In the next 30 years it’s hard to speculate as to how much our lives may or may not change due to technology. Although hopeful that there will be many positive outcomes, I am also not naïve to the fact that the technology industry is in the business of making money. Let’s look at utopian and dystopian speculation for the not-so-distant future!

From an education standpoint, technology could in fact help in many areas that our teachers are struggling to find time to address fully. With schools using one to one devices, artificial intelligence could be used to tailor student learning putting the students truly at the center. Students will complete their work fully online where algorithms will be used to check student work and provide next steps including extra instruction or challenges. Programs will update teachers and parents on a student’s progress. Learning will be at the appropriate level and will use topics the student is directly interested in. These programs will provide students with choices for how they will complete the work as well as choices in topics. This will provide much needed autonomy over student learning.  A teacher’s role will move into facilitator. They will be responsible for ensuring students are physically using the device to do their work, whether that is at school or from a remote location. Teachers will focus on social-emotional learning situations, monitoring online group work as well as in-person interactions. Students will no longer be able to “fall under the radar” and fall behind in their studies. All students will be able to read and write thanks to access to the assistive technologies they require to be successful. Students will be well versed in sharing their ideas to the global community through the publishing of their work on public platforms. Because the learning will be tailored to individual preferences, students will be presented with opportunities to become involved in projects that affect our global health in line with their own passions (environmental concerns, climate change, children’s rights etc.). A classroom teacher in our present day must choose which topics will be presented to the whole class, there is often little room for individual choices as there is not enough time to fuel the passions of 30 students for every subject taught! Students would benefit from this use of artificial intelligence as they would be motivated to keep learning and there would be an excitement about what is next.

On the other hand, artificial technology developments could actually hinder our education system. The use of artificial intelligence to track student progress would inevitably create a focus on achievement only. We would lose our holistic approach to education. Students would have to login to a program to complete their school work. This same login information could be used to access other services as well such as community centers. The programs could flag students as to whether or not they should be granted access based on their study progress. Students not achieving the success indicators AI lays out for them could suffer consequences such as not participating in extra-curricular activities until success indicators are met. It would force compliance on students and take away much of their autonomy. Student participation on global platforms will also be monitored. Students who are writing about their passions or their activist views will have their posts read by algorithms looking for aggressive patterns in writing or key words. This will be in the name of safety of the students but it will take away freedom of speech. The programs will inhibit students from “getting themselves into trouble” by only allowing certain content or speech patterns to be posted. Students will learn how to beat the system and create new language that will go undetected. Students are not happy with or focused on their learning, they are merely programmed to play along.