Students’ Own Interests Will Drive the School Day of the Future | MindShift

I have to say I now believe that the Department of Education seems to have the right idea as to what schooling in 2020 will look like.  In this interview, the deputy director Steve Midgley was asked about education in 2020. I really like what he talked about.  Personalized learning, credit for outside experiences, better use of technology.

This line is the most important in the whole article I think:

many traditional educational models are going to experience significant pressure to change as a result of these new opportunities and technologies. That pressure and the resulting changes can be uncomfortable for some and I think this is the area we will see the most difficulties in managing the transition from our current system to the future.

This is the understatement of the year.  There is a huge amount of resistance to anything like this from the established players of the current system.  Disruptive change has to come from the edges of the system.  It kind of sneaks up on you. 🙂

It’s a good interview and is an easy read.

• Students’ Own Interests Will Drive the School Day of the Future | MindShift

  Vision of 2020 education by Dep of Ed

  tags: education technology futurist nell

  • The U.S. Department of Education has a clear vision of what the future school day should be.

     

  • It’s also clearly outlined by the department’s deputy director Steve Midgley. I asked Midgley to spell out his thoughts about the topic.

     

  • I think if many of the innovators I see working in the sector today are successful, we’ll see a school experience that looks significantly different in 2020 than it does today. Technology will play a role, but the key changes will have been in educational approach not technology.

     

  • Interest-driven learning, with a focus on projects that are relevant to individual students, will be key.

     

  • I grew up in a Montessori school that my parents founded, and a lot of the techniques employed in that school focused on independent learning. The teachers there support students to move as quickly or slowly as they want, while ensuring that every student can develop a range of skills. This kind of individual support for students will be even more relevant and wide-spread in 2020.

     

  • I’ve heard some folks refer to the future as one of “mass customization” of learning, which sounds about right to me.

     

  • Improvements in education will also come as well as new technology provides teachers with new ways to provide a diversity of learning approaches that their students can undertake. There will be some significant technology advances to support this, such as more “intelligent” digital tutors that employ anthropological strategies for engaging learners.

     

  • I think we’ll see a dramatic increase in professional communities of practice among educators in 2020, where we see teachers getting support beyond the traditional training and development models within their home organizations.

     

  • I also think the academic credits system itself will evolve by 2020 to support students who acquire skills through a variety of institutions, whether simply students taking more courses through online learning, or acquiring skills in non-traditional activities such as internships, scientific projects or hobbies-as-learning.

     

  • And online learning will be totally ubiquitous in education by 2020.

     

  • There will continue to be traditional classrooms, teaching unified subject matter, but the vast majority of students will also participate in new kinds of classes where they are physically co-located with other students in a room, but the courses they are taking will be highly diverse from each other.

     

  • Overall I am very optimistic for the future of education in the US and the world.

     

  • However, many traditional educational models are going to experience significant pressure to change as a result of these new opportunities and technologies. That pressure and the resulting changes can be uncomfortable for some and I think this is the area we will see the most difficulties in managing the transition from our current system to the future.

     

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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