I spend a lot of time considering what the future of education may turn into…and a very important way to look at this would be to consider what happens to school graduates… as with every graduating high school class for a century…the prospect of moving on in live, whether into the work force, to get more training, and to go to college fill in this answer. So too, for the near future…
It seems that the ultimate result for education (i.e. the work force) is a place where there are plenty of changes going on. As with many of the consequences of the computer revolution, the work place is in the process of huge transformations. The broadly held assumption that work takes place…at a specific place is changing.
We have telecommuting as a possibility for an ever growing number of people in the workforce (as with some parts of the education system). We have outsourcing such that you could be interacting (in a real time manner) with fellow workers in…India, the Pacific Rim, South America, and so on…
The very act of getting a job…in the old days could be a ticket to a solid retirement. In contrast, I have heard and seen a growing tenor since the early 90’s that we will all have many different jobs working for many different companies… Generally speaking this is in place now.
We are seeing a growing development and use of ever more sophisticates mobile communications technology. The modern smartphone can cover almost all of the technical needs for some people now…I would expect this to grow.
With more and more content and information being subsumed into the cloud , and with more and more ubiquitous access to these bits of information… we also can expect to have near instant communications (if only in the business sphere) with fellow workers, managers, and even customers…
If you try to take all of this in, and these things are in the next ten year time frame (at the latest)…how should we be modifying how we teach students? Is there a justifiable need to consider changing what students are presented with?
Looking at education this way starts to get you thinking in terms of what we might be able to keep…
GigaOM Pro Free Webinar: The Future of Work
http://gigaom.com/2011/05/05/gigaom-pro-free-webinar-the-future-of-work
A decade ago, regularly working from an airport, coffee shop or home was unimaginable, both technically and culturally. Today, it’s commonplace. Businesses are embracing a 24/7 global workforce powered by technology. Employees are no longer tethered to a traditional office environment.
Technology has minimized the need for employees to be physically present in a traditional office setting. Central to this change is the ever-increasing access to high-speed Internet services, mobile technology and cloud-based collaboration services. And increasingly, these tools are changing the nature of employee relationships, which often extend across time zones and geographies, and require evolving technology for effective collaboration.
