The Future of EducationTodd Scholl

Coordinator of Communications & Technology

DisclaimerSome of the information you will hear

during this presentation is speculative.The information presented was taken from

others including: Ray Kurzweil,Sir Ken Robinson, Thomas Frey and

others.

what we can learn from the railroad industry

When other forms of transportation evolved, instead of embracing these trends and growing

with them, the railroads resisted. Had the railroad companies recognized that they were actually in the transportation business, they

could have integrated highways, trucks, autos and fueling stations into their already powerful

business.

What caused the demise of the once-powerful railroads? They were product-oriented, not

customer-oriented. They wanted to dictate what the customer needed, not listen to what the

customer wanted.

How can educators learn from the demise of railroad companies?Discuss this with a neighbor.

“Everyone takes the limits of his own vision for the limits of the world.”

- Arthur Schopenhauer

To understand the future we must look at the past.

1 2 4 8 __ __

To understand the future we must look at the past.

1 2 4 8 16 __

To understand the future we must look at the past.

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To understand the future we must look at the past.

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A C E G __ __

To understand the future we must look at the past.

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A C E G I __

To understand the future we must look at the past.

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A C E G I K

So predicting the future requires us to look at patterns.

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“Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers of

the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and perhaps weigh

1.5 tons.”

- popular mechanic, 1949

"When I was a student at MIT, we all shared one computer and it took up a whole building. The computer in your cell phone today is a million

times cheaper and a thousand times more powerful. What now fits in

your pocket 25 years from now will fit into a blood cell and will again be

millions of times more cost effective."

- Ray Kurzweil

what would it mean for a computer to have the same power as the

human brain?Discuss this with a neighbor.

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Support for Kurzweil’s Theory

Implications for the near future of education

Learning > Teaching

individualization > Standardization

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Decentralization of schoolsOpen Education

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MIT Open CoursewareKhan Academy

What impact will open coursewarehave on schools as we know them?

Discuss this with a neighbor.

Teachers becoming guides, coaches & mentors

Further down the line...Man and machine will merge.

This means we will have the ability to download knowledge and skills.

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Once we are able to download all knowledge and many skills to the non-biological portions

of our brains, what will happen to schools?

Discuss this with a neighbor.

Computer-Assisted Instruction will become fully immersive.Lifelike androids and virtual environments will replace “real” teachers and “real”

classrooms.

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If computers will soon be vastly smarter than humans, what will that mean for the future of human teachers?

Discuss this with a neighbor.

“First we build the tools, then they build us.”- Marshall McLuhan

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For Further Studywww.futureofeducation.com

www.davinciinstitute.com/speakers/futurist-speaker-thomas-frey

Questions/Commentsschollt@cerra.org