The 2020 Forecast: Creating the Future of Learning

AEP Summit 2009 keynote speaker Monica Martinez, Vice President for Educational Strategy for KnowledgeWorks Foundation,  presented the Foundation’s 2020 Forecast: Creating the Future of Learning. Focusing on the need to create new learning environments, here are the six areas the education industry should consider as they adapt their businesses and their publications for the digital native learner.

1. Self: Altered Bodies

All age groups are experimenting with cognitive fitness, deliberately altering their brains to enhance their capacity whether through video games or medication. Working against that is biodistress–climate change, pollution, war, violence–that can cause cognitive and motor malfunctions. Publishers should think about what tools they can create to support brain fitness and tools and resources that can ease biodistress.

2. Amplified Organizations

Organizational structure is shifting from top-down to bottom-up. Digital natives are growing up in collaborative environments that call for ad hoc leadership where individuals are able to apply their relative expertise quickly and participate in a democratic creative process. We will fail if we don’t respond to the new generation’s expectations. How can schools become amplified organizations that are comfortable engaging learners in a contributory, collaborative environment? How can we support the teachers?

3. Platforms: Systems for Resilience

The current systems are too brittle. They need to evolve and become part of a network of modular learning grids allowing schools, parents, teachers, and communities to connect to each other globally. Shadow schools and systems that allow learning to occur anytime, anywhere could become more prolific with businesses and communities working outside the traditional school system.

4. Society: A New Civic Discourse

The communities, including the schools, are becoming globally engaged. How will school administrators communicate in a world of educitizens who expect transparency and exercise more control over their local learning environment?

5. The Maker Economy

Open-source principles are democratizing fabrication and design. Students expect to be the driving force in their education and want to be able to build their learning experience. In addition, businesses are drawing inspiration from local markets and communities that are sharing their ideas globally. We need to think about how we prepare students to be innovators and creators in the school environment and how the Maker Economy can influence traditional curriculum.

6. Knowledge: Pattern Recognition

The extremely visible world demands new ways to make sense of it. We need to help students develop visual literacy and how to discover, interact, and quantify meaning in a world of data. We also need to think about the data trails students create and how we can help them become self-reflective. How will ubiquitous, visible data impact teaching and learning?

Learning is no longer contained within the walls and hours of the school day. Publishers need to think about how they can support a seamless education experience for students and communities no matter the time or place.