What Will Education Look Like in 10 Years?

the power of a countrys economy is indissolubly concomitant to the strength of its

education system. Americas competitiveness, in particular, all starts within its
classrooms, thus its education system needs to be strengthened and reformed for it
to be able to keep up with the fast-changing global market. With that said,
technology visionaries Bill Gates and Salman Khan have their own insights of what
the education system should turn out like in the next 10 years or so. Here is what
education will look like in 10 years according to Gates and Khan:

Personalized Education
People are equipped with unique learning styles: some are visual learners, while
some rely on their auditory capacity. Unfortunately, the traditional setting only
utilizes a generic approach. Even when a student is being taught by the best
teacher in the area, if the teacher fails to complement that students learning style,
he will not be able to help his student master a certain topic.

In a technology conference held in Austin, Texas, Bill Gates, who was the keynote
speaker for the occasion, campaigned for the need for personalized education,
which caters to the students unique learning style. Inspiring him to do so is Salman
Khan, founder of the Khan Academy, which is perhaps the first website to provide
personalized learning programs to interested participants. An advocate of
education, Gates has recently taken a massive investment in online education, with
his foundation along others like Carnegie Corporation donating 0 million to InBloom.
This funding aims to help the company develop a program that allows the instructor
to keep track of a students performance, so he can determine the best intervention
for the learner.

Technology-enhanced Learning Approach

The power of a countrys economy is indissolubly concomitant to the strength of its
education system. Americas competitiveness, in particular, all starts within its
classrooms, thus its education system needs to be strengthened and reformed for it
to be able to keep up with the fast-changing global market. With that said,
technology visionaries Bill Gates and Salman Khan have their own insights of what
the education system should turn out like in the next 10 years or so.There is no way
students can absorb their lessons in a single run. Some only rely on their scribbled
notes and vague recollections, most of which are unreliable ways to master the
subject. In the next years or so, this problem will no longer exist.

Gates and Khan are currently promoting the use of video for open education. These
videos can be paused and replayed, as required by students. Since the videos can
be accessed through websites such as YouTube, a student can walk through the
lesson which he failed to understand the day before, and play it over and over until
he gets a good grasp of it. Unlike textbooks, these videos are engaging and highlyinteractive, assuring that the learner will never get bored along the way. They
motivate a student to ask questions, which is something he may hesitate to do in
the classroom.

More Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs)

One of the foremost concerns why high school graduates do not go to college, or
why college students drop out in the middle of the semester, is the lack of funds for
tuition. With college tuition averaging more than $28,000 a year, dropout rates all
around the world continue to soar.

MOOCs can address the rising costs and inaccessibility of higher education. They
are free courses that can be accessed by almost anyone with the use of internet
connection. Learners from all over the world can now obtain a birds eye view of the
courses being taught in prestigious universities just by accessing MOOC websites
like MIT Open Course Ware, Coursera (33 Universities) and edX (Harvard and
Berkeley). With the emergence of MOOC websites, students wont have to pay
costly fees to get decent-quality education in the near future.

More Adaptive Learning Platforms

Apart from Moocs, adaptive learning platforms such as the Khan Academy and
Knewton can help reshape the face of education in the next number of years. These
websites provide online materials based on the persons learning style in order to
help him grasp lessons immediately. This is what Gates calls personalized
education.

In these websites, students get to create an account watch videos, view

instructional manuals and answer virtual exams. Coaches or teachers can keep
track of the learners progress on the website, and intervene as needed. For
example, a coach can help learner A once he sees that he has been stuck with
algebraic equations for 4 days now.

With their numerous benefits, these adaptive learning platforms can help students
with different learning styles improve their knowledge in the future. As people get to

see the benefits of such platforms, more are expected to be built in the years to
come.

New Feedback Systems = Improved Teaching Approach

Another issue in education is the lack of feedback channels for instructors, which
keeps them in the dark since they do not know whether they are doing a good job or
not. Teachers need to assess which areas of their approach they need to improve on
so they can be much more effective at what they do.

With Gates massive investment in online education and technological programs,

teachers will soon be able to receive comprehensive feedback. In fact, theres
already one currently being developed by InBloom Company. With the help of this
improved feedback system, instructors can customize their methods, so they can
help students learn more and excel in school.

Lower Education Costs = Free More Funds for Research

Lack of research is one of the most pressing concerns in the world of education.
Research is vital for seeking solutions to questions raised, but many researchers are
beset with limited funding and government support. But this could change 10 years
from now, with Gates vision of open education.As students can take massive online
open courses, the cost of education can be lowered. The reshaped system may cut
costs associated with building schools or hiring more instructors as the students
would no longer be confined with the usual setup of traditional education system.
This can free some funds to go into research instead, for the discovery and
formulation of new and better solutions that can further enhance the education
system in many parts of the world.

With the many issues besetting the education system today, the development of
more technologies for personalized programs can provide immense opportunities
for underprivileged students or those who do not have the capacity to acquire goodquality education in the traditional system. These innovations are seen to
revolutionize the education system in the next 10 years or maybe sooner, who
knows?