A 2020 Vision for My Children’s Educational Future

I have been given the challenge to present my vision of education and technology as it might plausibly look in the year 2020. While the Epic vision video by Robin Sloan presented us with an intriguing and captivating vision of the technology business world, I think that I should probably avoid any of those predications. My business vision is one where in 2000 I had the opportunity to purchase Apple stock (being a true believer this was an attractive thought), however I bought the stock of another technology company. Needless to say, the next year Apple released the iPod and my company was involved in a lawsuit over infringement. So much for my career as a stock investor. Maybe that is why I teach.

We have also see the artful interweaving of business technology and education in the Fischbowl’s 2020 Vision video. This line of thought is closer to one that I might actually be able to pull off in a way that is both plausible and meaningful. What will ground my own vision of education in the year 2020 is knowing that both my children will be high school graduates at about that time in the future (thank goodness).

I do not feel that my vision timeline can flow from year to year, giving events and accounts of change each year between 2008 and 2020. Instead, my vision will follow a gradual change model that will describe the subtle yet important changes that might occur over this period to bring us to a new way of viewing education.

So let’s begin.

One of the favorite political catch phrases is that “children are our future”. And this statement turned out to be true. It took a fundamental shift in who was in charge of the world to begin the process of change.

By 2010 we saw a shift in the faces of corporate America. The old guard had seen itself become bypassed by the technological changes of the early twenty-first century. Their unwillingness to embrace changes in information, business practices, and social connectivity had made many of them obsolete. Generation-Y now had risen to positions of power within the corporate structures. The old guard still controlled the government institutions, but they would soon find themselves obsolete as Generation-Y’s understanding of social networking and their ability to mobilize and direct resources through these technologies and supported their own social agenda.

Generation-Y represented a fundamental shift in how people viewed their responsibilities. They had a social agenda. They believed in social justice. They were determined to change things. They were the grandchildren of the social activists of the late 1970’s. However where these visionaries worked for changed by struggling against the establishment, this new generation had figured out that they could effect greater change from within the establishment. They infiltrated and changed the way these establishments did business. They were interested in being profitable as a business entity, but they actively supported social issues in their communities. Many educational and social organizations found allies in this new breed of executives, the socially conscious majority.

One outcome of this alliance was the creation of free community WIFI zones. Wireless clouds were established in many urban areas. Many of these projects were patterned after the Wireless Waikiki WIFI project. Public and private wireless access points were joined together in a wireless mesh to give true anytime, anywhere Internet access to entire communities. This broad access brought the tools of Web 2.0 to a larger number of people.

At the same time Microsoft partnered with the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project. There was initial skepticism that this partnership would derail the efforts of the project as it moved from an open source platform to proprietary operating system. Intel continued its aggressive plan to release faster and more powerful computer processor chips on a six-month cycle. As a result computer costs continued to drop and the OLPC is able to distribute more and more units at lower costs. The program is so effective that it expands the mission from supplying laptops in every developing nation’s child to distributing laptops to every child.

The OLPC 2.0 evolution prompts an explosion of laptops in schools. With the further development of the WIFI community clouds, students have continuous access to the web. Teachers begin to capitalize on the connectivity to support a rich technology supported learning environment.

The convergence revolution begins in earnest. The “laptop” computer becomes smaller, lighter, and more powerful as it evolves into the single access device for the digital lifestyle. Collaborations develop between schools within communities, across states, throughout the county, and internationally. Teachers in these partner schools communicate about lesson plans and curriculum. They share resources and often team-teach with one another through video conferencing and desktop computer sharing tools. Students from across the globe are able to interact and learn together.

As the year 2020 approaches we see the rise of virtual classrooms where students and teachers from many different institutions meet in a gaming-like virtual space to learn together. They present themselves through avatars. They attend classes, interact with peers, and mentors all within a virtual university. In this virtual learning space they can share and present any digital artifact with one another – video, webpages, blogs, digital images and desktop applications.

In 2000 when my son was born the choice for many was brick and mortar shopping or Amazon. As he gets ready to graduate high school his choice is ivory towers or the virtual university.