A few days ago we were talking about an interesting report prepared by the greatest experts in education about what the school will be like in 2030. The changes they predict are really significant, but the fifteen years seen we are too far away. Our children were born in another era, that of the Digital natives and need a school that suits their needs urgently. Changes are needed now in the educational model.
Let's get to the idea. The world has changed and our children have changed with him. We live a great technological revolution and the school cannot remain the same as it was twenty years ago, not even five years ago, but it must accompany this transformation and adapt to the new times.
A school for digital natives
Our children, or at least those of most of us, have learned to use a tablet or smartphone rather than say their first words. Since they start walking they have active contact with technology: they play, draw, then take photos, look for videos, listen to music ... And when you have noticed they have turned you a lot of small rubber circles into a beautiful 3D figure Thanks to a tutorial they found on YouTube.
Those are our children. They have a whole world of information within a click. They learn economics, art and science without realizing it, they even play sports when it snows while they dance to Just Dance in the living room. They choose, they decide, they send.
The future of education does not happen by replacing books with tablets and believing that the change is already made. Needed a change in the way of offering knowledge to children, beyond the format.
This will be the school of the future
Experts believe that the school of the future will be a collaborative school in which standardized learning will lead to another open and cooperative, and in which the teacher will accompany his students as a guide to get the best out of them. Concepts that schools are gradually adopting, but in which there is still much to do.
It is the children themselves who today go out to look for the information. Your attitude to knowledge is different. Motivated by their own curiosity they go in search of what interests them. You cannot pretend that with the stimulation they have today they sit at a desk for six or seven hours to listen to a teacher. They need more, they ask for more.
The role of the teacher
One of the changes that the school of the future predicts is that the teacher will cease to be the only source of information available. The teacher's job will be much more complex than being the knowledge provider. Its main function will be to guide, support and raise the challenges, as well as teach them to be critical of the information they have access to.
He must have the ability to accompany the student and empathize with him. Know your skills and shortcomings, discover their potential. Not all children can be demanded in the same way. Some need more pressure and others more freedom. The key is knowing how to play the perfect key every time.
The type of content
The imposed learning makes no sense in the framework of advanced education. You have to think of the student more as a "client" with different educational requirements.
The contents will become more individualized to meet the needs and interests of the student. 83 percent of content will be "customized" and personalized and 17 percent standardized. Very far from what we see today in schools.
The sources of knowledge in 2030
Definitely, internet will be the main source of knowledge. 43% of the contents will come from there, even above the academic content offered by the school (29%), the social and personal environment (13%) or the cultural institutions (3%). Personal and practical skills will be valued more than academic content.
The student must learn to love knowledge, to enjoy research, search, discovery. If we want them to be valid in the world to come, if we want them to move, since they are children they must be prepared to do things their own way (because there are many ways) without conditioning them and guiding them towards achieving good results.
As you can see, the future of education is very different from what we have today. Our children are digital natives. They think, live and execute differently than we did as children. Times have changed and education must be up to par. Changes are needed now! Do not you think?
