Education Will Never Be the Same
By: Ewelina Adamczak
Tags: Education Reform, Classroom, Education

Technology

With the ever more sophisticated technology, we are seeing countless human jobs being automated by robots. A staggering 50% of today’s labor can be expected to become automated by 2055.

As artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and 3D printing transform the reality of the present workforce, the concepts that we learn in school will shift drastically.

As tech fields become more widespread, creativity, problem-solving, and analytical thinking will lie at the forefront of education. And the traditional classroom will have changed extravagantly.

No longer will students be passive listeners submitted to the instruction of the educator. Why?

With virtually unlimited information at the touch of our fingertips, traditional teaching will become overshadowed by a simple Google search. Memorization and regurgitation of facts will become ancient history.

Now, I know what you may be wondering, what does this mean for educators? Are they doomed? Of course not!

Instead, the role of instructors will change. They will become mentors, guiding their students towards an active approach to their learning.

Changes to Traditional Instruction

Infographic from Science Island showing the mechanics behind the flipped classroom approach.

The flipped classroom will take center stage, where students will be expected to cover the basics of a given topic on their own before class. This sort of ‘homework first’ scenario will demand students to explore the class material on their own time and come to class prepared to explore the topics more deeply through projects and activities. What this classroom structure will do is create an environment where the students’ natural curiosity and creativity are piqued. Hands-on activities will provide students the avenues to utilize the knowledge they have studied prior to class in order to come up with creative solutions to problems. A holistic approach to learning will replace the segregated-by-subject learning we see today.

We will be seeing an interdisciplinary approach (or “phenomenon-based learning”) to educating students, one which blurs the line among seemingly disparate subjects.

For instance, a study of climate change will consist of a holistic survey of the phenomenon — one that takes into account the historical, social, and environmental parameters of the issue. A multiple-choice exam on the topic of climate change will be replaced by an open-ended field project that shows the instructor what skills the student has mastered and how the student can apply the acquired knowledge in the real world.

that shows the instructor what skills the student has mastered and in the real world. Likewise, fields that were once seen as distinct disciplines, such as technology and sociology, will become increasingly intertwined. Various science and technological problems will benefit from a social outlook to find solutions that are both rational and ethical.

Crucial to this holistic learning style will be collaboration. With all the strides that are being made in AI, human creativity, intuition, judgment, empathy, leadership, and communication are among the several skills that no robot can replace. School curricula will have to change to accommodate the growth of these skills.

Photo Credit to Erhan Astam. Robots are powerful but human skills like judgment, creativity, and empathy will never be replaced by AI.

Here are the changes that I surmise will translate within the education system:

Small, 20-person, seminar-based classes will replace 300-person lectures.

will replace 300-person lectures. Lectures will give way to project-based learning , where collaboration will replace individual learning.

, where Classes will no longer benefit from being major-restricted . Everyone’s unique expertise will become significant to a successful learning experience.

. Everyone’s unique expertise will become significant to a successful learning experience. The modes of testing students’ knowledge will change from mere regurgitation of information to an application of the material learned.

learned. The digitalization of skills such as writing, grading, proofreading, and calculating will ensure that educators teach students how to become technologically literate.

Infographic from Magnify Learning showing the various components of project-based learning.

The Role of MOOCs

Massive online open course (MOOC) providers, such as Quze, are gaining unprecedented potential as more institutions take advantage of offering online courses. By embracing skill-based learning in virtually any domain imaginable, MOOCs play a crucial role in making students active participants in their learning.

While online courses and online degrees, today, are deemed inferior to classes and degrees acquired in the brick-and-mortar school, the frontier is changing. The education industry, basically unchanged for centuries now, will start to reflect the digitalization that is occurring in the world around us.