Recently, I started thinking about what the world of education could look like in the year 2020. What would my classroom be like in 8 years? How would my students best interact with the material I present? What technologies would I use in the classroom? Would I even have a classroom – or would I sit at home in PJs and have only virtual classes? To answer these questions, I looked back at how education has changed in just my first 12 years in the classroom.
In my first six years, technology exploded and was able to have 4 computers in my classroom for my students to use, I had my own laptop, projector, and speakers for multimedia presentations. After that technology leveled out and didn’t change a whole lot. The schools had computer labs for the students to use and I continued to have the materials I needed at hand, but no new technologies were added. In the last couple of years, my school has seemed to slide backwards with the in-class technology, but is trying to jump ahead with virtual technology. Computers for student use are not being maintained, printers were removed from classrooms and photocopying became more difficult to do. With this in my mind, I have begun to envision what my class will be like in 8 years.
First, I think textbooks will be optional and students will carry iPads or other tablets instead. Instead of endless trips to their lockers for the books they need for the specific classes, they would just need their tablet. All reading could be done from the tablets and students could create their documents, multimedia presentations, etc from their tablets. Students would not need to carry notebooks with them either, since they can type their work in something like google docs and have their materials at the ready when they need it. In addition, work they type could be submitted to a group page for review and for students to keep a record of their learning. By the year 2020 all of the students’ tablets could effortlessly project their information as soon as they, or I, wanted them to. As students write, and hopefully create a great example of whatever assignment they are working on, they could easily share it with the class to enhance everyone’s learning.
In addition, discussions will not stop at the end of the class period. Blogs and wikis will be commonplace applications that all students will be required to use to enhance their learning experience. Students will discuss what they think about the reading in class and how it can relate to their lives. Instead of trying to find the one “right” answer, students will try to find the answer for their world. This technology and the discussions will help them to see that there isn’t one answer in class or in life.
Last, I do not think that all learning will be virtual as some people in education seem to be pushing for. Students and teachers need interaction and I totally believe that even in the year 2020, brick and mortar classrooms will still exist and they will still thrive. Yes there will be some virtual learning taking place, but it will enhance what is going on in the classroom, not instead of having a classroom experience. I absolutely believe in the personal interactions that take place between a student and teacher and that they will still be important in the year 2020. Students will use all of the applications and technology, but the student/teacher interaction will be just as important.
And since this is my projection of what the year 2020 will look like in the everyday classroom, we will have cycled out of the endless testing and using technology, we will be once again teaching students how to think and not what to think! With the use of blogs, wikis, and applications such as moodle, administrators will be able to access what they students are learning at all times so the need for endless testing will be unnecessary. We already see this some today with the use of ProgressBook for student monitoring. With class blogs, wikis and moodles, student work and teacher edits would be available to all anytime they wanted them. This openness would allow parents to see student progress, administrators to see teacher work and student work, as well as the progress made by each student over the course of their school career. This would allow for teachers to teach students how to think again, instead of force feeding them the answer that test makers deem correct. I believe these technologies can open up classroom discussion again. Students can talk about poetry and short stories and how it is relevant to their lives instead of just finding something like examples of literary elements. Discussions about how these elements enhance the poems and short stories could become the most important part of the classroom again. Students can use their tablets to enhance their learning by creating visuals for what they see when they read the material, using something like Flickr. They could then share this visual representation with their classmates and enhance everyone’s learning experience.
The year 2020 seems quite bright in my version of what education will look like in 8 years. They say if you stay a teacher long enough, everything becomes new again. Everything cycles through and teachers get to move past some things they don’t like and lose some things they do like. I choose to think that they year 2020 will see some great things. Teachers using Web 2.0 technology to enhance learning, students interact with the material in a variety of ways that create the most meaning for them. Classrooms being environments accepting of this generations’ electronic lifestyle. The year 2020 will be the best year to be a teacher as all of the quirks will be worked out of the applications students will use most, teachers will have had time to be sufficiently trained in the use of these technological advancements, and school districts will have drafted guidelines for usage that support both the teachers and students so that everyone will work together to create the best group of graduates in a very long time.
dawnlfrye 