Here’s a sample of existing visions of future education. They may serve as examples for individuals to describe their visions. I’m especially interested in ways their visions reflect how people are likely to learn something new, including with digital ink and its improvements or replacements.
Five years ago, Roger C. Schank offered A Vision of Education for the 21st Century. He gives priority to “learning by doing.”
Technology is on the verge of fundamentally reshaping the American education system … 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 … This will create tremendous change for everyone involved in the education system (with a 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 … 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 … teachers will teachers act much as social workers or guidance counselors (and) be judged by more meaningful measures as we begin to value them for their human qualities … Once teachers move out of (the role as authority figures), they will eliminate a roadblock that prevents them from connecting with the students who need the most guidance.
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 ….
In THE DISRESPECTED STUDENT — OR — THE NEED FOR THE VIRTUAL UNIVERSITY he opines …we suddenly have the opportunity to ask: What exactly should the offerings of a university be? What should a course be? Should there be courses at all? How can we make education better?
Mary J. Cullinane, A School of the Future Technology Architect at Microsoft Corporation, works with the School District of Philadelphia to Build the School of the Future. They have three goals for the learning environment: (1) that is not dependent on time and place; (2) where content, curriculum, and tools are current and relevant; and (3) where instructors adapt to the needs of the individual student.
Families participating in the Home School Academy will continue to have flexibility in the choice of their curriculum through discretionary student accounts.
The US Department of Education issued Visions 2020: Transforming Education and Training through Advanced Technologies, a report in 2002 of 14 visions.
This chapter in NEW VISIONS FOR EDUCATION AND WORK FORCE TRAINING POLICY IN THE UNITED STATES explores what authors meant by “Education and Training for an Innovative Work Force”. It concludes with a discussion of America’s “New Visions” for education and training.