Journal # 9

"It’s Magic – An Educator’s Vision of the Future"
By: Annemarie Timmerman

At first I when I read this article, was confused and read on for the real message until I realized that the real message was intertwined in the fantasy of the imagination. Among the futuristic story about education in 2026, Timmerman writes about a teacher’s techniques after the “Instructional Revolution” where teachers drastically changed their instructional techniques to those seen in the Harry Potter series at the Hogwarts School. The article talks about students from all over the world woring cooperatively to construct 3-D interactive models of aircraft, atomsm or the human heart via video conferencing. It continues to say that “students across the globe were able to work simultaneously on the same projects on virtual blackboards”. It also stated that the students could also collect, share, and compare data on air pollution, weather conditions, or geological changes in the earth, noting the changes as they occur throughout the world. The main points stressed in this article were that instruction in the future was based on students not only receiving knowledge but constructing it. Also that in the future that technology allowed teachers to transform education versus using the old ways of learning. In closing in this future education system students envisioned schooling as a wonderful fun activity that allowed all students to reach their potential, the students were the investigators, and they demanded experimentation and doing, and curiosity was applauded not punished. They embraced technology as a means of betterment and went from there.

1.) What is the likelihood that a system similar to this could be implemented in the future?
Only the future will truly hold the secrets of what is to come, but realistically, I doubt that a system like this will work in the United States. The reason I say this is due to funding! This kind of program of seems like it would be VERY expensive, and with the deficit as it is, I can’t imagine a program like this being fully implemented, especially in California.

2.) The article stated that children were set free to be their own individuals at 16, with present day standards, could sixteen be the new age for graduates? Why or why not?
Children in our present education system are barely ready to graduate and continue to higher education with the present standards with the average age of graduates at 18. I can’t fathom a mainstream average student in the United States graduating at 16 with the knowledge necessary to continue on. The only was this could be achieved is through more strict standards in teaching, similar to many other nations with the linear learning system where students do in fact graduate at 16.

3.) What is meant by ‘the students did not only receive knowledge but they construct it’?
In the article, scenarios were created that illustrated a system similar to the Montessori methods where the students chose within reason what they wanted to learn about. In this, the students controlled their learning and instead of simply being taught, had to be investigators and experiment with knowledge where in that, they constructed their own learning and their own new information. In order for this to work in present society students have to have the drive, discipline, and motivation to do something for themselves, instead of for some extrinsic reward.