A Vision of Education for the 21st Century

The opinions here are not the only possible scenarios. We invite our readers to respond with their thoughts and comments to editorial@thejournnal.com It is doubtful that anyone standing at the turn of the 20th century could have even envisioned the changes that education has undergone in the past 100 years. Things like computers, the Internet and multimedia presentations have changed the method and practice of education on all levels. It stands to reason, then, that the 21st century will also provide us with possibilities and challenges we cannot yet imagine. Still, we must always look to the future. With that in mind, T.H.E. Journal has asked some of the top educational technologist to take a look forward and share their thoughts and opinions on education in the 21st century. Technology is on the verge of fundamentally reshaping the American education system. In particular, the technology to deliver full-length courses online is rapidly becoming a reality. The creation and delivery of courses over the Web will be the driving force for educational change in the 21st century. The computer will allow the creation of "learn by doing" courses designed by the best and the brightest experts in any given field. Quality universities will put their names on these courses, and companies will create them, guaranteeing employment to those who pass them. This will create tremendous change for everyone involved in the education system. New role for teachers The teaching of traditional academic subjects, first in high school and later in elementary school, will be increasingly done via online courses. Eventually school libraries will contain hundreds of these courses. Teachers will be left to provide things that technology cannot: personal one-on-one tutoring; teaching kids how to work in a group to accomplish something; and teaching crucial interpersonal relationship skills. Initially teachers may feel disenfranchised by this. But an important opportunity will emerge for teaching social skills that students desperately need, and teachers will understand they need to be the ones to fill this role. Today there is a push to measure teachers by their students' test scores. Tomorrow, teachers will be judged by more meaningful measures as we begin to value them for their human qualities. Not only will teachers act much more as social workers or guidance counselors in the future, they will also lead courses that explicitly focus on developing social and interpersonal skills. In many ways these courses will resemble the kinds of programs provided by Outward Bound. The teacher will be an advisor to the team, or a guide on an expedition. Right now teachers are authority figures. Once teachers move out of that role, they will eliminate a roadblock that prevents them from connecting with the students who need the most guidance. Changes in primary education One of the biggest problems we have in elementary school is the amount of time kids are forced to sit still. Sitting still is so hard, and it's the last thing young children want to do. I'd rather see kids spending more time playing than doing academics. While I think there is a valuable lesson in teaching a seven-year-old to sit down and focus on a task, that task shouldn't be doing 1,400 multiplication tables. Elementary school should be simply about reading, writing and arithmetic, about acquiring good work habits, and perhaps most importantly, about instilling a love of learning in each child. A lot of what in today's school system is considered extracurricular, like putting out a school paper, ought to be the curriculum. Students learn more that way than any other way. New roles for schools We are moving in a direction where everybody is staring at a computer or a television all day and all night and not interacting with other people in a meaningful way. I think the schools will have to be the counterbalance to this trend, to actively provide opportunities for social interaction and to teach the skills required for successful interaction with other individuals. …