Teaching the Future

What do you see when you dream about the future? When you see your children or your grandchildren as happy, successful, and capable adults - what do you see? What are the skills that our children, our grandchildren, and beyond will need in order to keep up with the speed with which our world is changing?

These can be frightening questions because the answers point out the many ways that we are failing the future by continuing to "do school" in the ways we always have. School has always been my thing. I am a good reader, a good writer, and I was always able to use my creativity to my advantage. I liked the social interactions in school and I loved being one of the better students. When I think about the future, I realize that the skill set that I possessed that allowed me to do well in school would no longer be enough. I can manage technology, but I wouldn't consider myself confident about new technologies. I am lost with newer fluencies such as coding. I have to have correct grammar and spelling in my text messages. I keep up with many things just so I don't seem old to my kids. So, I am not the world's most techno-teacher. I am still using PowerPoint and I cannot figure out how to use LiveBinder or even upload music to my IPhone without my husband's help.  But to admit this about myself, means that I am aware that we are not teaching the future - that I know the classrooms in my school are not giving our students what they need to be 21st Century Thinkers, Learners, or Doers.

 In this video by 2Revolutions, they look to the future and ask if you are a dreamer or a dreader when thinking about the future. The dreamers look to the future and see how they can make anything possible, but it doesn't always turn out the way they planned. The dreaders look to the future and see how nothing is going to work anyway. They propose that what we actually need is a new category - designers - people who plan for and create the future.

Click here to play video on mobile device

I see the future for the students at my school. I see our responsibility in providing our students with every advantage so that they can have the skills that they see to manage the future. They must be literate, problem-solvers; they must be creative thinkers; they must see how to use technology to connect these skills and take them to the next level. Our children are the future and they must see technology as more than video games, Minecraft videos, social media, and "Googling." Our classrooms should be rich in digital access - digital portfolios, blogs, video presentations, adaptive and path-based software, and online checks for understanding are ways that we need to engage the future today. If we do not know or understand how to use technology in our classrooms, then we need to learn today because we are teaching the future. We cannot teach the future using the technology or approaches of yesterday.

Here are additional sources for blended learning and digital technologies:
http://www.knewton.com/blended-learning/

http://www.blendedlearningnow.com/

http://www.highlanderinstitute.org/