75. 10.1109/MAHC.2006.45.</ref>. The resulting increases in computational processing power strongly synergizes with skyrocketing levels of data storage and falling costs. This influences every aspect of our lives, and the opportunities to learn in new and different ways are expanding exponentially.
Big Data
Every second, gigabytes of data are being collected, and no one – or even any organization – will ever be able to access or process it all. However, learning communities can come together to deal with subsets of this data and solve real-world problems.
This big data makes what and how humans learn more important. As data collection and processing increasingly lets machines connect and aid human decisions (hence creating value), human ingenuity, creativity and intuition are becoming increasingly important. More and more, the only things that people should do are the things that only people can do – and this, of course, places a premium on humans’ ability to learn.
Open Source
Open source gives anyone the right to use, change, or share a given technology, thus dramatically reducing the cost of using, copying, modifying, and redistributing software (and indeed, hardware). This means anyone can be a creator and build upon the achievements of those who came before.
Mobile Devices
Developments in mobile communications and the ubiquity of digital electronic devices mean that more people can connect to the internet – and each other – anytime, anywhere. This means newer, richer opportunities to learn from and with others, no matter where they are.
Containers and Clouds
Big data needs big computing power – too much for any one institution. With cloud providers like AliCloud or Amazon Web Services, anyone can run virtual machines to perform big computing tasks, and with the power of container platforms (Docker, Kubernetes) they can scale and replicate with ease.
Globalization
The problems of today’s world require diverse communities to offer new insights. These problems are too big for just one individual or institution, but affordable Internet access is enabling people all over the world to collaborate in micro-learning communities to solve these problems. Learning and working together globally across boundaries of space and time – across all boundaries – is mankind’s greatest hope for making progress, and XLP enables this crowd-learning and collaborative effort to improve the state of the world.
XLP pushes for the emergence of the world as we believe it should be – egalitarian and equitable, a world in which everyone has a fair chance to have their voice heard, and a fair opportunity to contribute to the progress of the world and humanity.
Summary
The above factors both enable and require new modes of learning which are increasingly collaborative, personalized, self-directed, active, engaging, and global. XLP has enabled communities of learners to form, disband, and learn collectively more easily and inexpensively than ever before. The ubiquitous interconnectedness of data, people, things, and processes, the opportunities for collaborative crowd-learning – and new modes of crowd-learning – will increase exponentially. These trends will enable learning to be measured in new ways, and will rede- fine what the outcomes of learning should be. XLP capitalizes on these trends and enables new learning environments and opportunities, while being enabled and indeed necessitated by them. What humans learn, and the way they learn, must and will be transformed.
- Footnotes
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