Technology has come a long way since I was born. Today, we face the challenge of trying to incorporate technology into schools so that we can use this resource to its full potential. The article, 2020 Vision: Experts Forecast What the Digital Revolution Will Bring Next, discusses what things will change for education in the future.
Technology has become so mobile. Not only do we now have access to information world wide, we now have access to it in the palm of our hand. This is huge and schools need to make technology an essential component rather than something extra. Technology should be as important as the school bus. Eric Marcos, a math teacher in California, said, “It’s absolutely unbelievable how slow change occurs in a school system. Even if something is proven to be a great idea or something we should try, it takes a long, long time to change the whole thing—administration, teachers, parents, students. I almost expect things to look not too different in the next 10 to 15 years, unfortunately, and that’s not something that I wish.”
Factors like the No Child Left Behind Act has focused providing better education to all students. John Bailey said, “One good thing to come out of No Child Left Behind is the notion of focusing a spotlight on the achievement gap and the fact that there are groups of students who aren’t well served. It has helped to shine a light on schools and systems that need improvement, although there is a debate as to whether that light was too widely shone.” We need to have a better focus on technology in education. Karen Cator said, “It’s striking the amount of integration that already exists, but just by happenstance. What we need to have is a much more integrated approach. One of the things missing is any kind of consideration of the infrastructure for learning. The opportunity for students to use technology to learn, the use of technology for assessments and professional development—all of that can easily be integrated into other programs, but it really is this notion of the infrastructure for learning that we have to grapple with to make sure we don’t leave it to chance.”
We can also expect to see a shift from paper books to digital books. Bailey said, “There are all sorts of interesting revolutions that will come out of the movement toward interactive textbooks and multimedia. Using the Kindle app on my iPad, I’ve been loving the social highlighting feature in which you can see the passages in the book that hundreds of other people have highlighted and thought were important. That suddenly takes textbooks and reading to a whole new level.” Paula Lenox, an information management specialist, predicts that libraries are going to change. “The physical space is going to have to change. As we find ways to provide the information and resources to our students that are electronic, and room becomes available because the amount of print books are less, you’re going to have to redesign your space. I think you’re still going to have some print media in libraries, but I think it’s going to be more of an area where students are going to be doing more collaboration, areas where students are going to be Skyping or video chatting, or learning together in an online environment. I see it more as a café kind of style, less formal—where students come in and have the space to work collaboratively. More modern, less of your typical tables and chairs and silent activities. I see kids coming in with their videocameras and their laptops and saying, ‘We want to do a movie, we want to do a Glogster. We want to put a movie up in our blog. How do we do that?’”
Social networking is also going to become a useful tool for educators. Linda Roberts said, “K-12 professionals are the most isolated in the world, and one of the arguments we made in the new [national] tech plan is that teachers have got to be connected with their peers, with the experts out there, with the community that is most likely to help them. It shouldn’t be something they have to think about; it should be part of the way they work.” Professional learning communities need to be expanded and social networking can do this.
So where will we be in ten years? Hopefully technology will have become more integrated into schools. Funding will continue to be an issue but teachers will need to find ways to work around that. Schools are already behind with technology. At the rate that technology changes, it is going to continue to be difficult for schools to stay current. As teachers, we need to push the issue. We need to continue to persevere and stress the importance of technology. It teaches valuable skills for students during school and afterwards in the real world.
Article Info:2020 Vision: Experts Forecast What the Digital Revolution Will Bring Next
THE Journal
Geoff Fletcher
11/01/10
http://thejournal.com/Articles/2010/11/01/Talkin-about-a-Revolution.aspx?Page=1
