Education, now and later

There’s a sense these days that the future of education will look very different from the recent past. It might look a little bit like the present, with online classes and video conferencing, but that was somewhat anticipated if not outright desired by various edtech startups and tech evangelists.

The benefit of online education lies in the availability of online content, and the downside of online education appears to be the sheer quantity of online content.

The act of curating such content for a tailored student experience would appear to be one of ‘those new service sector jobs‘ a la Tyler Cowen. Whether that person is considered to be a ‘teacher’ or not is probably subject to debate, but having a person well versed in the content that they are continually revising and disseminating to ‘students’ and availing themselves to further conversation about said content would be valuable in this potential future education. Neal Stephenson, as usual, has already thought of someone like this is in Fall, where wealthy individuals and families hire editors to curate information feeds. While I’m still waiting for a Diamond Age – esque Primer for my daughters, Mr. Stephenson’s type of futurism has often seemed to be near attainable.

Next time, on the future experience of education.