Education Evolution

In today’s society the Internet seems to be the axis the world turns on, but do we ever stop to think about how that affects our future in education, probably not. First just think about what school was like when you first started attending. What technology did you use? Did you learn how to type? How did you read? How did you turn in homework? At least for me it just seemed like one year it was all paper then before I knew it, everything I did and turned in was online. This obviously created a change in how I learned and how education as a whole evolved.

In Stephen King’s novella, Ur, he writes about an English professor who gets a kindle after swearing he would never read online. This kindle turns out to be special and full of alternate realities that the main character never could have imagined. Now while the specialness of the kindle is important, it’s not what I think really mattered. To me it was the showcasing of how technology and Internet has changed literature as a whole. You can see throughout the novella how the character’s view on technology and literature changes from very closed off, to a more open view. I believe this is a great eye opener to how our future could be changing. 

I used to believe that reading a paper book was the only way to read, and now I cannot imagine buying any of my textbooks in paper form. The cost difference is exponential and there is no lugging around giant textbooks. As we move forward into the future there will obviously be more changes. We can only speculate what this will look like, and I believe that Business Insider paints an amazing picture of how helpful this could be. With the increasing use of the Internet involved in education, learning is becoming more individualized than ever before. Students are no longer being forced into a mold of how a person should learn and develop. Now we have the ability to learn how is best for us instead of every student being expected to learn in one way. 

While some may still argue that we need to stick to old school learning and quit with the technology, and some argue the past should stay in the past, maybe there could be a middle ground. The futures is bright and full of possibilities. Is it going to be transformed to completely online, or is it going to go stagnant and fall off, or maybe even find a middle ground to include everyone? Nobody knows, but the way we learn should be for us to decide and be individualized so that each student can preform to their fullest extent.