IAE Blog

"All education springs from some image of the future. If the image of the future held by a society is grossly inaccurate, its education system will betray its youth." (Alvin Toffler; American writer and futurist; 1928-2016.)

Early in 2007, I developed and wrote a new IAE-pedia page, What the Future is Bringing Us. It featured very brief summaries of articles published in 2007 that contained predictions of the future, and Toffler’s quote began the very first one (Moursund, 2007, link). I have continued this task each year since then, and I now have a good start on futures predictions for 2019,  I enjoy re-reading the older forecasts and thinking about whether or not they have proved to be reasonably accurate.

Recently I have been thinking and writing about possible futures of education. This naturally required that I think about and forecast still more broadly-based futures reflecting possible major changes in our world, changes that will strongly impact the future of education.

This IAE Blog lists and comments on forecasts for 15 areas that I believe to be quite relevant to our educational systems. For each item in my current list, I have provided a brief comment about its possible impact on our PreK-12 schools in the coming decades. My list is in alphabetical order.

     "...human brains have become equipped with add-ons, thinking tools by the thousands, that multiply our brains' cognitive powers by many orders of magnitude." (Daniel Clement Dennett III; American philosopher, writer, and cognitive scientist; 1942-.) [Bold added for emphasis.]

     "We must preserve the power of intrinsic motivation, dignity, cooperation, curiosity, joy in learning, that people are born with." (W. Edwards Deming; American international business consultant and statistician; 1900-1993.) [Bold added for emphasis.]

The purpose of this IAE Blog entry is to call your attention to some of today’s robots. I was amazed by some of the materials I read recently.

I think that most people understand robotic equipment doing manufacturing tasks in factories, or working with order fulfillment in warehouses. But, many people have less insight into robots that might serve as personal helpers to the elderly, invalids, and other people needing a high level of personal care.

Technology Use
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