| Literature DB >> 32838405 |
Abstract
In Restructuring Education Through Technology, I incorporated systems thinking to identify seven types of relationships in educational systems: teacher-student, student-content, student-context, teacher-content, teacher-context, content-context, and education system-environment relationships (Frick 1991). I now revisit these education system relations and discuss potential futures of education. The World Wide Web did not exist when I wrote the original treatise, nor did wireless smartphones and tablets, Google's search engine, YouTube, Facebook, or Wikipedia. However, one important education system relationship should not change: the affective bonding between teachers and their students. © Association for Educational Communications & Technology 2020.Entities:
Keywords: adaptive instruction; computer technology; education system; educology; future education systems; system component relationships; systems thinking
Year: 2020 PMID: 32838405 PMCID: PMC7425255 DOI: 10.1007/s11528-020-00527-y
Source DB: PubMed Journal: TechTrends ISSN: 1559-7075
Fig. 1Basic schema for system and negasystem
Fig. 2Basic schema for an education system and education negasystem
Teacher-student relationships
| Same: 1990 and 2020 | Different: 2020 |
|---|---|
| Teachers continue to directly guide student learning face-to-face in classrooms in school and campus buildings; and via field trips with students outside of schools. | Teachers directly guide student learning in their classes remotely and in real-time through online connections in ways that include synchronous chat and two-way video (e.g., Google Hangouts, FaceTime, Skype, Zoom). |
| Teachers guide student learning in their classes by making recorded videos played back via the Internet (e.g., using course management systems such as Canvas, Blackboard, and Moodle); by making screencasts (e.g., voice over PowerPoint slides); by sending e-mail and text messages; by creating course websites; by contributing to online discussion forums; etc. Some of these can be very large online classes, referred to as MOOCs. | |
| Students on the job can continue their education; working professionals can also moonlight as teachers in these programs—who may not have teaching licenses or advanced degrees but who are competent practitioners. | |
| Online education programs also can facilitate a much greater diversity of students from different countries, cultures and ethnicities for teachers to guide. These programs further provide students with opportunities to learn from a far greater diversity of teachers. |
Student-content relationships
| Same: 1990 and 2020 | Different: 2020 |
|---|---|
| We still have content in textbooks, magazines, newspapers, recorded movies, videos and music, etc. for students to use as resources for learning. | Students live in an environment and culture that now includes vast resources available through the Internet. This is the new “library” accessible via smartphones, tablets, and computers. |
Teacher-content relationships
| Same: 1990 and 2020 | Different: 2020 |
|---|---|
| Teachers can access content in the same ways as do students, described in Table | Teachers can access content in the same ways as do students, described in Table |
| Teacher professional development activities often occurred when students were not in school, and to seek an advanced degree often meant taking a leave of absence during the school year or taking in-person courses on a college campus during summers, nights, and weekends. | Teachers can continue their own learning via online programs during the school year without taking a leave of absence from their jobs. They can also pursue advanced degrees online. |
Student-context relationships
| Same: 1990 and 2020 | Different: 2020 |
|---|---|
| Students continue to physically attend formal classes in school buildings and on college campuses. | Students can individually use portable digital devices (e.g., iPads, Chromebooks, laptop computers, smartphones) that run on batteries and connect wirelessly to local and remote networks, not only in school classrooms, but also for doing homework outside of school. |
| Younger students who have not reached adulthood still need direct supervision by adults in environments that are safe. | Adult students of all ages now can take formal classes online, where they can earn diplomas, degrees, and certificates from home or from just about anywhere with Internet access. |
| Students can interact with their peers, friends, and others through social media—including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, etc. | |
| There are many ongoing distractions in the environment that can disrupt student attention to learning activities. Instead of noisy peers in a school classroom, students at other times and places are frequently interrupted by notifications from their devices—e.g., new text messages, e-mails, likes or dislikes of their social media posts, news alerts, etc. |
Teacher-context relationships
| Same: 1990 and 2020 | Different: 2020 |
|---|---|
| Teachers used blackboards, marker boards, and overhead projectors for classroom group presentations. | These have been supplemented or replaced by teacher use of digital projection devices (LCD/LED projectors) and large display devices (such as flat-screen TVs) for classroom group presentations. |
| Teachers would occasionally invite others from outside school to participate in classroom activities. | Teachers can now virtually bring in guest teachers to their classrooms via video conferencing. |
| Teachers would occasionally make special arrangements to take their students on field trips. | Teachers can take their students on virtual field trips, while remaining physically in school classrooms. |
| Teachers spend most of their time in school buildings and classrooms when working with students. In 1990, they were largely disconnected (no phones, computers, wi-fi, or Internet) in the classroom. | Many teachers can connect digitally to the “outside” world while in their school classrooms (i.e., to the Internet via wi-fi, smartphones, tablets, and laptop or desktop computers). |
| Teachers can work from home and still interact with students over the Internet (e.g., Zoom, Hangouts, Facebook) and via course management systems (e.g., Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle). | |
| Perhaps the greatest context change is that teachers can now teach from just about anywhere to adult students also located just about anywhere—if both have online access. Teachers are freed from the constraints of needing to be in a classroom with students physically present at the same time. |
Content-context relationships
| Same: 1990 and 2020 | Different: 2020 |
|---|---|
| Content is stored in printed books, recorded videos, movies, on bulletin board displays, etc. which are physically located in school buildings and classrooms. | |
| Content is further stored and distributed via mass media such as cable TV, newspapers, magazines, movie theaters, etc. | |
| Physical libraries and museums function to curate and store content. |