The next big thing(s)

Nadel's article in District Administration takes on the risk-free task of predicting the future*. In Schools ride the next edtech wave, he predicts:

• Online hand-in
• Super (OLED) screens
• Expanded use of Bluetooth
• Android/Chromebook mashup
• Internet of things
• AI teaching assistants
• More surveillance cameras
• Greater focus on digital citizenship

What a mundane list. Online hand-in is the next big thing? Really? A thinner, screen? Is this what excitement over educational technology has come to - more surveillance cameras?

How about, in 2017...

• Every teacher will go completely paperless.
• Every teacher will use a learning management system to provide customized resources and activities for each student.
• Schools will abandon content filters, device management tools, and remote monitoring software and instead will seriously teach digital citizenship and online safety.
• All students will have a computing device and home Internet access.
• All students will participate in an articulated digital skills curriculum that includes programming.
• Techies will stop swooning over every new gadget, app, and buzzword that streams toward them, stopping instead to reflect on good educational practices and cost/benefit analyses of changes.
• The technology departments in all schools will be moved from the business departments to the curriculum departments.
•  All parents will commit to educating themselves about how and how much their children (and perhaps they themselves) use technology outside of school.
• All schools that receive any form of public funding will be held to the same accountability standards. Private schools - caveat emptor.
• The network will perform flawlessly for the entire year with no outages, slow downs, or connectivity problems.
• All students who need extra help in reading and math will be instructed by a human teacher not plunked infront of a mind-numbing computer program.
• Both print and ebooks will be honored as acceptable reading materials - and be provided to all students bountifully.
• The number of tests will drop in half and new assessments that look at student happiness, belonging, engagement, and responsibility will be deployed.
• All schools will educate the mind and soul not simply be vocational school diploma mills.

OK, I admit that these may be hopes/wishes/desires more than predictions.

But you have to admit that most are more exciting than a merged Chrome/Android operating system. And that actually are big things.

Please add yours.

* Done this myself.

Comments

[Len Bryan]

States and districts focus on student competencies and outcomes as a measure of success vs. test scores.

Voters realize that the same politicians who vilify public schools are the ones who "broke" them in the first place by slashing funding, implementing accountability standards that only enrich their cronies in testing companies, and created an "us vs. them" mentality by being openly hostile to teachers' unions and educators in general. Voters then send these goons packing en masse.

The 19th century factory model of education is finally replaced by competency based learning, where students are grouped not by age or by how they performed on a test, but by their areas of interest. These students pursue their passions, learning essential skills (especially "soft skills") along the way.

[Will Richardson]

It will be made illegal to modify the word "learning." ;0)

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Len,

We think a lot alike. Kind of scary.

Thanks for the additions!

Happy holidays,

Doug

Hi Will,

Dream on.

Good to hear from you. Have a good holiday season.

Doug

[Kenn Gorman]

Looks like I now have a check list to add to my 2017 goals and objectives. Great list - I might even post this in my room so other teachers and students can see it...