State of the Future and Educational Reform

I must admit to becoming a little frightened as I read through portions of the 2011 State of the Future (Glenn, Gordon, & Florescu, 2011) and the Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012 (Schwab, 2011).  The rate at which technology is being adopted seems to be accelerating exponentially, bringing with it changes in how we relate to one another on multiple levels.  As the world becomes more connected and communication barriers are broken down, new challenges are being presented.  Privacy, the threat of cyber crime, disinformation and governments struggling with how to control harmful content on the internet, are a few of the issues raised in the 2011 State of the Future report (p. 22). 

How will we prepare our children to live in this world – even as we ourselves face this uncertainty?  One thing seems apparent to me –our educational system must inherently utilize this technology, as this is the reality of the world in which our children live.  They will be working in the computational arena which is at the forefront of change in science, medicine and engineering.  They will be connected virtually worldwide to share knowledge and solve problems.  The emergence of collective intelligence requires that we must ask our educational system to think differently that we might prepare our children to work in this evolving world and act responsibly within it.  Change seems to be occurring faster than at any rate previously known to mankind and our children will need the skills and ability to be able to transform along with it. 

The focus must shift away from the old model of education that centered on skills for manufacturing and managing in a world that is rapidly changing to a model that encourages thinking “outside the box” and utilizes the availability of information on demand.  Critical thinking and decision making, sifting through data and understanding bias, are essential skills for navigating in this new world.  It is essential that as we prepare them, they work and learn with the technology that is enabling this shift, or they will be unprepared to work in a world reliant on this technology. 

Glenn, Jerome C., Gordon, Theodore J., & Florescu, Elizabeth. (2011). 2011 State of the Future. Washington, DC: The Millenium Project.

Schwab, K. (Ed.) (2011). The Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012. Geneva: World Economic Forum.