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The future of education
Pierfranco Ravotto
Premises
First of all, I want to thank the organisers for entrusting me with such an ambitious title: "TheFuture of Education". But I feel I ought to put the significance of my speech into perspective.First I am neither a scholar of scenarios nor an expert of school politics at worldly level. What I can provide is the experience of a teacher who has been attentive for 30 years to the on-going learningdynamics and who has been experimenting new pedagogical methods, lately often connected to theuse of ICT as an aid to enhance teaching and learning.Secondly none of us, in front of the present dramatic crossroads, is in the position of foreseeing thefuture.
"We know
- Barack Obama said in the Election Night Speech in Grant Park
–
the challengesthat tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime – two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century"
[1]. The future of education too depends on how we will be able toface these challenges. Unless we are able to stop the rush to "collapse", education itself may haveno future.But trying to avoid the environmental collapse, the clash of cultures, trying to improve economics by guaranteeing a more equal distribution of wealth ... well, all this also depends on schools anduniversities, on how we will be able to renew, revamp education and, last but not least, if we areable to do all this as soon as possible. It's a long time since the European Union has spoken of a"knowledge society". On the approval of the European programme called Life Long Learning, JànFige', EU Commissioner of Education and Training programmes, has declared:
"Education and training are the foundations of society in front of economic and demographic changes"
[2]. As suchthey can represent the drive of change.In my speech I'll try to focus on 5 main issues that I deem as relevant to define the future of education.These 5 issues address various stakeholders: public bodies, policy makers, teachers, anyoneinvolved in teaching/learning.Briefly the key words of these issues are:
•
Digital natives,
•
Life long learning,
•
Certifications,
•
The role of the teachers and their competencies,
•
The value of "openness" in the educational context.
Digital natives
Digital natives is a term introduced
b
y
Mark Prensky [3] referring to a generation that has grown up plunged in digital technologies: music, videos on CD-ROM, DVD or downloadable from the net,mobiles to talk, to send messages, to take photos and videos, computers to play, to chat, to send e-mails, to video phone via Skype, to search for information and to socialize, to exchangecontent/data/information by means of MySpace, FaceBook, YouTube, Twitter, … Such a generation
takes the prompt access to any kind of information or any people for granted, they are used tosearching for (and finding) the resources they need in the chaotic Internet, to practising peer-to-peer and acting in a multitasking way. An example? While they are chatting by MSN, they downloadmusic by e-mule and see a video on YouTube, with their iPod firmly set in their ears!
"Media and ICT -
Ardizzone and Rivoltella write [4] -
represent the culture in which the young people live, build up and exchange meanings"
.It is not just a matter of "habits". Prensky highlights how the
thinking patterns
of the digital nativeshave changed, their brain structure has in some way changed due to the different experiences theyhave been living.Howard Gardner affirms that
"intelligences significantly differ from one another depending on thekind of culture they have developed in: if in a pre-literacy culture, or in a classical or modern onewhere the text is essential, or in a post-modern culture where literacy refers to a variety of signsthat work jointly, sometimes in a synergic way, some other times in a chaotic mixture".
[5]Differently from other similar terms, such as
net generation
or
screen generation
, the term "digitalnatives" is particularly meaningful for the school environment as it is opposed to the term "digitalimmigrants" that is the condition, if we are lucky, of the teachers.As immigrants, teachers need to learn how to be in tune with their learners' "habits", how to getused to their "language", how to be able to understand "the variety of signs" that best suit their students'
intelligences
.It is no longer possible to stay stuck to the school model of the 900s, characterised by:
•
a learning paradigm based on an ordered, systematic and sequential transmission of knowledge(often with diluted time),
•
the central role of the teacher and rows of desks fixedly located in front of the teacher's desk andthe blackboard,
•
a learning process characterised by lesson-individual study-exercises assessment/ evaluation,
•
a strict subject-based division of knowledge,
•
a school timetable that beats time not only of each subject, but also of lessons and lab activities.A Copernican revolution is needed in terms of a shift:
•
from the central role played by teacher so far to the central role of the learner,
•
from teaching to learning,
•
from the transmission of knowledge according to behavioural or cognitive models to the building up of knowledge according to a constructive or connectionist model,
•
from a hierarchical system (teacher-learner) to a net-like system, where the contribution of peersis worth being taken into consideration,
•
from a systematic, linear and sequential order to the hypermedia "disorder",
•
from time-diluted to concentrated learning time,
•
from a prison-like school to a potential enjoyable environment,
•
from formal learning to a mixture of formal, non-formal and informal learning,
•
from a traditional model of school to the one I like defining as a school 2.0.
Lifelong learning
In my introduction I mentioned a Programme called Lifelong Learning (LLP) [6]. The EuropeanParliament and the Council have launched this programme on 15 November 2006. Its main aim is to
contribute through lifelong learning to the development of the Community as an advancedknowledge society, with sustainable economic development, more and better jobs and greater socialcohesion while guaranteeing an effective protection of the environment for the future generations,according to the development plan known as Lisbon Strategy [7].The term
lifelong learning
refers to a completely new phenomenon which started in the second half of the past century and that utterly upset the learning context of the previous centuries, whenlearning occurred only in the individual's initial period of life and just on that his/her future as acitizen and a worker was based.The continuous acceleration of technological innovation expects a change regarding bothcitizenship and professionalism. The one who is victim of digital device is cut off from activecitizenship. In the world of work new jobs have been emerging and the necessary competencies todo "old" jobs have also changed: all this is valid for a surgeon, a nurse, an engineer as well as for a plumber or an electrician.The education and training system is required to answer the individuals' needs to update their owncompetencies and to acquire new ones through life long learning. And this implies both initial andcontinuum learning.
•
Even if the "school period" is now referred to as "initial learning", this does not diminish, but onthe contrary, enlarges the tasks of education which is asked to provide not only the necessarycompetencies to manage a specific job, but also that set of cross-skills allowing the individual toface further educational paths. One of the papers of the European Union calls [8]
"for Member States to ensure the acquisition … by all by the end of initial education and training"
of 8
"
key competences …
1.Communication in the mother tongue;2.Communication in the foreign languages;3.Mathematical competence and basic competences in science and technology;4.Digital competence;5.Learning to learn;6.Interpersonal, intercultural and social competences and civic competence;7.Entrepreneurship;8.Cultural expression".
•
As far as "continuum learning" or "adult education" is concerned, a properly defined system isstill in-progress. In Europe, Nuisii underlines that the situation varies from country to country[9].Federici and Ragone suggest (for Italy) that
"a system of higher education and training for Lifelong Learning must envisage:- a socially and locally developed system that responds to very different needs;-a system which offers incentives to people and organizations;-a multiplayer approach based on real partnerships between thedifferent training systems;-an integrated monitored and certified approach in which people cancapitalize on competences wherever acquired;-an innovative methodological and technological approach". [10]
Certifications
In a globalized world cooperation between companies in different countries and transnational
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