If your child has just recently begun his or her educational journey and is in elementary school, or is preparing to go to college shortly, there’s no doubting that he or she has been raised in a prominently digital environment. Desktops computers have transformed into portable tablets, and cell phones have become devices that can research information and call two people simultaneously in the span of a few short years. These changes that have made technology more portable have also made it more personal, and this phenomenon is known as technological singularity. As our children become more connected to technology, our classrooms have taken the same path.
One of a teacher’s most difficult tasks is to provide each and every student with the individual attention that he or she needs. With teacher shortages becoming more pronounced, and class sizes increasing, a personalized approach to learning is not always possible. Technological singularity is changing that as technology makes its way into schools. In many classes, students are encouraged to use their smartphones to quickly look up information or ensure a fact is correct. Many new educational review games require students to answer questions on their smartphones and allow them to track their personal progress after they’ve answered all the questions. These types of technological additions are currently welcome in the classroom, but many believe singularity is heading in another interesting direction.
Online learning and virtual schools have become as increasingly popular as technology within the classroom, but is it possible that our schools of the future will be entirely digital? Research devoted to artificial intelligence is also on the rise, leading many scholars and teachers alike to wonder if virtual reality education will soon become the norm. Is it possible that your child will soon be taught from a computer screen by a robot, rather than in a classroom by a living, breathing teacher acquainted with the challenges of educating Generation Z?
The answer is probably not, at least not in the foreseeable future. Singularity’s ultimate goal is to provide students with the most personalized approach to education as possible, but eliminating all human contact to do so does not seem to be the best possible path. It’s likely that more technological elements will be incorporated into your child’s classroom to personalize his or her educational journey, but not to the point that schools are eliminated altogether.