The Future of Education by Aspen

The Future of Education by Aspen - May 2020 Scholarship Essay

Buzz, Buzz, Buzz! The year is 2070, and Sarah wakes up, rolls out of bed, and boots up her in-home virtual learning device, a holographic computer designed specifically for education, to start school for the day. Today, her physics teacher is a man from India who specializes in electromagnetism. Tomorrow’s lesson on thermodynamics will be taught by a specialist from Germany. This type of teacher collaboration allows Sarah to gain knowledge from the world’s top experts in each subject. After the lecture, Sarah puts on her virtual reality goggles to complete a lab with one of her classmates who lives 500 miles away. Sarah has a question about the lab results and asks Siri to schedule an individual help session with the lab proctor for 3:00 PM.

With advancements in technology and artificial intelligence (AI), the classroom of the future will be primarily online. This appeals to many students because it allows them to learn about any topic from wherever they are whenever it is convenient for them. Digital content will replace textbooks, and the cost of education will decrease as thousands of students can be taught at the same time by AI or a pre-recorded teacher. The learning environment will become more diverse and the quality of education will increase as educators from around the world collaborate to offer course content from different perspectives. AI will take over many aspects of education including teaching and grading, freeing up teachers to provide hands-on learning, face-to-face mentor support, and tutoring to struggling students. AI will also allow students to work at their own pace by providing an adaptive learning experience that is repeatable, shareable, and caters to the student’s learning style. Creative teaching methods such as gamification, which uses video games as a platform for learning, will make learning more fun and interactive and incentivize students to perform well.

Although advancements in technology will make online learning richer and more convenient, it will also present some challenges. Since students will not have immediate access to teachers, they will have to plan ahead and take advantage of online office hours to get their questions answered. To ensure collaboration, online classes will need to include discussion forums so students can actively participate with their peers as well as their teachers. To minimize cheating, tests will have to be virtually proctored. As learning becomes more virtual, students will look for ways to link learning to earning. Curriculums will need to offer credentials and certifications which students can then use to acquire jobs.

As prevalent as online education will become, it will not work in every case. Many online courses will still require a physical interactive element. Schools that are predominantly hands-on such as trade schools, medical schools, and dental schools will continue to exist. Learners with disabilities will also continue to present a need for traditional schooling.
Wherever the future of education takes us, I hope that, someday, mixing artificial intelligence with human intelligence will provide the ultimate educational experience!