November 28, 2009

8-C-1 2020 Vision

Posted in Uncategorized at 9:27 PM by abowser555

Teaching as we know it today will be gone by 2020. I am not saying the profession will be extinct, but classrooms with one teacher presenting information to a group of 23 students will not exist in the form we see today.  I realize this is only a short ten years away, but with the exponential growth of web technologies the initial steps have already begun.  Students already take classes to recapture credit lost in order to meet graduation requirements on time through projects such as School Within A School.  Virtual high schools are popping up all over the place in order to meet the growing demand of students being home-schooled.  Some students would much rather take their high school classes online in order to take advantage of the extra time to have a job or develop a hobby.

I anticipate by 2020 students will still attend school in what we know today as a school building, but classrooms and learning will have a new look.  This will be a necessity because parents will still need to leave the home to arrive at their place of employment.  The younger student will still need supervision.  Students will no longer be grouped by age, but by interests. The ability of the student will no longer be the major determining factor for grade level placement.    Students will still have to master certain curriculum, but once an assessment of  “passing” has been achieved the student can move forward in the educational process.  No longer must a student wait on the rest of the class to master subject matter, as the curriculum will have shifted to allow a student to work at his/her own pace.  If a student begins studying the planet Mars and finds a real interest there, they can delve into it more while other students may simply learn the basics and move on to another subject.  A sixth grade class will not exist anymore, as students will be assigned to classrooms with a variety of academic levels.  All students will be at different levels of learning.  Teachers will no longer have students for a semester or year, as movement to another teacher will be dictated by mastery of a certain level of learning.  Furthermore, the school year will no longer be 180 days long, as it will move to a year-round calendar in order to meet the needs of the student.  This allows students and teachers to pace their own learning.  The curriculum within this new education endeavor will be project based and paperless. Collaboration will be a dominate theme in the future school system. Many of the new web 2.0 technologies were created with group work in mind.  I believe wikis will be around, but in an even easier to use format.  The future will consider computers as crucial to a complete learning experience.

Schools will change their English curriculum to focus on a different type of writing.  Instead of putting most of its writing focus on proper paper and paragraph form, students will concentrate on communication skills.  The world is “flattening” as the saying goes.  Video phone calls, presentations, and speech will be more important than the written word.

Computers will no longer be a computer as we know it.  It was just a short 15 years ago when I had a bag phone and antenna in my car.  Now, I have a cell phone that fits in my pocket with a camera, alarm clock, calculator, calendar, games and internet. Laptop computers are not far behind the cell phones in their advancement and ease of use. Computers will not need a keyboard because voice activated programs will be the norm.  Schools will not need the electricity to run all the computers because batteries will last all day.

Schools will finally recognize not all students are college bound and will begin to cater the curriculum to the students interests. Since the projects are student driven, students will become ready immediately for the workforce.  Education professionals must realize everything is computer driven.  Many of the blue collar jobs will convert to computer aided systems and public schools will take the place of traditional trade schools or junior colleges.  As the students become more focused on their vocational careers earlier, schools will be expected to make them job ready.

Business trends are already moving away from the travel expense.  Meetings, seminars, and collaborations are online. As the world becomes more “greener,” saving our resources will become more of a focus.  This will trickle down to the school systems.  Socially, people will meet and greet online.  Schools will still have their extra-curricular activities, but some new computer-related clubs and/or teams will be developed.  All athletic events will be webcast, so parents and anyone anywhere can watch their local sports teams.  Schools athletics will be funded by web and uniform advertising, because attendance will drop.  School funding is already in dire need of changing and will have see major changes by the year 2020.  No longer will property taxes be enough to foot the bill.  Consolidation will have to be considered, as there is only so much money to go around for educational expenses.  Currently in Illinois, there are too many schools and consolidation is necessary anyway.  The financial pie is only so big, which leads one to believe that fewer schools would allow for more financial assistance per school.  With the curriculum becoming more focused through virtual presentation, consolidation will also allow for there to be less administrative, faculty, and staff expense.   To keep up with the technology and cost of such, school funding assistance will also need to come from other community partners.  With technology being the driving force in the educational world, companies such as Apple, Dell, and Hewlett Packard will need to compete for school contracts.  This will be similar to what we see today with Coke and Pepsi competing for exclusive rights to sell their soft drink in a school system.  I don’t know the answer to educational funding, but I do know it is going to change and will need to change in order to support the curriculum and technology  necessary to educate our society.

In the next 10 to 15 years, the educational field will go through a major overhaul.  The curriculum is going to become less and less teacher driven and more technology driven.  This is going to force our school communities and governmental entities to look at curriculum offerings, technology provided, staffing of educational personnel, and funding issues. I look forward to participating in the implementation of many changes to the educational landscape.

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