Education for Tomorrow

Education and education reform are probably one of the most complex and convoluted issues both at a domestic and at the global level. The root of the problem lies in the difficulty of defining what education is. In the dictionary education is defined as "a : the action or process of educating or of being educated; also : a stage of such a process"; but what does that even mean? Have you received a 'good' education if it has led to a high-paying job? Or maybe a 'good' education guides you to a job where you feel most fulfilled or happy? Can education even be defined in one scope, or is it ever-evolving? Fifty years ago many people who knew a lot of (useless) trivia were seen as smart: to know so much trivia it usually involved being well-read and informed. However, now with the world wide web at our fingertips, fun facts aren't that impressive. And with the explosion of technology is education being able to use these new tools to further better or lives (personally on a financial level and/or as a community on a social level).

Regardless of how you view education, one aspect cannot be argued: technology has become a useful tool in the education system as it has infiltrated our society at an unprecedented speed. My brother received his first Mac laptop at the age of 8, while I, the older sister/junior in high school, was left to work with the family's two-year-old iMac desktop. I couldn't get a laptop until I went to college (what? Really Mom and Dad, that's not fair...). My brother attended the same elementary school that I had, eight years before, but things had definitely changed. Every student now has access to his own laptop (each classroom is equipped with 30 laptops), and each individual student has the option to bring his own laptop if he or she has one. My brother is learning a new set of skills that were not taught to me as a child, even though our age difference is less than a decade.

However, at the same time, I feel like the American youth are also losing a vital skill that were once so crucial to our economy. This was first reflected when I decided to look through my brother's 5th grade yearbook. Mine had been filled with "HAGS" (a.k.a have a great summer) or longer notes from close friends where we chronicled our 'life-changing' (jokes) adventures from elementary school. Even people I wasn't really friends with had written a sentence or two, regardless of how generic it sounded. My brother's yearbook, on the other hand, looked like a sign-in sheet. It was simply filled with signatures from all his friends and classmates. Maybe it was a boy thing? But when I asked him about it, he was confused by the concept. Write in a book? Silly. No one did that.

With the accessibility to laptops, cell phones, iPods and iPads, American youth are consistently 'plugged in'. With the introduction of laptops into classrooms as permanent fixtures, there is even less person-to-person contact. There is less need to be confrontational or interact with the thousands of people that surround us on a day-to-day basis. We can cancel plans by sending a text and e-mail our supervisors with some excuse about being 'sick' when in fact we're ridiculously hungover. Another interesting phenomenon among people in their mid-20s is a 'fear of the phone'. Every environment I've worked in, I've always had the 'I hate calling people' conversation with my co-workers (the most DREADED assignment for all of us). We'd rather alphabetize your files from the last 50 years than have to make a phone call. We aren't used to confronting people, or having to adhere to proper phone etiquette. We like to get to our point, in 160 characters or less. That's why e-mail was created, right?

Our economy is a service economy; we don't produce things but instead offer services that include attention, advice, experience and discussion. But with the younger generation losing vital skills that were once essential to provide service, it will be interesting how these educational changes will affect and evolve our economy. One example that we have already seen of this effect is with respect to medical self-diagnosis using the internet. Similarly, people also online shop (which appears easier and more convenient) than going to actual stores. With the current generation participating in less and less face-to-face interaction it will be interesting to see how these services will be provided.

In my opinion, introducing laptops into the classroom at a domestic level is something that should be discouraged, simply because children are receiving enough reinforcement using computers and technology outside of the classroom. Children in America receive their first iPods, cell phones and other gadgets before they even reach kindergarten; I'm even Facebook friends with my 6-year-old camper. Because of the excessive knowledge of computers that American youth have, introducing a 1 to 1 laptop curriculum in the classroom is more detrimental and distracting than useful. 

On the other hand, however, at a global level, a whole new stream of questions about a 1 to 1 laptop program arises. In developing countries, it may be that a 'good' education is easier to define: the government wants to provide the children with the skills necessary to assist the country in becoming on par with developed countries. Providing a laptop to children in developing countries has the possibility of opening many doors and opportunities that were not once available to them. As many research has shown, young children have the ability to navigate and learn how to use computers with minimal to no instruction from adults. A laptop should be available to these children in a classroom setting as an aide to the teacher, and could become the textbooks, books and other instruction that were once not available to them, all in a portable, lightweight gadget.