The future of learning is in the child IN FRONT OF YOU

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When we think of learning we tend to equate it with children. When we thinking of examinations we think of teenagers, and when we think of career building we think of university or college students. In some ways we are right, but in other ways we are way off the mark. Here’s how.

Firstly, in the future, everything will be backwards. The learners will become the teachers, the teenagers will become the examinations, and the university students will become the career builders. This is because the future of learning will start with the world view of the child, and from there the uniqueness of the learning will just expand within the person, making it incredibly dynamic for every learner.

For so long we learned based on the curriculum. The question was, who wrote the curriculum, and really did it suit everyone? No because many people failed the system. They failed the system thinking that they weren’t intelligent enough to pass. In fact, they were often very intelligent, it’s just that the curriculum was way too narrow. In the future, the curriculum will come from the learner. There will be an intense individuality to learning that has never been seen before. At the same time, because the learner has connected with themselves in such a deep way, there will be a universality about it. Somehow we are all the same, but in very unique ways (so to speak).

The child before us is that unique person. We all know that if we are parents or teachers, but does the curriculum know that. Currently it doesn’t, but the future of education does. There are plenty of technology tools out there that are guiding the child, but at the same time, it is the child who is guiding the technology. As we put a 5 year old in front of a learning programme on an ipad, it isn’t the ipad that is building the child, it is the child that is manipulating the programme to gain their own satisfaction.

The technology skills are branching out, and the openness of learning is gaining momentum. One child can sit at a programme and come up with a completely different output than their friend sitting next to them. This is the future of learning. There shouldn’t be any right or wrong answers to the complex questions, and nowadays the child is the one who will be making sure that happens.

So the next time you wonder what the future of education is going to be like, know that it is not the technology that will be the future, it is the child in front of you. That unique mind and it’s absorption into the world will use the tech tools to explore it.

It’s exciting, but teachers need to be ready, there will be a whole new set of skills teachers will need to make sure the child continues to be creative. No more rote learning, no more chanting, no more correct or incorrect answers….all will be explored.

At last.