The elephant in the truck

货车里的大象

At the same time, new technologies should make learning more effective as well as more necessary. Virtual and augmented reality could radically improve professional training. Big data offer the chance for more personalised education. Platforms make it easier to connect people of differing levels of knowledge, allowing peer-to-peer teaching and mentoring. “Education is becoming flexible, modular, accessible and affordable,” says Simon Nelson, the boss of FutureLearn, the Open University MOOC.

同时，新技术的出现应当使得学习变得更加高效和必要。虚拟现实技术可以极大地提升专业培训。大数据可以提供更加定制化的教育。各种平台将不同知识水平的人们连接在一起，使得点对点的教育和指导变得可能。“教育正变得更加灵活、模块化、易获取以及可承受”，慕课开放大学 FutureLearn 的老板 Simon Nelson 说到。

But for now this nascent ecosystem is disproportionately likely to benefit those who least need help. It concentrates on advanced technological skills, which offer the clearest returns and are relatively easy to measure. And it assumes that people have the money, time, motivation and basic skills to retrain.

但是现在这种新型的生态环境不合时宜地只有助于那些最不需要帮助的人群。这种教育专注于高新科技领域，这些领域的回报清晰也容易去评价。同时也假定人们有金钱、时间、动机以及基本的技能来重新学习。

Thanks to examples like Singapore’s, it is possible to imagine ways in which continuous education can be made more accessible and affordable for the mass of citizens. But it is as easy—indeed, easier—to imagine a future in which the emerging infrastructure of lifelong learning reinforces existing advantages. Far from alleviating the impact of technological upheaval, that would risk exacerbating inequality and the social and economic tensions it brings in its wake.

感谢新加坡的实践，使得我们可以想象一条对大部分公民而言经济上可承受也容易获取，又可持续的教育培训道路是存在的。但是我们也很容易可以想象这样的一个未来，即对于终生学习所必须的基础设施的增加只会扩大现有的优势。这不仅不会减轻技术爆炸带来的冲击，反而会增加不平等以及社会与经济上的紧张。