Physics and Technology

Many people in education are now hearing about online education.  It is becoming extremely popular especially at the college level.  There is a site called www.coursera.com that has close to 5 million free online courses, by some of the top colleges and professors in the world.  Physics like math is one of those courses that greatly benefit from these kinds of websites.  Since schools are a place where there are a lot of different minds and perspectives it should be utilized not for everyone to be learning the same thing, but it is a precious opportunity where everyone can be learning from each other.  Physics however especially in its early stages is not a subject that needs much interaction with other people or discussions, the fundamentals can be something that can be learned independently through books or online.  There are great websites such as www.khanacademy.org that have free lectures for students to learn science and math on their own.  People should really take advantage of sites like this where they can learn independently.  By learning online, students can go at their own pace, rewind if they need to, and be able to use the internet as an unlimited resource for any further confusion that they have.

Of course there are many downsides to online education.  There is no teacher or classroom to instill motivation or inspiration.  If you have a question that you are stuck on there is not a professional at your immediate request.  However I feel that independent learning is one of the best ways an individual can learn, and is something that sticks in your memory.  Though I do not believe physics should not be solely be taught online, I believe that more of how it is taught should be happening through the internet.

Physics has 2 sides to it.  The first is more of the theoretical and mathematical side; these are things that can most be learned independently and online.  The second is the science part of it, where experiments are created, and hypotheses are made.  This is the area where schools should focus on, where students can learn to work together and help each other to bring out creativity from the ideas that come from other students.  Much of the precious time that students are together is being wasted by having students learn material that they can be learning on their own. 
Not only in physics, but with all subjects schools need to focus more on using the potential that they hold in the classroom.  Much of the classwork that students are doing should be homework, and the projects and other social activities students do outside the classroom should be done in the classroom where everyone has already gathered up.
Of course these kind of thoughts are a bit extreme and have not yet been well thought out, but I think it is at least worth thinking about.