The Future of Education

I was browsing the internet searching for different teachers/lecturers/doctors etc. opinions on how is going to change the education from their point of view. I found an interesting and exactly on the topic video from a panel, where the future of education and the new education models were discussed. Are they going to prepare us for a fast-paced world?

Source pinterest.com

The discussion lasts about an hour, and the specialists from different fields of education give their opinions and also present facts and issues regarding the education nowadays and in the future.

This topic interested me from the beginning because of 2 main points:

-          - First of all because as a student I could observe and study the different models of teaching in my own country, in the country I am doing my university studies and also in the country I am doing my Erasmus year.

-               -  And also because I have my own way of studying and I have my own idea of how the perfect education system should be.

I didn´t really get a clear answer to “What the education will be”, but some ideas I could get. Due to the amount of things I would like to comment, I am able to write an entire novel about this issue. That is why I am going to outline just several points in this post.

Nowadays we can observe the use of digital technology in education, which helps to make the lessons more creative, information more accessible and the communication among teachers – students – university staff easier. In the future the use of technology in education will be a MUST and will expand even more in the form of E-Learning.

E-learning is also a model of education that is used each time more nowadays and in the future it will be vital. The world is getting more complex and we need a larger base of knowledge. Internet and free on-line learning makes this knowledge accessible, with the possibility to choose the course one may like more. There are going to be more and more jobs, which mean more skills, abilities and knowledge required. We are going to have a lifetime of careers and not a lifetime career.

Source: pinterest.com

One model of education that was mentioned and that I liked lot, is where in the same career the students may choose the subjects they want to study, and in this way when they have lessons together they share their knowledge on different topics and they study one from another. They may debate issues from different perspectives which gives the possibility to see  the problem from different points of view. This also may lead to finding creative solutions. Creativity and out of the box ideas – the concepts that we need so much nowadays!

Mark Kamlet (Provost, Executive Vice-President and Professor of Economics and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University, USA) shared his ideas on how the future higher education is going to be. He explained that today the education should be changed (it has more or less the same model as a century ago), and there are 2 main models to follow:

1.       The first way brings together education, technology, on-line learning, all this representing the MOOC´s – it has a potential but MOOC´s alone is not sufficient.

2.       The second model was developed over the last 30 years. It is the combination between Cognitive psychology, Artificial intelligence and Machine learning.

There is so much more to discuss about the future of education, but as a first conclusion I can see that with small but confident steps we are already in this FUTURE EDUCATION, at least at the European and North American level.

I thought I could make it in a single post, but due to the amount of information I would like to share and ideas to express, there is going to be a second part on The Future of Education.

Click HERE to see the video.