The Plausibility of Our Future
Perhaps we are naive, but we genuinely believe such a future of education is plausible. The change of the education system to become more inclusive, redirect focus on the arts, and use technology as an educational enhancer rather than a replacement, is very likely to happen; however, it may not occur in the exact way we have described. For example, not all will be on board with creating a more inclusive classroom environment. This likely change will be met with much controversy in the future, such as whether it is fair to have students who are academically ‘slower’ in a classroom with the rest of the students (Inclusive Design Research Centre, n.d.). However, we believe that including everyone in a classroom, regardless of their ability, and as long as being in a classroom is what is best for the student, is crucial to creating a better world for tomorrow. To continue, given the increased pressure to succeed in math and science, we believe the tables will turn, and students will be encouraged to pursue more classes in the arts. Next, we suggest the use of technology will trend toward serving as an educational enhancer rather than a replacement for an educator. For example, perhaps students will be encouraged to pursue a MOOC in an area that interests them to enhance their understanding of what the instructor has taught in class (Smith and Eng, 2013). Overall, we believe that the education system will become more inclusive over the coming years, redirect focus on the arts, and use technology as an educational enhancer rather than a replacement.
The Inherent Purpose of Education in Our Future
The purpose of education in the future is to strengthen the structures of learning that unite and connect learning communities. To ensure connectivity in learning communities, the education spaces must be inclusive and accessible (Inclusive Design Research Centre). It is essential when transitioning into a digital age that education in technology is designed to consider a full range of human diversity. This is where connectivity can flourish. When education is intended to include everyone, educators and learners can unite and learn from each other. In an age where technology can now be a learning mode, it is crucial to create spaces without isolation. Adapting to these spaces to support diverse participation will strengthen and join the learning modes of future education.
The Role of Technology, the Instructors, and the Students
The role of technology is not to replace teaching and instruction but to enhance the educational experience. Instructors will create and follow lesson plans, choose any necessary curriculum or resource materials, explain concepts and theories, and review assignments and examinations (Barnes, 2016). In addition to the instructor’s prepared lesson, students will be given the opportunity to explore, dig into, learn, and thrive on their interests. For example, students may dig into their interests based on the instructor’s lesson by participating in a MOOC or using other forms of open educational resources, such as online tutorials, digital learning objects, or open textbooks (Hegarty, 2015). Students will be expected to treat everyone with kindness, bullying is not tolerated in the future, and immediate action will be taken if bullying occurs. Also, students will be expected to participate fully in the lessons and use technology wisely and safely.
Considerations of Equity and Access
Our future is centred around inclusion, including equity and access to resources. To ensure equity and access to educational resources, open pedagogy will be largely incorporated into education with the 5R principle: freely retain, reuse, revise, remix and redistribute (Hegarty, 2015). Ensuring equity and access to materials is a complicated issue due to digital redlining (Gillard, 2016). Instructors and students will be constantly reminded to seek out various information. Hopefully, in the future, the digital redlining of information will improve so that we will all have equal access to quality and regulated information.
Surveillance, Privacy, and Ethics
The future of technology is uncertain, but we know change is coming. We now have and will continue to have issues of surveillance, privacy, and ethics. Although there is enhanced learning through educational technologies, there are ethical concerns. The K-12 education system has adopted “edtech” methods which therefore involve minor children, recognized to be a vulnerable population (Reagan & Jesse, 2019). The topic of ethical concerns needs to be raised in policy discussions. There is a need for an investment in research on the ethical concerns in educational technology for children, as there should be no room for error. We believe there should be more policies and resources put in place for educators to ensure privacy and safety.
The Degree of Openness and Networkedness
We believe our future of education needs to have a high degree of openness and networkedness. In terms of openness, we will allow students to express their opinions and discuss important issues in school; give students access to open education resources, open textbooks, and open scholarships; help students to create and co-create knowledge openly (Cronin, 2019). As for networkedness, we will provide connections between learners and knowledge, different cultures, digital technologies, and other institutions. We believe that by doing so, we will not only achieve the goal of providing students with knowledge but also develop their understanding of society and politics, helping them to better integrate into society in the future.
The Interests and Motivations of Whom are Model is Centered
Our model is designed for K-12 students with a student-centred and inclusive design approach. We aim to meet every student’s needs and respect each student’s voice and choice. The reason why we chose a student-centred approach is that it would give students more autonomy and power, and inclusive design can have a deeper, broader, and long-term impact on education design decisions (Inclusive Design Research Centre, n.d). Our motivation behind this is that our current education system is still very much school-centred, and students often do not have the option to make decisions and express their opinions.
References
Barnes, C.L. (2016). “Where’s the Teacher? Defining the Role of Instructor Presence in Social Presence and Cognition in Online Education.” Humanizing Online Teaching and Learning.
Cronin. C. (2019). Open education: Walking a critical path. In D. Conrad, & P. Prinsloo (Eds.), Open(ing) Education: Theory and Practice. Leiden: Brill. Open Access Version – http://eprints.teachingandlearning.ie/4345/
Gilliard, C. (2016). Digital Redlining, Access, and Privacy. https://www.commonsense.org/education/articles/digital-redlining-access-and-privacy
Hegarty, B. (2015). Attributes of Open Pedagogy: A Model for Using Open Educational Resources. Educational Technology, 55(4), 3-13. http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/stable/44430383
Inclusive Design Research Centre. (n.d). What is inclusive design? Inclusive Design Research Centre. https://idrc.ocadu.ca/about/philosophy/
Regan, P. & Jesse, J. (2019). Ethical challenges of edtech, big data and personalized learning: Twenty-first century student sorting and tracking. Ethics and Information Technology, 21(3), 167-179. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10676-018-9492-2
Smith, B., & Eng, M. (2013). MOOCs: A Learning Journey: Two Continuing Education Practitioners Investigate and Compare cMOOC and xMOOC Learning Models and Experiences. In Cheung, K. S, Fong, J., Fong, W.,
Wang, F. L., & Kwok, L. F. (Eds.) Hybrid Learning and Continuing Education (pp. 244–255). Berlin: Springer.
