Communication technology definitely changed
education. I remember when I was in primary school, projector and computer were
only used for big events in class with no internet connection. Education stayed
the most traditional way of oral and literal teaching. Then in high school,
internet, computer, powerpoint are common in each class and no one would, like
we did in primary school, make a fuss on the fancy effects on the screen. In
college, for the first time in my life I took online course, where everything
you learn and need were shared online by electronic version. Unconsciously, we
all witnessed and experienced the process of how communication technology
change school and class. Thinking about 25 years later, it is definitely
reasonable to go wild with imagination and believe in the incredible power of
technology in education.
In Facer and Stanford’s article, I really
think the “Informed Choice” education system in World 1 is viable to be the
real future. “A highly personalized education system structured around the
individual collaborating lifelong with paid mentors and structuring education
provision from diverse sources around their needs”. Even today, the physical
connection between students and teachers are being weakened by the virtual
contact online. With less sense of being a collective group, the idea of individualization
in education will definitively be enhanced. In 25 years or more, more people
realize their personal expectations from education and would like to choose
anything that meets their needs. Each one has his own personalized design of
program, have class and meet with professors individually.
From my view, I can imagine other two
scenarios of education which may happen in 25 years. First of all, schools may
no longer exist and are taken place by online education schools. This is not an
idea comes from nowhere, it is actually happening in today’s education system. The
introduction of communication technologies into schools weakens the importance
and necessity of physical interaction. Class may not be hold in real classroom,
assignments are all handed in via emails, google drives help share every material
within the class. It is so convenient, time-saving, labor-saving and efficient
than any other method before. With computer technologies, the statistics of one
student’s online attendance, exam grades, academic performance improvement can
be easily calculated and valued, which I believe is more efficient than
traditional ways.
Second scenario that I imagine may happen
in the future is that classes will not take place in traditional setting like
classroom in schools, but in real working situations. In other words, there may
not be classes for students of different majors. Instead, each person study in
real working occasions based on their own choices. The high efficiency and
immediacy of technologies makes educators and students more practical and
efficient. With figuring our what they really want to learn well and fast, education
happen in the real working environment instead of schools and universities.
The future relationship between
communication technology and education is very unpredictable. It depends on how
technology advance, how people react and adapt to it. One thing can be sure,
from my point of view, is that the virtual connection made by new technology
will definitely play more and more important role in education that will change
the educational expectation, design and interaction in the future.
