A human being miraculously transported from 1900 to our time would recognize much of what goes on in today's classrooms--the prevalent lecturing, the emphasis on drill, the decontextualized materials and activities ranging from basal readers to weekly spelling tests. With the possible exception of the church, few institutions have changed as little in fundamental ways as those charged with the formal education of the next generation.

Contrast this continuity with children's experiences outside the school walls. In modern society children have access to a range of media that would have seemed miraculous in an earlier era (and that still astonishes members of less industrialized societies): television, cellular phones, personal computers with CD-ROMs, fax machines, videodiscs, personal stereos, and still and video cameras.

The visitor from the past who would readily recognize today's classroom would have trouble relating to the out-of-school world of a 10-year-old today. I confess that I often experience such difficulties myself.

Schools--it not education generally--are inherently conservative institutions. In large measure, I would defend this conservatism. But changes in our world are so rapid and so decisive that it will not be possible for schools to remain as they were or simply to introduce a few superficial adjustments. Indeed, if schools do not change rapidly and radically, they are likely to be replaced by other, more responsive (though perhaps less comfortable and less legitimate) institutions.

The Transforming Power Of Computers

The most important technological event of our time is the ascendancy of the computer. Computers already play a prominent role in many aspects of our lives, from transportation and communication to personal bookkeeping and entertainment. Scarcely oblivious to these trends, many schools now have computers and networking capabilities. To some extent, these technological appurtenances have been absorbed into the life of the school, though often they simply deliver the old lessons in a more convenient and efficient format.

In the future, however, education will be organized largely around the computer. Computers will permit a degree of individualization--personalized coaching or tutoring--which in the past was available only to the rich. All students may receive a curriculum tailored to their needs, learning style, pace and profile of mastery, and record of success with earlier materials and lessons. Indeed, computer technology permits us to realize, for the first time, progressive educational ideas of "personalization" and "active, hands-on learning" for students all over the world.

A student takes computer technology for granted. Schools of the future will be largely organized around computers that deliver a personalized curriculum matching each student's learning style and level of proficiency, according to the author.

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Computer technology puts all the information in the world at one's fingertips, quite literally. This is both a blessing and a curse. No longer do we have to spend long periods of time hunting down a source or a person--these can be found instantaneously. Soon we will not even have to type in an instruction in order to learn the capital of Montana, the population of Korea, or Ohm's law; we will be able to simply ask a question out loud and the computer will print out or speak the answer. Thus people will achieve instant "cultural literacy."

Less happily, the Internet has no means of quality control; "anyone can play." Information and disinformation commingle comfortably and, as of yet, there are no reliable ways to distinguish sense from distortions and downright nonsense on the Net. Ethnographer Sherry Turkle tells about the young child who insists that "there are always riots when taxes go up" because that is the common wisdom embedded in the widely available game program, Sim City. Identifying the true, the beautiful, and the good--and which of these truths, beauties, or goods are worth knowing--constitutes a formidable challenge.

It might be said, in response, that the world has always been filled with misinformation. True enough, but in the past educational authorities could at least choose their favorite texts (and proscribe others). Today's situation, with everyone having instant access to millions of sources, is unprecedented.

Artificial intelligence and virtual reality are two computer-related technologies that may cast a large shadow on education. Much of school planning may be done not by human agents but by programs created by human agents; and much of what was once accomplished by textbooks and occasional field trips will now be performed in virtual reality. One can ask: What is the truth value of materials prepared entirely by nonhuman entities?

Customizing Education

In a turnabout from previous trends, the acquisition of credentials from accredited institutions may become less important. Individuals will be able to educate themselves (largely if not wholly) and to exhibit their mastery in a simulated setting. Why pay $120,000 to go to law school, if one can "read law" as in earlier times and then demonstrate one's legal skills via computer simulation? Or learn to fly a plane or conduct neurosurgery by similar means, for that matter?

Much of education in the past was calibrated to make sure that individuals could carry out a regular job, reliably, throughout their productive adult years. Nowadays, this assumption is doubly flawed. First, almost everything that can be handled algorithmically will be carried out by automata. Second, few people will remain in the same occupational niche for their whole lives; many will move frequently (either voluntarily or by necessity) from one niche, company, and sector of the economy to another.

The explosion of new and rapidly changing roles in the workplace complicates education in unprecedented ways. Most adult teachers and parents will not have experiences on which they can draw to prepare youngsters for a world in which they can expect to change jobs regularly. In the absence of precedent, youths will have to prepare themselves for rapidly changing "career paths" and life situations.

The Further Effects Of Technology

While computer-based teaching and curricula figure to be the dominant technological influence on education, other innovations will have impacts as well. Imaging technologies will permit study of students' brain activity and blood flow as they engage in various kinds of problemsolving or creative activities. No longer restricted to research, these findings about a student's "mental life" are likely to influence pedagogical approaches as well as his or her placement in special or mainstream educational settings.

Enhanced understanding of the genetic basis of learning and of various talents is also likely to intrude on the classroom. It may be possible to determine which youngsters are likely to advance quickly and which ones seem doomed to "uphill" school experiences; some authorities will insist that these findings be applied in specific cases, while others will strenuously object to any decisions made on the basis of genetic information. Drugs that purport to improve learning, memory, or motivation will become readily available. Teachers and parents may face ethical dilemmas that would in earlier times have been restricted to science fiction.

Finally, recent breakthroughs in biology and medicine may change education in the most radical ways. If individuals seek to "design" off-spring through genetic engineering, or to alter the genetic endowment of an already existing person, or if human cloning becomes a reality as well as a possibility, then our definitions of what it means to be a human being, and to be a part of a human society, will be changed forever. Even the laws of evolution may have to be reconceived.

Many schools teach today's computer skills and networking capabilities. But students may have to prepare themselves for rapidly changing roles in workplaces that require them to constantly move from job to job, according to education professor Howard Gardner.

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I have noted that education is conservative, and that this conservatism is not necessarily an evil. Indeed, with respect to the transmission of values and the mastery of certain notational systems and disciplines, a conservative approach may well be called for. Yet the explosion of knowledge and the ever-shifting cartography of disciplines call for close and fresh attention to curricular matters. And new and imaginative approaches will have to be developed if youths are to be prepared for the rapidly changing roles they can expect to assume.