Future education: teaching becomes more learner-directed

I would contact this guy thus, about slave classroom and their left brain centered neural degenerative powers...



By DICK PELLETIER
    Futuretalk
 

What will the classroom of the future look like? How will educational content be
delivered? Who will be in those classrooms? Will there be "classrooms" at all?

Those questions were posed recently by education consultant Jeffrey Stebar in his
report, "Higher Education in 2030." Stebar predicts major changes in education over
the next two decades, brought on by laptop computers and "smart" cell phones, which
are providing students with greater options in their learning experience.

Today's mostly teacher-directed education procedures are organized by class and age
and measures seat time or credit hours, then evaluate student performance with
tests. This produces grades, degrees, and class rankings with teachers addressing
students from a central point in the classroom.

Future environments will be more dynamic. Students exert more control over their
learning experiences, with competence measured mostly through skills achieved in
real-life applications. In this setting, students are considered colleagues, members
of a team led by a collaborative instructor that jointly uncovers knowledge. The
teacher at the head of the class is replaced by a "guide by the side."

Future educational content includes a variety of multi-media with easy-to-understand
charts and statistics along with 'smart' videos. Technology creates the equivalent
of a library on each laptop or hand-held device, and allows diverse environments to
serve as classrooms. In addition, it expands learning schedules beyond the bounds of
semesters and provides students with information from anywhere in the world,
accessible anytime.

Tomorrow's students want customized learning experiences tailored to their own
careers and life goals. One size will definitely not fit all. Future learners will
include a high percentage of ethnically and economically diverse non-residents.
Universities will foster engagement with these students by focusing on common
values: volunteerism, leadership, social responsibility and sustainability.
Automatic electronic translating programs will erase most ethnic barriers.

Lecture theaters will become obsolete, replaced by teamwork rooms supported by
highly interactive IT infrastructure and software. YouTube-type videos will find
their way into tomorrow's classrooms that demonstrate everything from latest
speech-recognition technologies to radical life extension breakthroughs to how
researchers are "humanizing" android-like robots.

Future institutions will focus on providing experiences that extend beyond today's
classrooms. Distance and location of learner and instructor will become irrelevant
as accessing information from anywhere on the planet becomes the norm.

As virtual reality technologies mature in the 2020s, many schools will adopt
programs such as the one shown in TV's Star Trek Holodeck. Systems like this will
give students a more impactful experience as they glimpse at what the past may have
been like and what to expect in tomorrow's world.

Experts ponder how other technologies might affect education. Enthusiasts at The
World Future Society and Humanity Plus believe that science will one day provide
humans with intelligence boosts that will eliminate the drudgery of "reading" each
paragraph, sentence, or word.

By mid-2030s, futurists predict we will be endowed with non-biological neurons that
process information millions of times faster and more accurate than today's slow
brains can. Students could scan a 400-page book in just seconds, and completely
understand every detail.

Granted, it is difficult to imagine such super-human abilities, but with
exponentially-advancing technologies, this incredible education future will become
reality.

Futurist Dick Pelletier, a graduate of Hermiston High School, writes a weekly column
for the Hermiston Herald. Readers may contact Dick through his website,
www.positivefuturist.com.



Dick Pelletier

futuretalk@positivefuturist.com

www.positivefuturist.com