Future Schooling

I am starting this discussion as a place for those of us interested in what the "classroom of the future" will be like, to discuss the groundwork to make it happen.

No, it is not all going to happen in the blink of an eye. It may take a decade or two to get a futuristic version of education off the ground enough to see how it works. But, if we don't start, we will never get there.

How do you see technology figuring into pedagogy?

Tags: change, futurism, pedagogy

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Derek Brandow on January 3, 2008 at 3:30pm

Interesting to me is that a lot of the teachers I have come across in many cyber spaces seem to have some technological inclinations, and with that have a voice that says they are very concerned or fed up with the current education model in general, not because what we do isn't the most important thing on the planet, but because it is broken and it will not be able to be fixed to meet the needs of kids today and especially tomorrow.

Regardless of kids socioeconomic, or geographic place, public education is not working like it can, and the resistance to change that it will require is too great to ever mke that leap. We need to start from scratch.

What do we need to do outside of a public education (considering that every student will still have access to it) model to make this learning environment a reality?

This is what I hear everyone asking, and then we get caught up in looking behind us at the knot ball of problems in order to move forward, when we should leave the knot ball on the groud and look ahead for something that will be productive.

Again I ask, what would this learning environment look like? blow up the current model and think blank slate.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Anne Pemberton on January 3, 2008 at 4:41pm

Derek,

OK, tell me what you envision!

I see a gradual move from what we have not to what we will have in the future. I don't see any merit in trying to "blow up" what exists - that would be wasteful.

And, I do not see any change coming other than via the public school system, That system has served this country well since it's inception. Our country has a very literate population thanks to our public school system. Yes, there are some who are not served well, just as surely as welfare does nothing for the wealthy man in his gated community.

So where do we start? I'd like to see, as a beginning, all students given a laptop in Kindergarten, and use that as their basic learning tool all the way through school. Change out software as needed. And, yes, we need to reduce those classroom sizes, but that should have been done long before now! Those who hold the purse strings are the ones reluctant to drop those numbers in spite of all the evidence that shows it beneficial to students.

Anne

Permalink Reply by Derek Brandow on March 28, 2008 at 3:39pm

I suggest we start by getting the best people in the world to teach by paying teachers 2-3 times what they are getting paid now.

Unlocking technology restrictions in school (let kids use their cell phones to actually learn)

Connect kids with each other and professionals to accomplish serious projects inspired by what they are interested in.

Hmmm. That is a good start from me.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on March 28, 2008 at 6:36pm

Mr. Indigo, Agree!. N.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on March 28, 2008 at 7:09pm

I know you know I teach elementary gifted kids (top 1%). Things have not changed for the better for them in the regular classroom in 25 years! It's sad.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Durff on March 28, 2008 at 8:22pm

I see Web2.0 tools as the main way to access all content. Textbooks, composition tools, audio tools, video tools, collaboration tools, connection tools, & communication tools will be access via the internet in all schools.
The thought of individuals passing paper & pencil tests while cellphones & iPods are confiscated by authoritarian teachers will become foreign to educators.
We will instead facilitate collaboration on answers where cheating is impossible, connection to personal learning networks encouraged, & communication via modes other than f2f contact increases. We after all preparing the k12 learners in our classrooms right now for such a world. The better able their are to collaborate, connect, & communicate now, the more employable they will become.
No longer will one teacher per class hold all the correct answers. It is our job to teach these k12 learners where to find the answers on their own.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Derek Brandow on March 29, 2008 at 12:35am

If you could be paid 2-3 times what you are now to do what you are speaking of in this conversation, if you had access to all the technology your students needed, if you had time and resources to enrich your own learning, if testing as we see it now was gone, etc, etc. what would you say? What if your voice made a difference.

Public Education is too big of an institution to change it's ways in time for any of this to matter for the kids of this country, even if PE "got it".

What if there was an opportunity to build the ideal learning environment to develop kids for the world they will graduate to now (not factory jobs anymore). Would you investigate? Or would you continue to push full steam ahead with Public Education and the bureaucracies that are so stifling?