Future of Education

We have witnessed, over the last couple decades, the rise of the technology era.

 In just twenty years personal computers have morphed from fifty pound, multiple component monsters to laptops that weigh as much as a can of soda and can be used virtually anywhere. The advent of the personal computer has created a much more connected society that has access to any information they desire. This exponential growth of technology has infiltrated many facets of society, such as gaming and medicine, but the education system has been slow to adapt.

Having grown up in this age of unprecedented growth in technology has made myself, as well as my peers, open to the quickly changing world we are now living in. In my experience, my grade has always been among the first, in the school system, to use desktop computers in elementary school and smart boards in middle school. Now in college we are being encouraged to bring laptops to class in order to follow certain activities the professor might be presenting. Many professors, however, are not privy to the spectrum of educational tools available from            the internet.

(Above, Number Crunchers, one of the first educational computer games I remember playing in elementary school)

Jesse Wimert, a teachers assistant for multiple courses, mentioned in a recent interview that laptops are currently seen by many as distractions (interview below). This distraction, I believe, comes from classes that are taught in the traditional manner: students come to class to listen to the professor lecture and provide needed information on the blackboard. The current and future generations do not get the most fulfilling learning experience from watching a professor write information on a chalk board. These generations have become used to information coming quickly and having the ability to interact with that information. This leaves many students doing anything but paying attention to the material being taught.

There are almost as many people working on bringing the 'traditional' learning experience into the new age of technology as there are dealing with the growing pains. In the last couple years universities have begun their aim at bridging the gap between technology and education. The online service ELMS is becoming the standard for teachers to use for class. The site allows the professor to put any information and assignments online that are available to the students at any time. My freshman year at UMD, ELMS was used by less that 10% of classes, that I took at least. After four years, however, almost every class I take is on ELMS. This alone has proven the usability of technology for educational purposes.

This course, Information 3.0, is one of the groundbreaking courses that is testing other forms of media to use for educational purposes. Having students create blogs in order to post their assignments and/or relevant information to the class or topic being covered. Twitter being used to spread new information, relevant to our topic of discussion or not. And Facebook used to share experiences and another way to spread information. All of these forms of media I have never used or seen used for educational purposes in a classroom, but after a semester it has become almost second nature to use these avenues.

The future of education will rely on the ability for schools and universities to incorporate technology into the student's learning experience. There is some thought that physical schools will become obsolete in the coming decades due to growth of online courses, starting with colleges. It was determined that over 5.6 million students were taking at least one online course during the fall 2009 term, and that nearly 30 percent of higher education students are now enrolled in at least one online class. This is an increase of nearly one million students over the number reported the previous year (Allen and Seaman). The large amount of online courses is creating a more competitive online education, which will lead to the downfall of face-to-face classes.  

One upcoming form of social networking, which may take over for physical classrooms, is Second Life. Second Life is a 3D virtual world for socializing and exploring the virtual world. What is interesting, though, is that many universities have already purchased land within the virtual world and have constructed a virtual version of the university. This virtual college is waiting for online education to become the main form of education. In Second Life people can all meet in a classroom and watch the presentation, or whatever the professor will be teaching, without leaving their homes. Within the next decade, we may be sending our children to their rooms to go to class. Quite intriguing.

Allen & Seaman,   http://sloanconsortium.org/sites/default/files/class_differences.pdf