What are the issues that you will be exploring for the new WISE Book and why are they important?
GBM: The world and our societies are changing rapidly. As a result, our knowledge and skills, and that of our children, are constantly evolving, i.e. they are not static. When you consider that by 2030, when children entering primary education now will leave higher education - if it exists - we may be routinely connecting information systems directly into their amygdala, it makes you wonder what our children should be learning today.
A key issue I believe is why [has] technology, to date, had very little impact on improved learning outcomes? This could be because we continue to use technology to reinforce 19th century teaching practice to meet out-dated assessment models. Most of the world’s curriculum and assessment systems are based around fact recall rather than actually demonstrating that you have learned something and can deploy it within a problem solving situation.
Given that in a connected society information is now at the fingertips of children, via smart phones for example, then perhaps it’s fair to say that our education systems are anachronistic. We throw technology at classrooms and educational establishments but the institutions themselves and the way we teach have hardly changed, we just get 19th century results more quickly and cheaply. But is this what we want?
Imagine if it was compulsory for children to take a connected digital device into an examination room so that they could look things up, contact friends or subject specialists, etc. How would our education systems then change?
Tell us about the research you will be conducting for the new WISE Book.
GBM: We will be exploring and documenting how the digitally connected society is transforming learning.
With an emphasis on digital platforms my team and I are taking a new and original approach to the design and creation of this new work which will be presented as a beautifully crafted printed book that can be optionally enhanced using a free digital app compatible with typical Android or iOS-connected devices.
How much do you already know about the projects and are you expecting any surprises?
GBM: Well, I like surprises so I am very much hoping that we’ll get some pleasant ones!
We have deliberately selected an eclectic range of thought leader interviews as well as case study projects to explore themes around the cultural and contextual impact of technology in education and learning. There are some important issues at stake here given the potential for digital technologies to export culture and ideology in ways that can have unintended consequences.
I’m really hoping to find “home grown” projects using digital platforms to meet the needs of local populations within their own cultural contexts that also have the potential to scale or, indeed, already are.
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What do you see as the most important development that technology has had on education in the last ten years?
We have to define what we mean by “education”. If I was thinking about schools in a Western context then I would have to say not very much has really changed despite the rapid shifts that we have seen in practically every aspect of our everyday lives. Education as a concept hasn’t really changed since the societal shift caused by the Industrial Revolution in 1750 and where the role of education was to transform agricultural workers into compliant factory workers. Until the mid-1950s this pretty much worked, however, as we progress through this century we can be sure that the industrial model will literally run out of steam. Yet we fear transformation and change so the question will not be technological but whether we will help or hinder future generations who will need to reshape their world.
How do you see technology influencing education over the next two decades? Will we still have classrooms and teachers in 2030?
Many eminent futurists will show compelling charts and graphs that demonstrate the exponential shift that we are just embarking upon with technology where, for example, acceleration in computational power will have profound impacts on our society. However I feel the issue is more complex than our ability to create these new technologies. Rather it is our capacity as a society to embrace and do the right things with them that is the biggest challenge.
By 2020 we will witness the emergence of exascale computing. An exascale computer operates at the speed of the human brain or in raw computational terms the equivalent of 50 million laptop PCs of today. It’s hard for us to comprehend such processing capability but it does mean that the long promise of artificial intelligence is likely to be prevalent. It is likely that you would be able to hold a conversation with a machine and be unaware that it is not human.
By 2030 exascale computing devices might be as common as your smartphone whilst governments and corporations will have upgraded to zettascale computing which is a 1000 times faster. Fast enough to sequence your DNA in under 10 seconds or map the world’s weather patterns for 2 weeks ahead with 99 percent accuracy.
Of course the question is what will it take for education, as we know it today, to change? We’re still banning smart phones from classrooms in 2013!
Read the full interview on our website here.
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