The Future of Education

Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.  - Malcolm X

 
Humanity has always wondered what the future will be like. In the same vein, I have ventured to foretell what the education systems of the future will be like.  Perhaps the image below may be helpful to envisage the education of the future.
 
 
 
Based on my experiences as an educator, these are some of the characteristics that I think will dominate the future educational landscape:

  • The world will "shrink" and the world will be my classroom.  Institutions of today will cease to exist - students may enroll in whatever modules of their choosing.  Demographics of today suggest that the rate of population growth in the future will decline rapidly until we reach a stable equilibrium. 
  • The educational culture will evolve to a state where we no longer obtain an education to prepare ourselves for a future career.  People will have plenty of time on their hands and learning will become a pursuit towards self-realization.
  • AI and related technologies will dominate the future educational landscape.  Classes will be very small in size and there may not be any teachers or instructors.  Students will educate themselves.  Curriculum may require students to work on particular problems for which they need to work in groups to design and fabricate their prototypes - always working in groups.  The student groups will not be only racially and culturally diverse, but also geographically diverse.  The image below may provide a glimpse of a future student interacting with his peers remotely. 
 

Fig. 2:  A student of the future assisted by AI and related technologies.

  •  The disciplines that students will enroll into will not be like the specialized bins that we categorize students into presently.  Each student will be able to tailor his/her own education.  The education will be monitored and regulated by AI and other related technologies of the future.
  • Meta-cognitive learning will be the mode of education where each student will be guided through the necessity of proper "thinking".   
  • There will be significant emphasis on mindfulness and well being.  Once again these will be monitored and regulated by AI and other related technologies.  
  • Grades and degree scrolls will be relics of history.  Each student will be educated to the maximum of his or her potential.   

The Education of the future is exciting and rewarding.  Of course, it is a result of the progress, as well as the mistakes, that we are making presently.  This is our legacy for a future that will be truly a golden age of learning.

 
 
 
 
 

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Slow down in order to go quickly!!!

Image
  (source: https://focusresourcesinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/tortoise-hare.jpg) As topic 3 unfolded in our PBL group, it became quite clear that collaboration entails many aspects of learning. To view our flowerbed using the Lotus Blossom approach, please visit this   SITE . As my interests lay in scaffolding, I decided to create a blog post about it.  Most literature on scaffolding will warn you about the misconceptions between scaffolding and differentiation [1].  Differentiation in learning refers to the approaches in which students receive different methods of instruction depending on the instructor's perception of the aptitude of each of his students.  Scaffolding, on the other hand, refers to approaches that break up learning into chunks so that students can tackle increasingly more complex material. The Zone Lev Vygotsky proposed the Zone of Proximal Development and this has been the basis for scaffolding.   (source: https://www.letsgolearn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020
Read more

Teaching Students to Drive their Brains!!!

Image
 Teaching Students to Drive their Brains!!! This blog is a product of the intense discussion and feedback of my PBL group on Topic 4.  Our PBL's discussion has been published here .  I thoroughly enjoyed myself working on meta-cognition in learning.  I shall concentrate on meta-cognition in this blog.  (source: https://vimeo.com/190268593 )   The graphic above is the cover of a book and also a vimeo podcast (the link is provided in the caption).  Although the podcast was first published about FIVE years ago, I believe it is still relevant.  What appealed to me about the book title is that it succinctly and accurately describes my quest as an instructor.  In the past, I was focused on how to be a good instructor and how to improve students' learning.  But to teach them to drive their brains - that is the ultimate! and a totally refreshing perspective. I started with not knowing anything about meta-cognition in learning.  The little that I have read, instantly appealed to me. 
Read more

I am still Learning - Michelangelo

       ONL had suggested that I attempt this blog by answering the following five questions.  I will begin each of these questions with a popular quote, just as I have made the quote by Michelangelo as the title of this blog.  He succinctly embodies my sentiments after completing the ONL module.  I have learnt many new concepts and approaches that may be helpful in my journey as an educator in Engineering.  ONL has not quenched my intellectual thirst on learning, in fact, it has encouraged me to continue to search further and has made me realize that my journey will never end and I am not disappointed.  Let's move forward with the questions:     1.     What are the most important things that you have learnt through your engagement in the ONL course? Why? The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change. Carl Rogers I have learnt many things in the ONL course.  The foremost of these is surely meta-cognition.  Meta-cognition in brief is thinking abou
Read more