What if we had headsets, or implants, that allowed us to access anything off the internet in less than a second of desiring that information? What use would a teacher be? What would we need schools for?
Last summer (and for the life of me I can’t find the link) I was reading a Fast Company or Fortune magazine article that interviewed Lary Page, one of the Google founders. Page was talking about his (and Google’s) 20-40 year vision of creating search implants that would interact with our minds to help us access whatever information we wanted within minutes (related links here, here, and here).
Granted I don’t think any of us will be around to read the brain implant headlines (if anyone will be); however, this idea does illustrate just how immediately accessible information will be in the coming years?
And yes, information already is instantly available … but the effort we will need to expend to find what we need will decrease and decrease.
So what implications does this have on how we should design our learning environments? What changes are we noticing already?
Think of all the students who don’t get why they have to memorize maps and plot directions when they can just do instant, online map searches.
Think of the stories you’ve read about professors scrambling for a missing fact in lectures and their students finding it quicker than they could with their smart phones.
Think of spreadsheets and calculators and statistical software programs that pump out desired calculations in seconds.
In sum, technology (i.e. the internet) will continue to replace many of the mental steps we need to do to complete a complex task, but it won’t, in my opinion, replace the high level thinking that’s needed to guide learning and discovery needed to complete it. Technology won’t replace what’s needed to make valuable connections between here and there, between what we have and what need to discover, and between what’s important and what’s unimportant.
That “what’s needed” is wisdom and insight.
And this is where the educator will become more and more important as we venture deeper and deeper into the Information Age. If everything’s searchable within seconds, quality educators will be needed to help us answer questions like these:
How do we make sense of all this data?
What can you really do with this map technology?
Why do we need to use that math formula? What will it allow us to do?
What should we be searching for? How do we know if it’s quality?
More than ever, the real value of educators will be in their ability to stay ahead of the curve and pass on their insights with their students. For some time we’ve been told that “Life-Long Learners” will be the ones who will succeed in the Information Age … and now we’re starting to see living proof of this. The best educators, then, will be the best examples of life-long learning – they will be the ones who will have the most to share, the most insights gained, and the most acquired wisdom.
Technology won’t replace educators or lessen their importance. Instead, technology will demand that they constantly learn, really teach … and disseminate less.
