Future Musings

"Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today."
Malcolm X

Considering how fast technology is progressing and adapting I find this quote rather apt for our future careers. A lot of the tools we explored in this unit of work were very unfamiliar to me and seemed at first to be unlikely to be used in the primary classroom today but perhaps in the 'future'. However, it is our job to prepare our students for their future; in order to do this we need to be ahead of the current trends and have some idea of the vision for the future of technology and society. Keeping up with technological advances may not always be about finding innovative lesson ideas or resources but understanding what our students will need to thrive in a world where these 'advances' are commonplace.

Preparing students for the future of the web is one such step. Web 3.0 is the future, and it is about blurring the lines between reality and virtual reality. In virtual worlds, users can have access to things that they would never have previously got the opportunity to see in reality and vice versa users can have access to information from the digital world to supplement their reality. Students can be immersed in a world outside their reality which can have fascinating practical uses but also social drawbacks. It will be very important for individuals to have a strong grounding in reality to avoid them getting lost in the wilderness of virtual worlds. I found an article by Ora Lassila and James Hendler from 3 years ago, 'Embracing "Web 3.0"' of particular interest as it discusses the change that has already been happening over the years to support the semantic web (although admittedly a lot of the jargon is lost on me).

I admit after the final lecture I was fascinated and intrigued but I didn't see the relevance in terms of teaching today. However, now I understand. It's not just about preparing us as teachers for the future teaching environment; it is about us preparing our students for their future environment, and that starts now. What this means in a practical sense for my pedagogy I'm not yet sure, but I understand the importance now and that is certainly the first step.