An educational history of the future

Abstract

The importance of active, “experiential” learning, and the belief that schools and colleges need to engage the world outside their walls in new ways in order to equip students for the rapidly changing future, is increasingly held to be fundamental to any educational program or reform effort, and in particular to the current rethinking about what (and how) students need to learn. In fact, however, this truth was recognized as early as in ancient Athens. In recent years the world has been transformed, and we are now well into a new era of individual and social experience. With the unprecedented processing power of mobile devices, the seemingly endless expansion of storage capacity, and unlimited access to information, we confront a vastly different landscape for education. This essay examines what this all means for education futures.