The Future of Technology In Education
Education will be really improved through technology. In the future, students will have many different options for their education. Students will be able to take online correspondence courses from home, with real-time video and multimedia over high-speed internet connections. This means that a student could be anywhere where there's an internet connection, including on the road or on the beach with wireless internet, and still make it to class! Sorry, no snow days.

The internet will be a major resource for students and teachers alike. Students will be able to contact professors and workers in the field, and get almost immediate replies. Entire classrooms will be able to watch live real-life experiences, such as archaeologists at a dig site, or astronauts in space; and interact with them.

Teleconferences will be a large part of future education. Technology will allow individuals to attend class from home, with full video and audio link-ups. Also, entire classrooms will link-up together, sharing presentations and doing research together; even if they're thousands of miles apart.

Virtual Reality hardware and software will allow students to do some really cool things. Dissections won't always have to be performed on real animals; with Virtual Reality they will be able to use their hands and simulate dissecting an animal, and be able to try it again if they make a mistake. Real dissections will only have to be performed to complete a course, to show that they can do a real-life dissection.

Computers will be in every classroom. Not just one for the whole class, but one per student. Each student and teacher will have either a desktop computer or a laptop computer, which will all be connected together and to the internet. The software will let the teacher decide exactly which students can connect to the internet, talk to each other via their computers, and what software they can use. Their will be computer software for most courses, eliminating the need for thousands of books. Even handwriting will be practiced using computers; students will be able to write directly onto the screen, or a graphics tablet if they prefer.

© 1999 John Norton