Because I plan on being a high school social studies teacher, articles that relate to education catch my eye. The predictions that Arnold Kling makes in the article "A 2020 Vision for Education" are quite entertaining but when taken literally, scary as well. It could, and may, happen.
Technology is constantly improving, or at least changing, and Kling talks about the opportunity costs that education have to consider. One point was made about personal relations. With the use of technology on the rise it is a normal scene to have children as young as 4 sitting in front of a computer--for hours. What is going to happen socially for these children when they spend most of their time "visiting" with a machine be it a program or via e-mail and chatroom? How are our children going to learn how to relate to others in a social situation? But at the same time we have as many concerns about children who aren't keeping up with technological advancements because "it is the future" and how can anyone succeed without technology?
Read the article by Kling, it may get you as confused and angry as I got!
1 comment:
I'm not sure what to make of Arnold Kling's forecast either. It didn't make me angry, but I was perplexed by some of the predictions.
As to the opportunity costs of education, I'd like to make a totally different observation. The latest research in economic growth shows that the skills that people get paid the most for (historically) involve pattern recognition rather than following rules. Most things that can be done following rules are eventually automated. The corrolary to this is that the wages paid for pattern recognition work are going up. So, I think we ought to make the opportunity costs of education in pattern recognition lower - I don't want to encourage having kids sit in front of computers (mine don't), but it might be the right way to go. I don't know...
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