Part of my work for SICTAS is supporting an online event on future technologies (more here) where we hope to engage people in interesting, provocative discussion on what emerging technologies may yield for us in education. As I started to think about this I realised I can’t just look at this area in isolation. A while ago I started to read a book entitled ‘The extreme future: the top trends that will reshape the world in the next 20 years’ by James Canton PhD. While the book seems to be primarily targeted at an American audience, it nevertheless offers some interesting insights for the rest of us too. Canton lists the following top ten trends and dedicates a chapter to each of them in his book:
- the energy crisis
- innovation
- workforce changes
- medicine/longevity
- ‘weird’ science
- security
- globalisation
- climate change
- the future of the individual
- the future of America and China
The book was released in 2006 so you could argue that in some ways it is already dated but its certainly worth a read (2 years is long time in these days of accelerated change!). What it does highlight for me though as we consider what future technologies may impact education, we need to consider them in light of these broader trends.
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I think technology will not only impact education it will become education.
if 20 years ago kids had to remember things and calculate them in their mind thus using it, today, it is in every simple cellular phone, calculator, journal, diary, people use less and less of their minds, while busy people benefit from such technologies as it reduces mental stress, it results in “dumber” generation.
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