It ain't Sci Fi- It's Reality

I have been told by some that I am visionary. I don't know if it is vision or an eye toward the future. I have always been so interested in what was to come. I remember as a kid always asking- what's next? We could be at Disney World and I would want to know what will we do next summer or tomorrow. As a result, I find myself often daydreaming about what's to come and how to get ready for it.

It's All in Your Head
So I am flipping through the latest Wired and I come across this title that caught my eye, "It's All in Your Head: Why the next civil rights battle will be over the mind." Long story short-- Minority Report is no longer Sci Fi as marketers have figured a way to use hypersonic sound to broadcast an audio beam so that it is focused in such a way that only a person standing directly in its path hears the message. The interesting part is it is done in such a way that the message seems to emanate from your skull. The article goes on to talk about other innovations for reading brain waves and how these tools could be used to conduct "truth verification" scans in the workplace and "what if" it became part of your yearly review process for employment? Bioethics, it seems, will be a great career for those entering college to pursue. But who would have guessed it 5-10 years ago?  Drives home the idea that teachers today have to be visionary and creative about what we are teaching kids- I mean we really are preparing them for jobs that haven't been invented yet, or are we?

Future Dreams Now a Reality
Then shared on the TALO listserv this morning an article entitled, "Future Dream Now a Reality, at least in Part"  and there it is again--

CASHLESS transactions, artificial organ transplants, space tourism and newspapers you can read on a screen may sound like common fare today, but 40 years ago they were the stuff of science fiction fantasies.

As I read through the list of predictions that folks made of what the world would be like in 40 years it was amazing how many of them came to pass. The article was written in Nov. of 1968 and readers were asked to imagine what life would be like in 2008- 40 years into the future.

Fast Forward Ahead- 40 years
I wonder if we would be as accurate in our projections as they were in 1968? Let's give it a shot. What do you think life will be like in 2048? It is a tough task, but one I think will help us realize the importance of being visionary in terms of the future for which we are preparing our students. We have got to stop seeing these conversations about the future as science fiction and start thinking about how we will prepare ourselves, our classrooms, and our kids for what lies ahead.

Imagine with me-- What do you think life will be like in 2048?

Comments

[Heather Ross]

"The interesting part is it is done in such a way that the message seems to emanate from your skull."

Sounds like forced schizophrenia.

You're right about the need to train learners for the future and not what's going on today (Will Richardson and Ken Robinson have both talked about this). We need to use what we see today to try and forecast what learners will need to know in 30-40 years.

I've argued that the best things that we can teach them, given the fact that we don't have a crystal ball, are collaboration skills and the ability to adapt to change.

[Charlie A. Roy]

In 2048
Wireless connectivity is free.
Web 2.0 on every phone. iphones in a better version for all.
Education finally enters the 21st century... As Daniel Pink author of "Whole new mind" commented today at the NCEA conference in Indianapolis..."we need to teach students for their future not our past."
As lives problems are smoothed with technology people have more time to focus on the big questions of life:
Why are we here?
Who are we?
Who is God etc?

[mrsdurff]

2048? There will be a computer (actually many or most) that will know me by brain waves, not log-in. I will just walk up to a master computer, touch the mouse, be recognized, and instantly as I think it, all lab computers will lob in to the generic log-in for elementary classes (I could use this now!) The library will have comfortable seating and be a loud place for all learners to gather with a place for a coffee-bar as well as good books. Handhelds will abound and be the predominant mode of internet access. Classrooms will be paperless as well as using books online so those heavy bookbags will be dinosaurs of the past (and good riddance!) All teachers will grade work from their RSS, entering grades from home remotely (wait....we can do that now....). There will be no factories in the USA, but only two classes of workers, white-collar workers and service employees. The ever-widening breach btw the haves and have-nots will widen (much to the chagrin of many). The USA will move to a 4 day work week because of the increasing efficiency of workers utilizing technological tools, especially robots (Go Roomba!) Schools will be a dieing breed and will painfully slowly be replaced by Learning Academies which will be hubs of learning where students will align themselves with mentors for 4-5 yrs. Carnegie Units will be a thing of the past. College entrance exams will be highly competitive oral exams much like defending one's thesis (used in postgrad education). I could go on but I must get ready now for my 19th century school, even though this is 2008....