Introduction
There two ways to look at education and society changes. One is to look at how school systems alterations have complex changes on society. Another way is to look at what changes in society required changes in schools to keep them relevant. Students today are immersed in a digital world. Connectivity from Facebook to texting to online gaming has made the current generation more social in a digital way. A large portion of kids today spend time playing games that feed positive emotions through quick awards for accomplishments. How will schools empower the students of tomorrow in the face of this digital world?
Initiative
The initiative should be to continue to engage the students. The active student has always been better at learning and been more productive. New technology does not change this fact. New technology just changes how students interact with the world and thus how schools need to engage them.
The positive emotions of students will continue to be extremely important, as students are more energized, for learning when they feel good about themselves. Texting can be used in a good way; it is less threatening to students. They are allowed to reflex, retract, and research. Allowing students to text could help students be more willing to participate. Student’s emotions are kept positive when the pace of learning matches the student’s learning rate. More computer systems and educational software will be used to give a one to one learning style.
Playing together as a group has always produced stronger relationships. Modern games that kids play take this another step. Not only do they often group players, but many games group players against a computer. Kids are no longer up against each other. Role playing and collaborate problem solving will replace single player learning. No longer, will the student getting help from their neighbor be cheating.
‘Why?’ Students today want to know the reason they need to know something. Memorizing facts will seem pointless, when it can be found on a mobile device in seconds. Future learning will need to be more about scenarios that analyze and evaluate information or data and the decisions made.
Accomplishments continue to be important. The future will require faster assessment as students are more and more used to instant gratification from faster and faster data streams. The future is changing fast, yesterday constructions are quickly old. To keep up, students will also need to be more creative.
Domains
Changes will need to occur in all the domains listed in McREL’s The Asking the Right Questions: A Leader’s Guide to Systems Thinking about School Improvements. The curriculum and instruction methods in the technical part will need to change to keep schools relevant. They will need to be less about facts and more about using them. Standards and assessment will need to be improved to give faster critiques on even more difficult rubrics to assess areas associated with higher levels of learning.
Students are not the only ones who want to know ‘why?’ Leadership will have to create climate and culture that teachers can succeed in. Significant communication and professional development will be required to mix the new technology and curriculum. Teachers will also need to be empowered to make positive changes. They will also need to change their teaching roles to become more of a mentor.
Organizing this will take a lot of careful deliberation, including input from all the stakeholders and evaluation of all resources. Politics will require schools to be held accountable to getting it right the first time. Careful considerations will need to be made of all possible actions.
New Technology
The ever changing world of technology will play a key role in the future of what education will look like. New unseen concepts could drastically change even the most careful consideration on how to proceed. Soon small tablets will have enough power to do all school required applications. The line between laptops and tablets will blur. The key will be capturing a price point to make them affordable, as companies prefer producing newer items with higher profit margins. Virtual worlds are already getting close to reality. In a few years these will be more of an excellent learning opportunity. The biggest change of all would be some advancement in neuroscience that directly plugs in information like in the movies. This would raise a huge ethical debate as ideologies could also be programed.
Conclusion
The brick and mortar schools will need to have an added value if they will continue to compete with ever improving online only education. They will have to combine the best of both worlds. Technology will continue to change rapidly and continually keeping pace will be too expensive. Constantly jumping between technologies will also be too disruptive. It will be extremely important for management to pick the right technology and learning system, or fall behind in the ever more competitive future world of education.
Reference
Cicchinelli, L. (2000). Asking The Right Questions: A Leader’s Guide to Systems Thinking about School Improvements. Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning. Retrieved March 3, 2012 from http://www.mcrel.org/PDF/SchoolImprovementReform/5982TG_AskingRightQuestions.pdf
DigitalArtsAlliance. (2008). Learning to Change – Changing to Learn. Pearson Foundation. Retrieved March 4, 2012 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tahTKdEUAPk
The Economist Intelligence Unit 2008. (2008). The future of higher education. Retrieved March 4, 2012 from http://www.nmc.org/pdf/Future-of-Higher-Ed-%28NMC%29.pdf
The Guardian/The Observer. (2011) 20 predictions for the next 25 years. Retrieved March 4, 2012 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jan/02/25-predictions-25-year
Wingfield, N. (2012). As New iPad Debut Nears, Some See Decline of PCs. The New York Times. Retrieved March 6, 2012 from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/06/technology/as-new-ipad-debut-nears-some-see-decline-of-pcs.html
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