The Future Of Education And Educating For The Future
Dr. Philip J. Spottswood, Director
If we are going to provide education that prepares students for the 21st century work world, the first thing we have to do is understand what the 21st century work world will look like. To do this I suggest that we first look at the workforce that your children will be competing with for meaningful work. The second critical perspective is to try and understand the kind of work environments that your children will be working in.
To do this, I suggest that we look at two books. The first is Tom Friedman's book, "The World is Flat", a book that looks at the enormous influx of highly competent "knowledge" workers from the developing world (China, India, and many other countries in Asia, Central Europe, etc.) who will be competing for jobs in a "wired" world. The second book, "The Singularity is Near", by Ray Kurzweil, describes the coming cataclysmic changes to society, work, medicine, and economics that will result from the exponential growth of knowledge in the fields of artificial intelligence, biology, neuroanatomy, and computer technology.i
Given that many schools still use technology developed in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and use textbooks that are 3-5 years behind the state of current knowledge in the fields of science, there is a need to rethink how we, as educators, can redesign our schools to meet the highly competitive, rapidly changing work world that our students will face. Let us look, then, at the implications of the "flattening" of the work world and the exponential growth of knowledge for education. Then let us look at the current state of thinking regarding education for the 21st century. Finally, let me recommend some changes that education needs to make if we are going to adequately prepare students for the fundamentally different world that they will work in.
Implications of the Friedman/Kurweil Analysis For The Future of Education
Simply stated, Tom Friedman's main thesis in his book, "The World is Flat" is that the "wiring" of the world with high speed fiber optic cable has occurred at just the time when computers have been come cheap enough that workers from all over the world will be able to compete in the knowledge work which has become the primary "work" of the 21st century.
Developed countries like the USA and states in the European Union will no longer be able to dominate "knowledge" work. Even as we have seen manufacturing jobs "migrate" to low wage countries, Mr. Friedman argues that we will see the high wage "knowledge work" migrate to wherever businesses can get the best work done at the cheapest price. He points to India, now providing much of the "back room" services for many service industries in the developed world, as a good example of what is happening and what is to come. Now, he continues to argue, major computer companies are putting their research and development laboratories in countries such as China and India, where they have access to highly trained specialists who will work for much less than similar workers in the "developed" world. Because parents of children in these "developing" countries are hungry for the success of their children, there is a strong emphasis on education; they produce students who are highly skilled in large quantities. Let me give you one example to make the point. China graduates more students in the top 10% of their classes than there are students graduating in the United States. Can you imagine the impact of these highly trained, highly motivated graduates from India, China, Central Asia, and elsewhere when they hit the job market?
What are the implications for educating students for such a competitive future in the knowledge workforce? They are, I believe, several. But before we examine the implication of the very competitive labor market in the 21st century, let's look at the enormous changes that are going to occur in all the major fields of study that will impact our world, our countries, and our labor markets.
Implications of the Exponential Growth of Knowledge in the 21st Century
The best way for you to understand the tsunami of changes that are going to occur in every sector of our world is to read Ray Kurzweil's book, "The Singularity is Near". Let me share with you some of his predictions based on his lifelong study of the issues that he discusses in his book.
"Over the last 20 years, I have come to appreciate an important meta-idea: that the power of ideas to transform the world is itself accelerating…During the 1990's, I gathered empirical data on the apparent acceleration of all information-related technologies and sought to refine the mathematical models underlying these observations. I developed a theory I call the law of accelerating returns, which explains why technology and evolutionary processes in general progress in an exponential fashion.'' ii ... [more]
Director, Philip J. Spottswood, Ph.D.
Download the article The Future Of Education And Educating For The Future: (PDF, 65.3 KB)
Dr. Philip Spottswood also presented a talk on "Educating for the Future" in U.S. Chamber Astana, 29th April, 2008. Download the presentation PowerPoint files here (PDF, 531 KB)
Learning for the 21st Century; A Report and Mile Guide for 21st Century Skills, Published by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (PDF, 592 KB)
