12 Changes Coming to the Future of Learning

Do you realize that the year 2025 is closer to us than 2004?  It seems to me we are still preparing students to be successful in the year 2004 or before.   We even fail if we prepare them for 2014.  Why don’t we, as much as we can, prepare them for the year 2025?  You see, today’s 2^nd graders will graduate in 2025.

Jeff Dunn from Knowledgeworks mentions:

1. “The idea of school will be completely different.  School in general will take the form of self-organized classrooms, remote learning, or some other structure.
2. Learning won’t be categorized or defined by time and place. That is, of course, unless a learner wants to learn at a particular time and in a particular location.
3. This is probably the most important change that might be coming to the future of learning: teachers and educator’s jobs will become even more diversified.
4. Finally, it’ll be interesting to see the future of blended learning and online learning.”

Item #1 and #2 above talk about changes that shake up what we think about where and when students learn.  Most educators know a lot of learning occurs already outside the classroom.  I wonder how traditional schools will adapt to changes that include a variety of options. Will we insist the credit we will give and the diplomas we award always be a result of seat time in a brick and mortar building? Will the successful and sustainable school embrace options that realize learning can occur many places and at times outside what we call a school day or a school year?

As changes in place and time occur, educators that adapt will see the rewards of learning new roles (#3). For example, I was taught to be a Math teacher and then a Principal.  Now I enjoy the role of managing an online school.  Certainly it is still about learning and discipling. But just about every technique we “knew” to work in traditional schools had to be examined to fit a new paradigm.

Isn’t it a great time to be working in education? Students make it all worthwhile.  So let’s be sure with all the change around us, we keep the focus on students.

Students (and parents) want more choices in what they study and even how they study it.  Schools planning to be relevant and successful are making changes now.  We think online learning will be a key (#4) to student and school success in the near future. Governments and businesses have already embraced online learning as sometimes being the most effective choice. Schools need to at least decide on where they want to be in 2025 and a path to get there.

Dr. R. Mark Beadle is the CEO of Sevenstar. He notes that in their 8 years they have served over 31,000 students in online Christian courses. 97% of them are in faith based schools.