2020 Vision

I’ve never thought of myself as a particularly visionary person. If I were, I’d have invented Silly Bands or those those ice cubes tubes that can fit into a water bottle. I’m usually the person that looks at what other people have envisioned and thought to myself, “Why didn’t I think of that?” In terms of educational technology though, I may have a little bit of an edge. While I’m no digital native (my first computer experience was a high school BASIC class,) I have always been open to learning and using the new tools that come along. So what do I believe the future will hold for technology in 2020? My answer may surprise you, as it did me.

In just under ten years, we will be entering the year 2020. It sounds like a revolutionary year. It reminds me of when we we talked about the year 1984. Many people thought we’d be in flying cars or at least ones that used something other than fossil fuels. But 1984 came and went and not much changed. Will that happen again? Will 2020 look pretty much like 2011? My less-than-stellar visionary skills say that while the world will change, it won’t be cataclysmic. A decade isn’t a long time in terms of mankind. Some decades produce more change than others. Take the last ten years. That seemed dramatic. We went from a world using computers in business and maybe a bit of word processing and emailing, to a world almost completely plugged into technology. Computers then were large desktops but are now teeny little devices that fit in our pockets. Often there’s a lull after a period of enormous change. It’s almost as the world takes a deep breath and sits back to absorb it all. That’s how I see the next ten years. Our world has morphed from a stand-alone society into a globally connected one. While we will continue to move in that direction, it won’t be a big shift from where we are now. We need to digest all that has been produced in the first 10 years of the new century.

So then, how will this digestion of information affect education and vice versa? The pessimist in me wants to say it won’t much at all. The educational system seems to move at a snail’s pace. It’s a paradoxical situation. On one hand it stresses that all students should become 21st century learners, yet it keeps much of what they need to learn those skills out of their hands. Most of the technology they bring to school or use at home, is not allowed within the school walls. Students are using a plethora of technology outside of school, but enter the building and find it isn’t available during most of their school day. While the pundits and experts talk about how technology is transforming schools, the majority of schools in the United States are woefully lacking in the tools these students need and desire. Unfortunately, I don’t see this changing much in the coming decade. With the resistance to use collaborative tools (out of safety/security concerns) and the increasing pressure to boost standardized test scores, it seems that the technological changes the world has experienced will continue to stop at the school door.

That is not to say technology will not be a part of a student’s day. As the data-driven movement in education continues down its ill-fated path, technology will be an integral part of how students are tested and assessed. The bubbles they once filled in, will become clicks on a computer screen. The test scores that took months for districts to receive, will be sent immediately upon test completion. It won’t be collaborative, and students will gain little from its use. Its this misguided view of how to use technology that I see occurring in the coming years. Good educators and forward-thinking administrators will continue to implement web 2.0 tools in their schools and classrooms. But it won’t be until the pendulum swings back toward center, policies change, and testing returns to its proper state, that real progress will begin. Unfortunately, I believe this process will take a bit longer than ten years to be realized.

As I see myself as a creative and innovative teacher, I will choose to forge my own path in the field of educational technology. Through using my own personal learning network of like-minded educators, I will continue to search out the new advances in technology and implement them where I see fit. As much as my district allows me to, I will use interactive websites and collaborative apps to give my students the skills they need now and for their futures. To ignore these important methods is a great mistake. It’s quite obvious that students will need to know how to work collaboratively in a global marketplace. They will need to learn the proper behaviors when communicating online. While they will still need to know the basic skills that have been taught during the past century, new skills will also be required in this new one. I am dedicating myself to helping them.

To do so, a teacher in 2020 should be open to the new technology that will be continually introduced. Educators will have to take on the responsibility of much of their own learning. A school district’s focus may not be on these new skills, and will be mainly on how to use technology to meets assessment goals. Money for professional development may be used for training teachers to be good test proctors. Considering this, teachers will have to make a concerted effort to expand their knowledge of the Read/Write web on their own time and with their own dimes. The good news is that there exists an ever-expanding network of places to do this. While it will take time, it won’t cost much, if anything at all. Using sites such as Twitter and Facebook, teachers from around the globe can connect and learn together. Blogs and wikis will become the new type of in-service seminar...anytime, anywhere. No need to show up at 8:45 for registration and refreshments. Get online anytime and learn from others doing the same. They can Skype if they want the face-to-face real time feel. But ultimately all they need to learn will be accessible if they search it out. Teachers in 2020 will need to become self-motivated learners like never before.

By 2020, the world will have changed and technology use will have increased. The educational system will most likely continue its journey towards accountability and “reform” that may lead us off the path towards real achievement. Yet individual teachers will seek each other out in the virtual and real world to pursue the lofty goals of educating their students to become successful and productive citizens in a virtually connected world.

For inspiration, please view the video below and join me on my journey.

Pay Attention