by Joanna Fletcher

Created on: February 24, 2010   Last Updated: April 29, 2010

Technology is revolutionizing education at high speed. Ten years ago, texting was unheard of. Now, some jurisdictions are considering laws against texting and driving. This tiny example illustrates how quickly new technology can become part of our lives. We are at the beginning of a new way of being in the world made possible by the rise of the internet and associated communications technologies. It will change our lives. Our lives have already been changed.

The Western education system we currently provide or in some cases mandate for our children is a relic of the industrial age when children were viewed as standard inputs. The industries of 300 years ago needed children moulded into obedient workers for their repetitive factory jobs. The educational system was designed to drown out individuality and get everyone up to a useful standard of numeracy and literacy.

Although this once prepared people adequately to earn their own living, the jobs of today are far removed from those factories, but the basic model of education has not kept up with the change. The subjects and instructional techniques may be modern, but the metasystem of schools, teachers, subjects, lessons, classes, administrators, and examinations is almost identical.

Today's children are learning to be obedient in a world that needs questioners. They are learning that their ideas are less important than what one adult says will be on the test. They are judged on their ability to recall facts and ideas that they can pull up on a computer in a couple of clicks. They are stuck in a system that tries to cope with individual learning styles and abilities but simply is not designed for it.

In the future, schools will become more like libraries with 12-hour daycare service by highly-trained teacher/facilitators/child development professionals. Children will be able to be in school whenever their parents are working, and schools will be open on the same schedule as workplaces, with people taking vacations when they choose. Kids will be allowed to learn what they want to learn, at their own pace, with the support of a learning coach who will assist them in finding activities and resources.

A child's innate drive to learn will be respected and they will not be forced to learn anything. It is possible to be successful in our world in very many different ways, not all of which involve reading, writing, and arithmetic. As the internet brings the world to our doors, we will all become specialists, so finding what we love to do and honing that skill will be the best way to prepare our kids to earn their living.

We need to ask ourselves what education is for, why we believe it is so important, and find ways to provide those things to our children in a way that makes sense in our newly connected world.

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