Education, Technology, and the Future!

The way education is done now in the year 2017 is so vastly different from the way it was done when I was in school 20-ish years ago! And for the most part, that has to do with (and thanks to) technology. In this recording, I will discuss how technology is affecting education in the world right now, and how it MIGHT affect education in the future as well.

(Recording Coming Soon)

(Script)

20 years ago, when I was in school, I would never have imagined just how much education would change. While a vast percentage of the world still continues to have nice little rows of students facing a teacher and a board, there are many others who want to (and are) bringing the future to students now!

Some small examples:

• Classes with smart-boards, smart-tables
• Each student having their own smartphone-tablet-laptop
• Classes being done entirely online through virtual classrooms (something I personally am doing at the moment!) Helping students to be able to study and learn outside of the traditional 8 to 3 time frame and outside of four traditional walls.
• Real time assessments of students that lead to real time adjustments to individualized lesson plans. Helping students who do not fit in this mythical “one size fits all” learning mentality that is so prevalent in education.

However, the future holds even more amazing things to come! There are too many to talk about in this short recording, but I would like to dedicate a few sentences to some that grabbed my attention. Let’s start with:

1. Augmented and/or Virtual Reality (AR/VR): Imagine students who open a book and the stories inside literally pop out! Not hard to imagine for those of you who play the Nintendo 3DS right now. Or imagine students putting on virtual helmets/goggles and literally quote-unquote being IN the story. Safe to say, studying will be way more fun for these students than for us now.

2. Holodeck Classrooms: a huge step above AR or VR, a whole classroom that is the setting of the story! Students can literally quote-unquote walk around in the story of the book.

3. Smart Glasses or Smart Contact Lenses: I can see a future where people walk around with glasses that are actually their smartphone, laptop, AR and VR devices, Skype; all in a little square right in front of their eyes. Or better yet, in a little circle right ON their eyes!
4. The Internet of Everything: long story short, the future will have our refrigerators, homes, cars, smartphones, computers, etc. all linked together. 24/7 people will be connected to something online. So when students are simply walking around, something can be “activated” in their smart glasses/contact lenses that sends that information to their laptop so that they can work on it later. When the student gets home, their home can remind them of their homework assignment and about the things that were added to it while they walked around.
• Please see this video for more on the Internet of Everything.
5. Mechanical Friends: the easy answer, robots! But before we get to that stage, how about things like Siri, but times a thousand! A little friend that is everywhere, thanks to the internet being everywhere. (See the previous point.)
6. Brain Implants: this one is a bit scary in my opinion. People in the future just being implanted with a chip with all the information they would need in it. Is it possible? Should we do it? I will leave that up to you, the listener/reader.

Technology without a doubt will affect the way education is presented to students. It already has, and it will continue in the future. I would like to end this recording with two, in my opinion, very important questions about technology and its affect on education in the future:

• The biggest question in my opinion is, as Jeff Selingo asked in his article about automation in the future, “What kind of education is needed to stay ahead of automation, or more likely, to complement technology?” Technology is not just improving FOR us humans. It is also improving vastly in the field of automation. More and more jobs are being done by “robots.” Therefore, our way of thinking about what jobs will be available in the future must change. Which means our thinking of what we need to learn much change. Which in turn leads to our education must change as well. So, I ask again, what kind of education will be needed in the workplace of the future?
• Peter Diamindis’ article states that as technology advances, it becomes cheaper and cheaper. Which means, “ the child of a billionaire or the child of a pauper will have the same access to the same (best) [sic] education delivered by such an AI, effectively for free.” My question is thus, can technology really bridge the gap between the haves and the have-nots in the field of education? I personally hope so, but we will see.

(End Script)

And with that, we end this blog. The future is coming, are we ready for it? Are we preparing for it in the right way? I guess we'll find out together!

References

Diamandis, P. (2016, July 18). Why The Cost Of Living Is Poised To Plummet In The Next 20 Years. Retrieved April 11, 2017, from https://singularityhub.com/2016/07/18/why-the-cost-of-living-is-poised-to-plummet-in-the-next-20-years/

Dunwill, E. (2016, March 16). 4 Changes That Will Shape The Classroom Of The Future: Making Education Fully Technological. Retrieved April 11, 2017, from https://elearningindustry.com/4-changes-will-shape-classroom-of-the-future-making-education-fully-technological

Kliegman, J. (2016, May 2). How Smart Contact Lenses Will Create The Sci-Fi Eyes Of The Future. Retrieved April 11, 2017, from http://theweek.com/articles/617205/how-smart-contact-lenses-create-scifi-eyes-future

Marcus, G. and Koch, K. "The Future Of Brain Implants." The Wall Street Journal 14 Mar. 2014, https://www.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304914904579435592981780528.

Accessed 11 April 2017.

Minerva Schools At KGI. (n.d.) Higher Education For The 21st Century. Retrieved  April 11, 2017, from https://www.minerva.kgi.edu/

Selingo, J. (2016, August 17). What Happens When Millions Of Jobs Are Lost Because Of Automation? Retrieved April 11, 2017, from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-happens-when-millions-jobs-lost-because-jeff-selingo