What Does the Future Hold?

What does the future of education hold for our nation, state, and local communities? We all know that students today are much different from those who entered our schools 20, 40, or 60 years ago. I would even say that students of today are different from those who entered our schools at the beginning of the century.

At a recent training I heard a report on research that was conducted by scientists of learning and the brain that claimed that the brains of children today are different from those of older generations. The children of today are multi-taskers that are able to handle many different forms of information at once. For example, how many times have you seen your kids watching tv, listening to their ipods, answering text messages, and checking emails all while working on their homework? Although this seems impossible to us (the older generation), this is the world that our children were born into, and they can handle it much better than we can. In fact, researchers claim that they need this type of stimulation in order for their brains to work properly. These types of data have profound influence on the future of education for our children and will lead to changes in the way school is ultimately "done."

This same presenter claimed that the amount of technology in the world doubles every 12 months while the price of that technology decreases by one half, and that the top 10 jobs in 2010 did not even exist in 2004. What does this mean for our kindergarten class that will graduate in 2023? What will their world look like and how will we educate them for that future? What are your thoughts? I would like to hear from you.