From @katiefoges on Twitter this article, written by Shelly Blake-Plock, articulates 21 Things That Will be Obsolete in schools by 2020 http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/12/21-things-that-will-be-obsolete-in-2020/
The most powerful changes for me are as follows….
Number 3 – Our shared understanding of “what a computer is.” The increasing mobility of computing going mobile over the next decade will see individualized computing via handhelds.
This has implications for Number 6 in that “the teacher who hasn’t yet figured out how to use tech to personalize learning will be the teacher out of a job. “Differentiation will become a nautral part of a teacher’s bag of tricks.
Speaking of out of a job, this article indicates the some of the traditional roles of the IT Department — software, security, and connectivity — will become a thing of the past due to cliud computing, Number 11.
Number 12 is also very challenging for us who love the current feel for our schools. The argument is that “School buildings are going to become ‘homebases’ of learning, not the institutions where all learning happens.” It talks about student and teacher schedules changing and also that teachers and students will go out into their communities to engage in experiential learning. Therefore, implicit in this is that schools shouyld be looking for more flexible timetables.
Number 16 “The root of curricular change will be the shift in middle schools to a role as foundational content providers and high schools as places for specialized learning.” How exciting for students!
Number 21 has great implications for ecological sustainability in that schools will decrease their paper consumption by no less than 90% within 10 years. WOW!
I encourage you to read the article. It will prove very useful and I dare say provoke much discussion among teachers and parents alike.
Greg M.
LEARN AND LEAD 