Tech Explorers » Education

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Introduction

Advances in both cognitive science and information technology have the potential to transform education and training in ways previously unimaginable.To lay the groundwork for Federal leadership in learning technology innovation, in September 2002, the Commerce Department published Visions 2020: Transforming Education and Training through Advanced Technologies. For Visions 2020, a number of distinguished individuals and teams from a wide range of technology and education fields were asked to look out into the future, and describe what technology-enabled learning experiences could be like. They responded with a rich collection of visions, some of which are excerpted in this report. Visions 2020 identified potential technologies, their application for learning, and how the learning environment would need to change to take full advantage of them. With a future vision in hand, the Commerce Department convened a Summit on the Use of Advanced Technologies in Education and Training. At the Summit, stakeholder groups identified ways to encourage technology-enabled transformation in U.S. education and training. The U.S. Departments of Commerce and Education (who co-chair the NSTC Working Group) and Net Day formed partnership aimed at analyzing K-12 student views about technology for learning. These views are analyzed in this second report, Visions 2020.2: Student Views on Transforming Education and Training Through Advanced Technologies. In October-November 2004, NetDay sponsored its “Speak-Up Day for Students” which offered online questionnaires, which asked K-12 students across the country about their use of technology.

Collapse of the information float

Not only is information growing quickly, the time lag between discovery and application — the information “float” — is rapidly shrinking. For example, it took many hundreds of years for the steam engine to move from being a curiosity to a commercial product. In contrast, recent discoveries in science and engineering show up in products virtually overnight.

Education must focus on new competencies

Changes of this magnitude require a complete rethinking of education, both in terms of the curriculum, and in the development of pedagogies that insure that every student acquires the high level of skills needed to thrive in the dynamic world of the 21st century. In addition to the basic skills of literacy and numeracy, every learner must also master the “three C’s:” Communication, Collaboration, and Creative Problem Solving. Beyond these are the equally important skills of knowing how to use numbers and data in real-world tasks, the ability to locate and process information relevant to the task at hand, technological fluency, and, most of all, the skills and attitudes needed to be a lifelong learner.

Technological fluency is a basic skill

Technological fluency is a step beyond technological literacy. To be fluent in technology use means that we can sit down at a computer and use it as easily as we can pick up and read a book in our native language. Of the challenges facing education today, preparing students to be fluent in the use of computational and communication technologies is one of our greatest.

Education must prepare students for jobs that have yet to be invented

If our challenge could be limited to preparing people for the kinds of jobs available today, we would still have a lot of work to do. Unfortunately, the challenge is even greater. Many of the jobs that will be available at the turn of the century have yet to be invented.

If you doubt this, consider the following. One of the job categories in great demand today is that of Webmaster — a person who designs, creates, and maintains sites on the World Wide Web. This job did not exist ten years ago. In fact, it did not even exist five years ago! This means that the people who are working in this new field have acquired their skills largely on their own.

ESSENTIAL STUDENT LEARNINGS FOR 2020

•Use the technology to involve the student and parent in assessment.

•Give every student a lifelong e-portfolio.

•Assess team work, collaboration and creativity using the technology, e.g. through games, simulations etc.

Technology will enable us to abandon

•The role of teacher as knowledge transmitter and student as the receiver.

•The “top down”, one-off model of initial and continued teacher training.

•Textbooks.

•Traditional methods of assessment of content in one-time, big exam testing period.

•Fixed times in classrooms

•The traditional notions of school space and school time

Innovations of time

•Flexible working (staff & pupil)

•Learning should be possible all day every day

•Self-controlled time management

•True individualised learning programmes

•Clever use of ICT

•Move away from prescribed ages to start and finish schooling

Technology

Computer-based training represents a period of single-user tools in which the computer made its entrance in education and was brought into use for mathematics, computer-aided design, simulation programs, infinite calculation methods, writing, and presentation skills. Online learning represents multi-user tools, such as communication tools,the World Wide Web (WWW), streaming video and a virtual learning environment for online courses. Lecture notes were digitized and put online, as were video snaps together with references to publications that could be reached via hyperlinks. Underlying tools for two-way communication are used to support this time- and place-independent way of learning. Learning on demand represents the next generation web-based virtual learning environment where learning material, which is broken up into specified learning objects, is initially distributed online for regular educational tracks. The underlying systems will be compound systems with merged technologies and features gathered from several compound learning systems.

Four Changes

Many school managers and school boards do currently recognize the need for fundamental changes in schools and education systems at large. Some of them have already started revolutionary experimental schools. First results from these schools show that students love the new approaches that have been adopted and that learning results are satisfying. In the Netherlands, about six schools have started recently to work along entirely new lines

Future Schools

• 4 hours periods

• Interdisciplinary themes

• Areas for 90 to 120 students

• Continuing individual learning Paths

ENVISIONING THE NEW TECHNOLOGIES FOR 2020

The Learner

•The technology will enable a “new 2020 student” – responsible, independent, exciting.

•We need to identify and agree what we want learners to look like first, then use the technology to make it happen.

“Don’t use technology for technology sake; it must be seamlessly integrated into the curriculum so that it is second nature to the teachers and students”

School Design

Schools as extended learning centres.

•On-line tutoring/mentoring available 24/7.

•Change time structures to allow for immersion in learning and real research.

•Use technology and class design to facilitate individual student progress, giving immediate access to ICT when appropriate.

Intelligent Tutor/Helper

No concept drew greater interest from the student responders than some sort of an intelligent tutor/helper. Many students desired such a tutor or helper for use in school and at home.

The Oracle: Many students expressed interest in an “answer machine,” through which a student could pose a specific question and the machine would respond with an answer. Similarly, some students described a sort of knowledge utility. Through a computer or an Internet web site, students could access all of the world’s knowledge from any location.

Make It A Game

•A way kids could have fun doing their homework. Someone could invent videogame homework.

•Video games that reenact historic events or scientific experiments. People love video games, and what better way to learn than through telling the story, while being able to reenact it.

Take Me There

•Things like virtual reality careers we could do. We would be able to work in an environment in which we would have to work in the future without actually being there, but still be able to explore and see what it would be like.

•3-D simulators to reenact historic events.

•Computer that has a virtual tour on it so, when looking up a country, you can go onto the computer and get a tour of it.

On-Line Classes

•Computer with a built in school system so you can learn at home without going to school.

•Virtual class room, where kids can stay at home and learn. The teacher could be on the computer or on a T.V. screen with a video camera or a web cam. This way, no one would have to miss a day of school if they were sick.

Working Digitally

•IM on school computers and, if a student can’t get up to ask a question or talk, you can just IM someone!

•Website with different subjects and teachers there to teach students different subjects. That way, we can go to school anytime we want and we wouldn’t have to wake up so early in the morning to catch the bus.

•Before the marking period closes, students can see their grades online to see what work and assignments they’re missing or if they failed on an assignment they can improve it.

A Different Kind of Teacher

•Computer that is like a personal teacher that has a lot of patience and that can speak.

•Teacher for every student, but not real teachers. They should be holograms and they should know everything possible

•Robotic teachers so we could learn more stuff and not get yelled at as often.

A Different Kind of Book

•Digital books that read the lesson to you, and teach you specific things. The thing would be voice-sensitive so you could read, and it would correct your reading.

•Dictionary that talks. So when kids find a word they can’t pronounce, they listen to the dictionary pronounce it for them.

Attributes of the Learning Process

•Computers that can produce realistic images of any subject. For example, the operation of machines or human organs.

•3-D simulations in classes such as science because often materials needed are not safe or available.

A Computer for Every Student

•Laptop that didn’t sell for much so that every student could have one on their desk.

•We already have laptops, but to see every student with an updated laptop to use with software that will aid them in their schoolwork will be nice. This could lessen the strain on students because the computers can be used to ask commonly asked questions.

•Laptop computers should be given as a school supply to every student in the future.

The Need for Speed

•Faster modems would help the kids in the future. It would make things a lot easier for them, and they wouldn’t have to worry about not getting stuff done because of the time it takes for everything to load.

•We need new, faster computers.

Want It Wireless

•Wireless Internet everywhere: in the park, at home, hospitals, and everywhere else. That way there will be wireless, trouble-free Internet wherever you go. That will give the child a chance to learn wherever he is.

Make It Safe and Easy to Use

•Easier version of the Internet for the younger people.

•Something should be invented that filters out incorrect information on any website. It is very misleading and confusing to find different facts on different websites, so it would be very helpful if there were a way to filter out wrong information.

24-7 Access:

•Access your school’s network from online at your own home.

•Access to the school websites and information from our houses, because it would help a lot with school projects and homework.

Conclusion

During 2020,Every student would use a small, handheld wireless computer that is voice activated. The computer would offer high-speed access to a kid-friendly Internet, populated with websites that are safe, designed specifically for use by students, with no pop-up ads. Using this device, students would complete most of their in-school, college work and homework, as well as take online classes both at school and at home. Students would use the small computer to play mathematics-learning games and read interactive e-textbooks. In completing their schoolwork, students would work closely and routinely with an intelligent digital tutor, and tap a knowledge utility to obtain factual answers to questions they pose. In their history studies, students could participate in 3-D virtual reality-based historic reenactments.

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