The changing student...or is it the changing instructor?

The changing student...or is it the changing instructor? I think a little of both. Within the last 30 or so years, you can compare the way students react to the way an instructor teaches as well as the way instructors react to the way students learn to a sine and cosine path. For all of those non-math folks, you can think of a cosine path as the inverse of a sine path. At certain points along the path, both curves are on the complete opposite end of each other, while at other times they intersect at the same point. Think about the beginning days of an entirely web-based class. How advanced were the students with the technology? How new was this same technology to those first-time instructors? Chances are the students were farther advanced with using the technology. Jumping to the present day and age, one might argue (I would include myself in this category) that today’s teachers are more comfortable with today’s technologies. More focus can now be placed on the learning experience and less on the technology behind it. In that respect, today’s learners are going to have to adapt and evolve just as the instructors have evolved themselves.