25 Years Into the Future_Facer & Sanford

Name the 1 scenario from the Facer & Sanford (2010) article that you think is viable & explain why you've chosen it.

1. The concepts of ‘identity’, benefit, and action are understood as profoundly social.

a. Integrated experiences: an education system embedded in society, economy, and community through ongoing participation.

• Working and living with technology will be normal to our digital natives and will become increasingly normal. As the author states, what we mean by ‘machines’ will become more radically implemented in everyday life and become semi-autonomous actors in social networks. 

• Teaching and educating young learners to become socially active will require proficiency in the use of technology. Students that we teach in 2022 will become global citizens in the future, and by the time they identify their careers and roles in the community, it will be critical that they find networks that meet their needs/interests and sense of belongingness in order to ground themselves as active participants.

b. Service and citizenship: education system distinct from society in which social cohesion and competencies for social participation are explicitly taught.

• As the author states, increasingly used digital technologies will enable the reduction of human input in certain fields and allow centralized groups, elites, to manage a massive amount of information and employees. On the other hand, the aging population will rise and personal services that are usually devalued in the current society may be valued and rewarded. 

• This may be one example of the start of a polarized workforce in the future. Therefore, explicitly educating the digital natives to become aware of the social inequities in the future is critical as they will take roles in the community to provide services and participate in making decisions as active citizens. As we anticipate that technology will progress rapidly in the next 25 years, education will play a significant role in directing students to encounter practical experiences in society and support students to find their ‘Identity’ that corresponds to the future society. 

Describe 2 additional ICT-related predictions that you think could happen but that are not mentioned in the article & explain why you've chosen them.

1. Globalized common core standard

1. Integration of institutions across the globe

• The author asserts that Moore’s law will continue and a massive increase in computing power will be available to individuals and organizations. 

• I agree with this idea, and if the financial capability permits, integration cross-state collaboration will emerge even further globally. Common core standards are used in most of the states in the United States, but each state continues to strive to standardize state exams in order to provide equal education to prepare K-12 students with college preparation readiness. 

• Now that we anticipate the students expanding their knowledge and perspectives globally, institutions from around the world will unite and collaborate to provide an individualized and personalized education that can only be possible through establishing globalized standards and curriculum. 

• As the author states, large-scale socio-technical systems will allow utility computing and multi-core processing in the future. Therefore, the integration of these systems will enable both massive numbers of computing systems for the global education system and the self-managing systems that will benefit the individualized/personalized learning system. 

2. Diverse Standard English

1. The concept of English as a global language will change.

1. The concept of ‘Native English’ will become ‘International English’

• The researcher discussed that knowledge in 2025 and beyond will unfold with significantly decreased disciplinary boundaries in education. As online learning provides opportunities for diverse populations using new modalities through technology, the language barrier will decrease correspondingly.
• Instead of investing in private tutoring and language institutions, students will be able to use an advanced translation service that will automatically translate different languages to standard English. Google translator continues to adapt common phrases used in English to provide an accurate and smooth translation. By the time our students become leaders in society, ‘Native English’ will mean a more functional than the practical style of the language in order to communicate across the globe. 
• English will only be a language tool in order to export and import goods and services, and fluently share curriculums across diverse countries. 

Coping with the post-pandemic crisis, rapid use and incorporation of technology in education, the uncertainty of the young learners’ knowledge development all contribute to the anticipation of a new socio-technical change in the future. How can we as educators actively respond to the change that we anticipate? How does individual effort contribute to the future generation of digital natives, and what will be the impact of education in the mids of this social progress?