Sunday, November 6, 2016

Is the future classroom strictly digital?


Seymour Papert in his book Mindstorms talks about the strong emotions that are provoked when the subject of a future without schools is brought up. Papert says that many people envision a dystopian world where kids are running wild in a Lord of the Flies scenario. Papert says that people who imagine this model are envisioning a world where we get rid of brick and mortar schools completely. What those who decry the idea of a schoolless future can't seem to grasp is that we're not getting rid of schools, just digitizing them, so we can reap the benefits of what computers and the Internet bring. Computers are tools that provide teachers and students a new way to teach and learn, we shouldn’t fear this change just because it’s different then how we learned when we were in school. What is becoming increasingly evident though is we’re moving towards a future where the entirety of lessons and course work is going to be done through digital mediums. In this model teachers move into a role of facilitator and learning becomes more student centered. This is a natural evolution of the traditional classroom, in this model students have the reigns and teachers act as a guide to their educational pursuits. I believe Students will still attend class and have a face to face with an instructor, but all course work and a lot of instruction will be conduced through LMS's. What do you guys think, will we ever come to a point where all course work and instruction is strictly digital?  

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