2020 Vision

Change is inevitable and constant, but with new and different tools of technology evolving every day, it seems that the speed of change has been increasing. Life in our homes, jobs, and classrooms has been greatly impacted with the new technologies involving computers and the internet. When I consider the changes that will affect education in the next years, I see the potential for great change. What will education look like in the year 2020?

The numbers of computers in homes and schools will greatly increase by 2020 due to affordability. Many students will bring their own laptops to school and the schools will be wired for wireless access providing learning opportunities wherever the student may want to study. For those students who cannot afford a laptop, schools will provide them to their students since computers will be a necessary tool for instruction. Today schools are fairly isolated from each other. Learning is done in the classroom and often separated from any opportunity of doing or collaborating with offsite opportunities. With the addition of readily available internet access, technology creates connections with other schools and places all over the world. Classrooms will become a global community where students are researching and interacting with experts and students all over the world. Students will be using video and audio tools to see and communicate with others on the internet.

Education will become more student-centered in the years leading up to 2020. It will become more personalized and the curriculum will be much broader due to easier access to knowledge and curriculum through the web. Schools will now offer a much broader curriculum and teachers’ roles will evolve into facilitators. Class work can now become more differentiated for students and deal with their personal learning needs and interests. More class work will be posted online with some entire classes being completed online. Students will be offered classes from many different schools besides their own. They will be able to access class material anytime of the day all week and learning is not dependent upon the place or the time. They will use different technology tools such as wikis, blogs, video feeds, and audio feeds to communicate and collaborate with other classmates. Technology will provide a means of making classes more relevant and adaptive. Due to more colleges offering online classes, many students in high school will be taking college classes for dual credit.

Teachers will be communicating with each other and sharing ideas and knowledge. Computers will be an essential tool of their classroom and they will be required to use them for communication and record keeping for their districts and students. Some classes will be taught using a blended environment with part of the instruction provided in the classroom and the rest online. Other classes will be offered totally online by the instructor. A teacher’s class may consist of students in other schools as well as the ones in his building. Instead of taking home a pile of papers or projects to grade at night, most of the students’ work will be filed online and contained in their e-portfolios. A teacher will make comments on the digital copy and it will then be read by the student. Classrooms will not need to use much paper. Few classes will have actual textbooks anymore and most labs will be virtual labs. Worksheets or needed handouts will be on the class website, and they will be able to be downloaded by the student as needed. Tests will also be taken online.

Offices in the school environment will be basically paperless in the year 2020. Teachers will complete all records and necessary paperwork on the computer and it will then be stored on the school’s servers. When students move in or out, records will be quickly forwarded to the new location. Grade keeping, attendance, and other necessary records can then be entered by the teachers on their computers at school or at home. Special education records such as IEP’s are all internet based and all professionals working with a student can access to them and update them at any time and from anywhere. Parents can also access their students’ grades, assignments, and notes from teachers from their own computers and cell phones.

A college degree will be easier to obtain in 2020 due to the abundance of classes and degrees available online. Many students will be able to work and still take college classes in their homes, resulting in many more adults, young and old, now obtaining college degrees and additional training in their fields. Physical access to a college campus or financial difficulties will no longer be a barrier to obtaining further education.

It is not my vision that all students will be lined up at computers during all classes with no personal social interaction with other students or teachers. I believe that young students through the teens need face to face social interaction for developing interpersonal skills, basic collaboration skills, and necessary intervention. But I do believe that the classroom will look different especially in the higher grades in 2020. Technology enhances learning and will play an instrumental part in changing the delivery of information and the learning process. It supports the processes of delivering information and investigating and analyzing what is being learned. It makes learning less dependent upon the school facilities, teacher style, and available text. The classroom of 2020 can be one of students investigating, learning, and communicating with sources all over the world in topics that they are interested and vested in. We as teachers must be willing to adjust and adapt to the changes that are coming and willing to learn how.