More than an attempt at being Nostradamus, the value is in providing targets against which others may compare their thoughts and to stimulate efforts to either facilitate or inhibit possible futures implied by the predictions. As technology plays a larger role in education, any predictions concerning the future of education must include an analysis of technological trends. The purpose of this paper is to do just that: Analyze the trends in technology and how they relate to education, and then to extrapolate these trends in an attempt to predict the future of technology and education. Much of what is predicted in this paper might offend ardent supporters of our traditional educational system and a large portion of it will probably miss the target substantially. However, it will be clear that as technology is adopted into education, the end result will be change.
For over a century, education has remained largely unchanged. Classrooms full of students deferring to the wisdom of an all-knowing professor has, is, and many believe, will continue to be the accepted mode of instruction. Despite many technological advances and the introduction of new pedagogical concepts, the majority of today's classrooms continue to utilize this traditional mode. Educators have thrived in a bubble immune from advancements in technology, but the increasing rate of change of these advances now look to be threatening to burst this bubble.
The world is changing -- it is getting both smaller and bigger at the same time. Our world shrinks as technologies now allow us to communicate both synchronously and asynchronously with peers around the world. Conversely, the explosion of information now available to us expands our view of the world. As a result of the ability to communicate globally and the information explosion, education must change. Most educators might not want to change, but the change is coming -- it is a matter of when not if. The challenge is to prepare the children of today for a world that has yet to be created, for jobs yet to be invented, and for technologies yet undreamed.
The current teaching paradigm of the teacher as the possessor and transferor of information is shifting to a new paradigm of the teacher as a facilitator or coach. This new teacher will provide contextual learning environments that engage students in collaborative activities that will require communications and access to information that only technology can provide.
It is no secret that education is slow to change, especially in incorporating new technologies. This is described by Jukes and McCain (1997) as paradigm paralysis, the delay or limit in our ability to understand and use new technology due to previous experiences. It takes new experiences to replace the old ones, and this simply takes time. Unfortunately, education can no longer take the time it wants. The trends in technology are creating a future that is arriving faster than education is preparing for it. We must therefore ask what are these trends and how will education adapt to them? To answer these questions, the techniques of H.G. Wells will be used. Wells, the father of futures studies, "had a gift for seeing how all the activities of humankind -- social, cultural, technological, economic, political -- fit together to produce a single past, and by extension a single future" .
"Using technology can change the way teachers teach. Some teachers use technology in 'teacher-centered' ways...On the other hand, some teachers use technology to support more student-centered approaches to instruction, so that students can conduct their own scientific inquiries and engage in collaborative activities while the teacher assumes the role of facilitator or coach."
Right now, education is moving along at a snail's pace, while the world outside is speeding by at a supersonic rate. According to Fulton , "Classrooms of today resemble their ancestors of 50 and 100 years ago much more closely than do today's hospital operating rooms, business offices, manufacturing plants, or scientific labs." If you put a doctor of 100 years ago in today's operating room, she would be lost, yet if you placed a teacher of 100 years ago into one of today's classrooms she wouldn't skip a beat. Does this mean that the end is in sight for education? The answer is YES, if your asking if it means the end of education as we know it today. Let us take a peek at what the future might look like.
I could continue with some loftier predictions, but to do so would only trivialize what I will predict. So, knowing exactly what happens in our future is not important. It is important that educators have a sense of where the world is headed. Only then will they be able to adequately prepare current and future students to thrive in this ever-changing world. We must always keep in mind that a good driver doesn't watch the car's hood while they are motoring down the road. Instead, a good driver carefully watches the road ahead, looking for the obstacles and challenges that lie before them. It is time that education quit watching its hood and start looking at the road ahead.
Keep in mind always
When the rate of change inside an institution is less than the rate of change outside, the end is in site...
Jack Welch, CEO of General Electric
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