I believe the future of learning and education has amazing and outstanding potential. In America, we now have the most impeccable access to information that anyone has ever seen. The technological advances that we possess are unlike anything else, accompanied with more dedicated research and informational value for us to feed off of and grow with. I think it would be silly to say that education is headed in a downward direction considering we possess the greatest tools of all time.
The general gist I feel today is that people view technology as a negative source for viable situation. I beg to differ. I think technology is single-handedly the best thing to ever happen to education… when used in the right ways. A TED talk presented by Sugata Mitra, called “Build a School in the Cloud,” demonstrates the ways that technology can be used in education. He talks about how children can get educated and learn from each other by tapping into “the cloud.” The cloud provides mentors and access to other students alike, providing a single foundation for access to learning and education. Essentially, it conceptualizes the idea of self organized learning - something that is very new and different… but also extremely successful for those who properly utilize it.
Another example of how our education is being driven in the right direction are the overwhelmingly dedicated researchers out there spending countless hours on how to individualize the learning experience. In another TED talk presented by Ken Robinson, titled “Bring on the Learning Revolution!”, he emphasizes how we need to and must shift the focus from standardized learning to individualized learning. I agree with this. We do not all learn and absorb information in the same ways, so how can we all demonstrate our knowledge in the same ways? Our current education system bases knowledge off of test scores; an inaccurate representation of intelligence. But with people like Ken Robinson, he talks about different ways that we can shift these learning styles into something that would drastically work for everyone.
I do not think our education system is where it needs to be. However, I do think it has an immense amount of potential. We posses the right tools and technologies to make this happen, as well as the right people who have put an incredible amount of time and research into how to make it happen. After this, there is only one step left… to put someone into power who can recognize the changes that need to be made and put these changes into effect.
