The World of Ender

Thursday, May 04, 2006

The High School of the Future

What will high schools look like 50 to 100 years from now? Brainstorm what you think some of the possibilities will be.

This should be interesting!

posted by Brady Kelso @ 8:15 AM  

16 Comments:

  • At 9:31 AM, Blogger Armin Samii said…

    I actually believe that High School will be somewhat like Ender's school in 100 years. Each desk will be a personal computer. It will not have all the high-tech features of Ender's desk, but it will have the ability to take notes, do research, and you will be able to access your account from any desk and at home. Teachers would be able to access the account of eacb student to help them out, just like Mr. Kelso's explanation of his Spanish class. If a student needs help, he pushes a button and the teacher can come over. If a student is absent, the lesson/lecture will be sent to her home computer.

    Another possibilty is that high school could be completely online. There are already many online high schools and perhaps it will spread to every school.

     

  • At 5:11 PM, Blogger cacerola said…

    I personally don't like the idea of being able to transfer knowledge through a patch or chip in schools. To me the learning process is equally as important as the actual knowledge. It's the time spent figuring out how those math problems are put together, wondering why sentence structures aren't put another way, realizing how foreign languages have patterns, and finally being able to relate what you've learned in school to real life that gives you a better understanding and sense of pride. Besides, the discipline needed to actually learn something holds a lot more respect than something any Tom, Dick, or Harry can upload in just a few minutes. Learning things by just plugging in a chip or putting on a patch would decrease inventiveness as it would make it hard to question what's being taught and finding out the answer from yourself or from someone who is living, breathing and willing to tell you first hand why you are being either extremely stupid or why your idea just might work.

    Also, the amount of pressure on the students of tommorrow will increase tenfold. Think of the pressure that your parents put on you to succeed. Will you expect the same, if not more out of your children than your parents expect of you today? And after your pressuring your children don't you think they will do the same for their's? School schedules in the future will be optimized for maximum results in a shorter span of time than is used today instead of a chip(think of when your grandparents learned calculus. In college, right? Now it's offered as a high school course). Also, the competition will be staggering as more and more dedicated 'super-children' are born. I'm not talking about geniuses (although no doubt there will be quite a lot), I'm talking about those individuals who push themselves to the limit in order to get into the best college or university by standing out from the crowd with their perfect test scores, excellent atheletic records, community service hours, and other extracurricular activities that take away from the whole point of adolescence. Due to this pressure to succeed, there might be quite a problem with 'mind enhancing drugs' and I think that they will be banned from any and all standardized tests, AP exams, and any other sort of school related test you can think of. Schools don't want the child with the perfect test scores because he was souped up with drugs from mommy and daddy's money. They want the kid who got a perfect score through hard work and determination.

    I'm sorry to say this, but cliques will probably still exist. Like-minded people, especially impressionable teenagers, tend to flock together in order to create a sense of security and belonging. However, I highly doubt that these kids will have much time to 'hang out' because of the many extracurriculars that their parents will be pushing for them to take. Another problem could be the increasing gap between people who actually want to try at school and succeed and those who come just because it's required by law. You can already see this gap in schools today. Many of the children who do want to succeed hang out with each other and push themselves to new horizons. However, I fear for the increasingly popular, lax attitude adopted by quite a number of the kids at school that seems to spread like a disease once caught(Don't act horrified. You know exactly the type of people I am talking about, and you know that trying to get them to pay attention or even to care whether they fail or not is like trying to teach a block of wood quantum physics.) I don't even want to think of how the people of the future will handle these children as the only sure-fire way that I can think of would include many bruises and extreme psychological rewiring for those with that attitude.

    As for clothing, they'll probably have to wear uniforms. Styles of clothing are becoming increasingly more varied and most of the stuff we wear to school does not appear nearly professional enough (Think of the unders that show on both boys and girls. Yes, I said girls too. How would you see this as a parent, a school administrator, how about a psychologist. Their reasoning will be that children less obsessed with clothing and looking cool will do better in school. While this might work in a perfect universe, I don't think it will work normally. Wearing a uniform for someodd years has forced me to come to this conclusion.)Besides, being unique is so overrated.

     

  • At 6:04 PM, Blogger cacerola said…

    Seriously, what's with making the robots the bad guys? We created them. Think of it from their perspective, we come in and give them life and the ability to think. Then, we decide that they are inferior (starting to sound familiar?) We use them as slaves. We're constantly throwing them away for newer, faster models and never give them so much as a thank you.Finally, seeing them prosper makes us jealous and we set out to kill all robots (Except for maybe the toaster. He's cool.) Does that sound fair to you? No wonder they'd rebell. I would. Therefore, we must be KIND to robots. They haven't done anything wrong yet.

    (Join Sapiens and Robots for a Humane Society. [SRHS])

     

  • At 7:49 PM, Blogger cacerola said…

    I'm going to have to disagree with Josh on his opinion that any nuclear reactors, even 'mini' ones to power desks, should have a place in the future society. I hope that by the time all of these advancements have occured, we will have advanced well enough to create an energy source that renews itself with out the nuclear aspect.

    Yes, Annu. I do feel that this blog is a way of sharing knowledge and learning from others, and in most cases it could work. However, what happens to the passion with which someone writes? You can't transfer all of your body language, eye contact, and most importantly, you can't learn compassion from talking on a blog on the internet. Compassion will have to be a required course in schools of the future as everything else becomes less personal. How else are we going to be able to walk a mile in someone else's shoes or feel the gut-wrenching sadness that keeps us from repeating things such as the Holocaust? Some of the children in Ender's Game at the school seemed as if they could do that again if they thought they needed to. Raising kids in such an environment causes them to grow up too soon and doesn't give them enough time to sort things out and constantly change their perspective. That's why we must keep the compassionate element in schools. Because with experience breeds passion, something that takes a billion words to transfer in letters, but a single tear to express in a moment. (Sorry if this sounds like a lecture. I don't mean it to come off that way. It's just sort of the way I'm trying to get my point across, which probably isn't doing such a good job, but once again, I don't mean to offend anybody. I'm just saying what I think.)

    P.S. Don't any of you listen to what Josh says about a robot takeover! They are our friends and we should respect them! SRHS will destroy all robot stereotypes. (See above post for full acronym of SRHS)

     

  • At 8:00 PM, Blogger cacerola said…

    Steven, you weren't the only one who was held back by people in your class. My classes from 2nd to 8th grade taught me little (most of what I did learn I taught myself). I could have done much more in that time period than the meager work we did. However, in the future, schools will not be grouped the way they are today. Students will be evaluated for learning speeds and styles. They then will be grouped with people who have extremely similar styles and will go at a pace that is perfect for the entire class. And as for funding by a parent, what about those students whose parents cannot pay? Are you saying that you would prefer the rich to become educated while the poor and ignorant stay the way they are? That concept would revert humanity all the way back to the Middle Ages when the rich had all and the poor little. I don't want us to go back to that time period and that is why the government should continue to fund education in the future. Plus, don't you think we'll be able to dramatically reduce illegals to almost none in the future?

     

  • At 8:24 PM, Blogger cacerola said…

    Yes, but wouldn't it make sense that they would have a test that accomodated all types of learning so that when they teach they could teach each individual group in the best possible way? Also, what about the technology to process the computer chips? And what about the fact that people are going to be suspicious of any chip that the government gives them to 'learn'. It could have secret messages encrypted or program the reciever to kill himself. As for population growth, why wouldn't it just be something that kids take like a standardized test in kindergarden and every other year as needed? We already do STAR testing, or whatever you call it, and that seems to go along okay.

     

  • At 8:36 PM, Blogger cacerola said…

    I never said your prediction was wrong, I was just trying to get a better understanding of how your idea of the future worked.

     

  • At 8:37 PM, Blogger Armin Samii said…

    Wow a lot of good things I never thought of.

    First off, I completely agree with everybody who said that the social aspect of school is important. However, I currently see a pattern of more and more online high schools. For example, take this site. A completely online school with benifits such as flexible schedules. So although I do not agree with this, I see it happening.
    I am aware that this is mostly for high-school drop-outs (or so say the T.V. commercials), but I know somebody who was seriously thinking of completing high school online because it only takes two years (and because he could play WoW all day...).

    In conclusion, online schools are available to all current high schoolers and those who want to continue/re-take high school. Although it is not the best method of school, it is more convenient.

     

  • At 8:57 PM, Blogger cacerola said…

    I guess microchips could be used as a supplement to school but I still like the idea of a school with lots of different people because you get lots of different viewpoints and learn to tolerate them (even if it is to the lesser degree)

     

  • At 8:03 PM, Blogger cacerola said…

    Come on Josh. Can you really imagine being 'perfect, cold, and calculating'? How boring would that make everyday life? Just think of all the things that define us. You learn by making mistakes and become a better person. (In most cases) Also, while robots might be perfect, they lack the ability to think outside the box. Do you think that any computer could have innovated the way Ender did? Or to be realistic, how many computers that you know could come up with amazing literature and astounding pieces of art? More importantly, how would they even exist on this planet without us? Also, robots would only possess this 'uncrushable' aspect if they were programmed that way. No matter how smart anyone is, you can always outsmart them with something they cannot (or will not)predict. No matter how much you may aspire to be like a robot, being human is so much more fun and rewarding in the end (even if you lose).

     

  • At 8:14 PM, Blogger Armin Samii said…

    I disagree with SnappingTurtle. Schools will be able to have advanced technology because as we gain more technology, older technology becomes cheaper. For example, if you were to buy a good computer two years ago, it won't be worth much today. However, the computer still does the essentials: word process and browse the internet. Therefore, in 100 years, it will cost probably around $50 per laptop that can word process and browse the internet. If the school buys a class set for each teacher, it will not cost very much. The students may want to bring their own more advanced laptops which they can pay for themselves. At the rate which technology is growing, there will be so many advances that students would get bored in an obsolete classroom. For example, if you have one of those bulky cell phones made just 5 years ago, you think it's huge. You want one made recently, one that has features such as text messaging and taking pictures.
    One hundred years ago, videos and pictures were probably not shown in school, it was all lectures. Today, if a teacher only lectures, they are considered boring. One hundred years from now, we will probably learn by playing video games or something. If a teacher still shows videos to teach, they will be considered a boring teacher.

     

  • At 5:30 PM, Blogger cacerola said…

    I personally wold never put a chip in my brain or on my head to learn. I wouldn't even put it on the heads of my children for that matter. Brain chips seem very risky and not a really sound way to learn something. Of course, I'm old-fashioned that way and would be seen as the crazy lady who doesn't believe in brain chips and goes around town rambling on about the abuses modern society has placed on our advances in science. For example, choosing the gender of your kid? Come on. Do you think you would be better off if your parents had decided to switch your gender? And what about cloning? I actually had a teacher once who said that the difference between us and clones would be that the clones had no souls. Can you imagine the consequences of people who think like that if we were ever to make a human clone? I think that in the future we're gonna have to draw a pretty clear line on what is acceptable and what isn't if we ever want to avoid major fights between the scientific and religious communities. (This isn't a comment on religion. It's just the way that such fights have panned out in the past.)

     

  • At 7:56 PM, Blogger Armin Samii said…

    I am suprised by Rui's comment! Robots will never be able to have the appitude that humans do. Unless artificial intelligence is created, which I doubt because it is basically creating a new species, they will not have the creativity to make their own games.

     

  • At 8:51 PM, Blogger dude said…

    I believe that in the future, people will still go to school, but instead, one will sit down in this big hightech chair, and the data and info will be sent into your brain through radio waves. However, I still believe that we will have to do written assignments, except that we won't have to write, we can just think it, and the waves will send the info to a writing utencil, which will write it for you. For homework, one will just have to sit in a smaller, less high-tech chair (which will be supplied by the school in 1st grade) and do the homework, and the data will be automatically sent to the main school hardrive. Also, teachers will give out chips every semester, which will update your "chair". I do not believe that "machines" will take place of our school, or that a chip will be implanted, and you'll learn everything there is to learn in one day. In the 11th and 12th grades, there will be a class where, you put on these glasses, and a 3 dimensional, virtual reality scene comes up of your work. Students will get their first experience at having a job.

    That is how schools will be 50-100 years fro now.

     

  • At 9:29 AM, Blogger Armin Samii said…

    Regarding Filip's comment, I don't believe that we will be able to write essays by just thinking about them. I had a dream that this was possible in fifth grade, but I don't think it's likely to happen.

    However, I think that there might be a way to stimulate your thinking using brain waves or something. The device may allow you to remember something that you were searching for. For example, if you can't think of the word for "to bounce up and down," you use this device and it will remind you of the word "hop."

    Hop on pop!

     

  • At 8:12 PM, Blogger dude said…

    Regarding all the people who talk about robots and chips...

    I believe that schools won't be replaced by robots, or electronic chips because people will still need to build up their social skills and responsibility. Without school, everybody would be anti-social and would have no responsibility because all their lives, no one would have to worry about turning an assignment in on time, and no one would have to talk to other people. As a result, schools will still be seen in 100 years, however, there will be great technological advancements.

     

Post a Comment

<< Home