The Future of Education Technology
By Marc Compton
The common man has not seen such an invention as revolutionary as the internet since the printing press. As the printing press had done for Medieval Europe five hundred years ago the internet is currently doing the same to the world today. Both the printing press and the internet have vastly increased the availability of information for the common man. Just as the printing press caused new wide spread access to information that quickly changed learning and culture throughout Europe the internet has and will continue to change learning today. No one knows for certain as to how the internet will change learning because it is still in its infancy but one thing is for certain the possibilities are limitless. Interestingly enough the key element behind the internet’s immense power also acts as a roadblock to the future. If the internet is to realize its potential, man must set forth a forceful vision to wield the great power the internet has in improving the world.
A wise man once said “a tradition is something that is worth keeping because it is the best way to do something.” Teachers have clung to age old education methods because it was the way they were taught and it is the only way they have taught. Unfortunately this approach is not upholding the true essence of tradition. Teachers and society have failed to uphold the latter idea of tradition “because it is the best way to do something.” With the advent of the internet there is a new kid on the block that offers a better strategy to accomplish education’s goals. For a variety of reasons teachers and society have been slow to adopt the internet’s range of powers however the future is just over the horizon. The scary yet exciting part of that future is that it looks so much different than what most of us recognize as education. The first cornerstone to this future vision of education involves dependable and flexible 'laptopesque' computers that have the ability to reach and use the internet’s immense potential. Current ideas of the laptop are not powerful enough to do what is needed for the wide range of learners that exist. What is needed is a combination of an I-Pad and laptop built with durable materials. These computers will need to act as a shell that is easily updated to keep up with the rapidly changing computer capabilities. Instead of permanently purchasing programs that are quickly outdated there will need to be a shift in program sales from the current model of permanent purchasing to a flexible and temporary licensing. With the new model schools will purchase a subscription to a program based on need instead of spending a pile of money on a program that will only be useful for a of couple years. Another great development that would allow for the ease of wireless laptop computers will be wireless electricity. Wireless electricity works similarly to wireless internet but instead of an information signal wireless electricity sends an energy signal from one node to another The great advantage to this technology is that it eliminates a need for electrical cords. As this technology becomes more practical schools will have an easier time constructing classrooms that do not need a plethora of charging stations that take up valuable space and funding. Before getting to funding and maintenance of laptops the practical use must be approached because this will have a bearing on future funding allocations.
With each student having a laptop there will be a diminished need for textbooks as we think of them today. Instead of having a hard copy textbook, schools will purchase an online textbook license for a period of time. These books would be loaded onto student computers with several access points to the internet that permit the ability for students to venture away from the basic course content. The great advantage to these books is that they can be easily updated because there are no printing costs. Additionally these books would be very interactive having links that allow for more tangential learning. For example if a student would like to know more about a story that is only briefly discussed by the book, the student can click on the link to inquire more information. Also these links allow for the ability to incorporate more multimedia or visuals to clearly convey a concept that is being explained. This would greatly improve the ease of meeting the variety of learning styles that exist. Along with the book will come paperless assignments that are stored on each student’s personal hard drive then are linked between their drive and the particular book section for easy access. The digital assignments would decrease the huge amounts of paper on which schools spend money. Out with the textbooks would be a vast amount of paper and printing that cost districts massive quantities of capital. Now that there has been a reduction in book costs, schools will be able to allocate more money into funding laptop purchasing and maintenance programs as well as textbook licensing fees.
Textbooks could be abandoned all together. Districts could actually have departments collaborate using wikis and teacher resource sites such as Connexion to create their own curriculum that does not need the monotony of textbooks. The internet provides a menagerie of free multimedia and primary sources. For example information from sources such as Nationmaster Statistics, Library of Congress, Medieval Sourcebook, YouTube, all can be tied together by the school district’s most knowledgeable people. Teachers can put together a custom curriculum that best addresses local, state, and national standards. Curriculum improvement can become as easy as plugging in new lessons that are created from the rapidly expanding library of primary information that are published online.
With so many digital tools teachers can no longer think of their class as a physical place but rather as a digital place. Again at the center of this digital classroom is the internet. Teachers as well as students will need a powerful course management system (CMS)such as Angel, Blackboard, or Moodle that fulfills a number of needs. The CMS will act as a platform for teachers and students to access internet collaboration tools such as Google Wave, Edublog, VoiceThread, or data sources such as Nationmaster and U.S. Census. Also included in this CMS would be student grades and attendance which would be linked into a school district database where students, parents, and teachers can access the necessary information. On the central page of each course would be a daily agenda that details an outline of the day’s lesson as well as homework assignments. Within the agenda would be links that bring students to the assignments or handouts needed for the class. Instead of passing out massive quantities of paper, teachers will distribute digital assignments through the CMS that are tied to interactive internet features. When the students have completed the assignment they will turn it in through a "turn in" box that is wired into the grade book. Finally teachers could also post tests, quizzes and daily assignments in the form of multiple choice questions. When students complete the questions the grade will automatically dump right into the teacher’s grade book. This immediate grading allows for students to quickly make improvements in the class from feedback and performance.
The final component to the future of education includes edugaming which entails aligning interactive and entertaining games with content standards. Games such as SimCity 4 or Civilization IV among a number of games from other disciplines can act as valuable arenas where students can test their ideas in a simulated context. From these games a tangential learning path will be created. Students will be prompted to investigate concepts further based off their individual curiosity. These games will also improve student’s decision making abilities because they help to tie several trans-curricular ideas into a complex decision making process. This process mimics several real world conditions that cannot be fully understood in the context of a textbook.
The vision laid out above seems similar to a science fiction movie such as Star Trek or Starship Troopers but it’s actually a reality today. In my class today, the future is now. I use the CMS Blackboard to accomplish several of the tasks I stated above. Each day I update a daily agenda that includes homework assignments as well as links course notes, assignments, and relevant web pages. I also use Blackboard to distribute and collect online assignments through the assignment creator. When students submit the assignment a file appears in the alphabetized grade book allowing for me to download and grade assignments. I also use Blackboard as a platform to link my class’s blog to the site Edublog. Students continuously reflect on a trans-historical question of what it means for them to be American based off of their studies of history. Students use the blog as an opportunity to easily tie multimedia resources available on the web to their opinion. As a final result students begin developing cohesive ideas of how history can be used to understand themselves. The best part of using the CMS is creating guided lessons that tie several web resources together. One lesson I put together consisted of several video clips taken from a variety of movies illustrating events that took place on a flash file that was embedded into the CMS. To help guide students I created a worksheet that had to be completed for use on an Examview generated quiz on the CMS. At the end of the quiz students immediately received their grade in their own online grade book.
Another major use of technology in my class is through my instruction presentation. I have downloaded several features that allow for much more entertaining and interactive PowerPoints. I am a firm believer in using a multitude of images to illustrate ideas that I am teaching. Authorstream is a great feature that enables PowerPoint users to search for pictures that can then be easily embedded into the presentation. Another great presentation feature includes my CPS. CPS stands for Center Point System which is a program that is tied to several student clickers with a list of letters. The program allows for the creation of multiple choice questions that are embedded in PowerPoint. Having these questions allow for students to be constantly interact with the presentation, keeping them engaged with the content. The final technology tool that I use to jazz up my presentation is YouTube Downloader. YouTube is great because it has such a plethora of videos that are easily found with a quick search. The downloader allows for me to insert these clips into presentations to illustrate specific ideas.
Other technologies that have been applied in my class include Google Docs, Google Earth, Movie Maker, and several online tools such as Nationmaster, or Voicethread. Until my access to computers improves I am close to the brink of my capabilities. I can only hope the vision of the administrators includes re-allocating money for technology that will reach the limitless ability of computers tied to the internet.
Making a comparison between my use of technology to most other teachers' use I would judge myself as being the exception. I use technology much more than my colleagues. There are certainly several teachers that use technology but it is normally very limited. For example science teachers use technology just as a test generator, English teachers use it for word processing and most social studies teachers use it as a glorified encyclopedia. Bottom line, teacher use of technology is far below the great capacity that is offered by the internet and all of its wonderful tools. This makes a technology explosion an event of the future not the present. There are a number of reasons for this slow technological development. The first key is not money but use. Most people have not yet imagined the possibilities that the technology creates. Additionally, most people do not even possess the adequate training to begin to discover technology's capabilities. As children of the digital age mature they will be able to unlock the key to technological possibilities. They were born tinkering with technology so developing new uses will be second nature because they had access during their most imaginative years as a youth. As the technology afforded by the internet increases, administrators will begin to reallocate money away from outdated “traditional” methodologies and begin investing into the new explosive wave.
There is one major factor blocking the road to progress today, fear. Technologies such as laptop computers and wireless internet depend on more moving mechanisms which increases the chance of something going wrong. The power grid, software, wireless signals, hardware, human error, computer viruses, and even solar flares are all potential problems faced by these new tools. Paper books do not fail when the lights go out. Hard copy assignments are not lost in virtual space. General concern is that by depending on more mechanisms we will only leave ourselves open to catastrophe. We must adhere to our traditional ideas or we will be left to failure. Despite this concern we must still balance new technology's potential dangers with the great rewards. Prior to the invention of the printing press students learned by memorizing all of the information that was taught to them. With the increased availability of books, students could adopt new ways of learning because they had a new means of easily accessing information. At some point after the printing press had been invented some people might have been skeptical of the dependence on the new printing technology that allowed books to become widespread. Memory strategies would decline in favor for books which could be lost or destroyed much easier than a person’s memory. A similar struggle is taking place today. As time passes new technologies will become more dependable which means it will be easier to have the rewards outweigh the risks.
It is an exciting time as an educator. We are living at a revolutionary time with the internet at the center of change. If teachers can continue to think about effective ways to implement the opportunities this great resources affords teachers the sky will be the limit for educators and students. Just as the printing press was at the center of the scientific revolution, the internet is at the center of the information revolution. Teachers will learn to wield the powerful tools of internet technology that will blaze a path to higher human achievement.
To experience a more in depth proposal as to how this plan is executed in the arena of social studies education check out the "Dream It" proposal.
To experience many of these ideas in practice look at these classroom lessons, and pieces of student work.
The common man has not seen such an invention as revolutionary as the internet since the printing press. As the printing press had done for Medieval Europe five hundred years ago the internet is currently doing the same to the world today. Both the printing press and the internet have vastly increased the availability of information for the common man. Just as the printing press caused new wide spread access to information that quickly changed learning and culture throughout Europe the internet has and will continue to change learning today. No one knows for certain as to how the internet will change learning because it is still in its infancy but one thing is for certain the possibilities are limitless. Interestingly enough the key element behind the internet’s immense power also acts as a roadblock to the future. If the internet is to realize its potential, man must set forth a forceful vision to wield the great power the internet has in improving the world.
A wise man once said “a tradition is something that is worth keeping because it is the best way to do something.” Teachers have clung to age old education methods because it was the way they were taught and it is the only way they have taught. Unfortunately this approach is not upholding the true essence of tradition. Teachers and society have failed to uphold the latter idea of tradition “because it is the best way to do something.” With the advent of the internet there is a new kid on the block that offers a better strategy to accomplish education’s goals. For a variety of reasons teachers and society have been slow to adopt the internet’s range of powers however the future is just over the horizon. The scary yet exciting part of that future is that it looks so much different than what most of us recognize as education. The first cornerstone to this future vision of education involves dependable and flexible 'laptopesque' computers that have the ability to reach and use the internet’s immense potential. Current ideas of the laptop are not powerful enough to do what is needed for the wide range of learners that exist. What is needed is a combination of an I-Pad and laptop built with durable materials. These computers will need to act as a shell that is easily updated to keep up with the rapidly changing computer capabilities. Instead of permanently purchasing programs that are quickly outdated there will need to be a shift in program sales from the current model of permanent purchasing to a flexible and temporary licensing. With the new model schools will purchase a subscription to a program based on need instead of spending a pile of money on a program that will only be useful for a of couple years. Another great development that would allow for the ease of wireless laptop computers will be wireless electricity. Wireless electricity works similarly to wireless internet but instead of an information signal wireless electricity sends an energy signal from one node to another The great advantage to this technology is that it eliminates a need for electrical cords. As this technology becomes more practical schools will have an easier time constructing classrooms that do not need a plethora of charging stations that take up valuable space and funding. Before getting to funding and maintenance of laptops the practical use must be approached because this will have a bearing on future funding allocations.
With each student having a laptop there will be a diminished need for textbooks as we think of them today. Instead of having a hard copy textbook, schools will purchase an online textbook license for a period of time. These books would be loaded onto student computers with several access points to the internet that permit the ability for students to venture away from the basic course content. The great advantage to these books is that they can be easily updated because there are no printing costs. Additionally these books would be very interactive having links that allow for more tangential learning. For example if a student would like to know more about a story that is only briefly discussed by the book, the student can click on the link to inquire more information. Also these links allow for the ability to incorporate more multimedia or visuals to clearly convey a concept that is being explained. This would greatly improve the ease of meeting the variety of learning styles that exist. Along with the book will come paperless assignments that are stored on each student’s personal hard drive then are linked between their drive and the particular book section for easy access. The digital assignments would decrease the huge amounts of paper on which schools spend money. Out with the textbooks would be a vast amount of paper and printing that cost districts massive quantities of capital. Now that there has been a reduction in book costs, schools will be able to allocate more money into funding laptop purchasing and maintenance programs as well as textbook licensing fees.
Textbooks could be abandoned all together. Districts could actually have departments collaborate using wikis and teacher resource sites such as Connexion to create their own curriculum that does not need the monotony of textbooks. The internet provides a menagerie of free multimedia and primary sources. For example information from sources such as Nationmaster Statistics, Library of Congress, Medieval Sourcebook, YouTube, all can be tied together by the school district’s most knowledgeable people. Teachers can put together a custom curriculum that best addresses local, state, and national standards. Curriculum improvement can become as easy as plugging in new lessons that are created from the rapidly expanding library of primary information that are published online.
With so many digital tools teachers can no longer think of their class as a physical place but rather as a digital place. Again at the center of this digital classroom is the internet. Teachers as well as students will need a powerful course management system (CMS)such as Angel, Blackboard, or Moodle that fulfills a number of needs. The CMS will act as a platform for teachers and students to access internet collaboration tools such as Google Wave, Edublog, VoiceThread, or data sources such as Nationmaster and U.S. Census. Also included in this CMS would be student grades and attendance which would be linked into a school district database where students, parents, and teachers can access the necessary information. On the central page of each course would be a daily agenda that details an outline of the day’s lesson as well as homework assignments. Within the agenda would be links that bring students to the assignments or handouts needed for the class. Instead of passing out massive quantities of paper, teachers will distribute digital assignments through the CMS that are tied to interactive internet features. When the students have completed the assignment they will turn it in through a "turn in" box that is wired into the grade book. Finally teachers could also post tests, quizzes and daily assignments in the form of multiple choice questions. When students complete the questions the grade will automatically dump right into the teacher’s grade book. This immediate grading allows for students to quickly make improvements in the class from feedback and performance.
The final component to the future of education includes edugaming which entails aligning interactive and entertaining games with content standards. Games such as SimCity 4 or Civilization IV among a number of games from other disciplines can act as valuable arenas where students can test their ideas in a simulated context. From these games a tangential learning path will be created. Students will be prompted to investigate concepts further based off their individual curiosity. These games will also improve student’s decision making abilities because they help to tie several trans-curricular ideas into a complex decision making process. This process mimics several real world conditions that cannot be fully understood in the context of a textbook.
The vision laid out above seems similar to a science fiction movie such as Star Trek or Starship Troopers but it’s actually a reality today. In my class today, the future is now. I use the CMS Blackboard to accomplish several of the tasks I stated above. Each day I update a daily agenda that includes homework assignments as well as links course notes, assignments, and relevant web pages. I also use Blackboard to distribute and collect online assignments through the assignment creator. When students submit the assignment a file appears in the alphabetized grade book allowing for me to download and grade assignments. I also use Blackboard as a platform to link my class’s blog to the site Edublog. Students continuously reflect on a trans-historical question of what it means for them to be American based off of their studies of history. Students use the blog as an opportunity to easily tie multimedia resources available on the web to their opinion. As a final result students begin developing cohesive ideas of how history can be used to understand themselves. The best part of using the CMS is creating guided lessons that tie several web resources together. One lesson I put together consisted of several video clips taken from a variety of movies illustrating events that took place on a flash file that was embedded into the CMS. To help guide students I created a worksheet that had to be completed for use on an Examview generated quiz on the CMS. At the end of the quiz students immediately received their grade in their own online grade book.
Another major use of technology in my class is through my instruction presentation. I have downloaded several features that allow for much more entertaining and interactive PowerPoints. I am a firm believer in using a multitude of images to illustrate ideas that I am teaching. Authorstream is a great feature that enables PowerPoint users to search for pictures that can then be easily embedded into the presentation. Another great presentation feature includes my CPS. CPS stands for Center Point System which is a program that is tied to several student clickers with a list of letters. The program allows for the creation of multiple choice questions that are embedded in PowerPoint. Having these questions allow for students to be constantly interact with the presentation, keeping them engaged with the content. The final technology tool that I use to jazz up my presentation is YouTube Downloader. YouTube is great because it has such a plethora of videos that are easily found with a quick search. The downloader allows for me to insert these clips into presentations to illustrate specific ideas.
Other technologies that have been applied in my class include Google Docs, Google Earth, Movie Maker, and several online tools such as Nationmaster, or Voicethread. Until my access to computers improves I am close to the brink of my capabilities. I can only hope the vision of the administrators includes re-allocating money for technology that will reach the limitless ability of computers tied to the internet.
Making a comparison between my use of technology to most other teachers' use I would judge myself as being the exception. I use technology much more than my colleagues. There are certainly several teachers that use technology but it is normally very limited. For example science teachers use technology just as a test generator, English teachers use it for word processing and most social studies teachers use it as a glorified encyclopedia. Bottom line, teacher use of technology is far below the great capacity that is offered by the internet and all of its wonderful tools. This makes a technology explosion an event of the future not the present. There are a number of reasons for this slow technological development. The first key is not money but use. Most people have not yet imagined the possibilities that the technology creates. Additionally, most people do not even possess the adequate training to begin to discover technology's capabilities. As children of the digital age mature they will be able to unlock the key to technological possibilities. They were born tinkering with technology so developing new uses will be second nature because they had access during their most imaginative years as a youth. As the technology afforded by the internet increases, administrators will begin to reallocate money away from outdated “traditional” methodologies and begin investing into the new explosive wave.
There is one major factor blocking the road to progress today, fear. Technologies such as laptop computers and wireless internet depend on more moving mechanisms which increases the chance of something going wrong. The power grid, software, wireless signals, hardware, human error, computer viruses, and even solar flares are all potential problems faced by these new tools. Paper books do not fail when the lights go out. Hard copy assignments are not lost in virtual space. General concern is that by depending on more mechanisms we will only leave ourselves open to catastrophe. We must adhere to our traditional ideas or we will be left to failure. Despite this concern we must still balance new technology's potential dangers with the great rewards. Prior to the invention of the printing press students learned by memorizing all of the information that was taught to them. With the increased availability of books, students could adopt new ways of learning because they had a new means of easily accessing information. At some point after the printing press had been invented some people might have been skeptical of the dependence on the new printing technology that allowed books to become widespread. Memory strategies would decline in favor for books which could be lost or destroyed much easier than a person’s memory. A similar struggle is taking place today. As time passes new technologies will become more dependable which means it will be easier to have the rewards outweigh the risks.
It is an exciting time as an educator. We are living at a revolutionary time with the internet at the center of change. If teachers can continue to think about effective ways to implement the opportunities this great resources affords teachers the sky will be the limit for educators and students. Just as the printing press was at the center of the scientific revolution, the internet is at the center of the information revolution. Teachers will learn to wield the powerful tools of internet technology that will blaze a path to higher human achievement.
To experience a more in depth proposal as to how this plan is executed in the arena of social studies education check out the "Dream It" proposal.
To experience many of these ideas in practice look at these classroom lessons, and pieces of student work.