What is the future of education in a wireless, gizmo-laden, gadget-rich world? It’s interesting that when machination surged during the industrial revolution, that bigger was better and stronger. To emulate human strength, machines got bigger and more powerful. However, just the opposite is occurring in the technological revolution. Since brain-power is being emulated, innovations trend smaller and smaller.
The false assumption of many is that there will be physical devices outside the body at all but for the sake of argument, let’s assume there are. As processors get smaller and more powerful, we would probably see more integration of communication via devices like an iPhone and it’s new followers where touchscreens connect us with information. I’m certain we can forget about keyboards in the near future. They are cumbersome and ‘hands-free’ is safer and less intrusive.
As for the speech impaired, gestures, sign language, etc, can be detected with trackpads, webcams, and similar such sensors. I recently demonstrated how our elementary students could use an iPod Touch to take the Galileo benchmark tests. Imagine not even needing computer workstations! A similar device can access online databases, archived folders, student portfolios, upload pictures and audio files to a blog, and on and on. Need to see it on a big screen? Just connect to the nearest wireless monitor (either mounted on the wall depicting thematic art corresponding to the Unit lessons or a roll-out screen you can lay on the nearest desk). Such technologies already exist.
The future is smaller, more compact, less intrusive, more intuitive, and a heck of a lot more fun. The time for implementation is sooner than we think. We no longer live in a linear world. The increase in speed is exponential. It took 70 years for the Telephone to be adopted world wide. It took 40 year for the internet to be adopted world-wide. Cell phones became widespread in less than 20 years. Fasten your seatbelt.
