The following are two speculative narratives related to the potential relationships with media, education, text and technology in the next 30 years.
Utopian version
This is an excerpt from my ETEC 540 Final Project (a fictitious podcast originating from 30-years in the future that explores the “current state” of textbooks).
Dystopian version of events
The sky drew dark as the instructor closed the blinds to the classroom. Inside, the temperature was unassuming and the students for the most part were attentive. Today was another day for them all.
“Open your textbook to page 4,298,” said the instructor in its voice that was interpreted by each student as a non-gendered adult with a caring under-tone. The instructor was a robot that facilitate lessons and kept order within the virtual classroom.
“Every year, technology use and prominence increases in the classroom and becomes a bigger part of children’s lives” (NMIX Dystopican Education, 2015).
This class was a high school level cohort that had been in the same group since pre-school. However, these students had never physically been in the same classroom together. Following the seventeenth wave of the COVID pandemic, in-person instruction ceased. As technology adapted, nano-chips were implanted into all students enabling them to enter a virtual, global, educational environment.
After another wave of jingoism in the 2030s, the world finally embraced globalization including the streamlining of curriculum to a “one curriculum, one textbook” approach. It took decades for educators to agree on the appropriate content and pedagogy, but eventually there was agreement and “The Textbook” was launched.
When a child had their chip implanted, they were automatically enrolled in an educational cohort. The chip included the textbook, that was rarely updated, and students began learning with their cohort within their first year of life.
Building on the Chinese Government’s best practices when it came to their curriculum, most students excelled in this new pedagogical environment (Ye, 2022). By implementing artificial intelligence into pedagogical robot instructors, the global education system was able to thrive.
In her famous 2016 paper, Andreea Pele wrote about the challenges of writing a textbook with another instructor. “The greatest challenge we faced was homogenizing the materials we already had into one, unitary structure: (Pele, 2016). When “The Textbook” was developed, it was a work of thousands of contributions from educators from around the world. After the responses were vetted by a panel of experts representing every hemisphere, a computer determined the content that appears in the monolithic tome.
“The Textbook” is over 57,000 pages, and a learner spends their lifetime working through the content at a pre-determined pace with their educational cohort. No deviations are allowed, no self-paced learning is permitted. Instead, everyone’s chip and access to the tome are monitored by a global monitoring agency to ensure ‘no one is left behind and no one jumps ahead.’
Within the students’ minds, the instructor moves to open the door at the end of the day. Each student leaves the classroom heading to their next virtual environment.
References
Arnaud, C. (2010). The future of textbooks. Catalysis Reviews. Science and Engineering, (27 September 2010), 63.
Baglione, S. L., & Sullivan, K. (2016). Technology and textbooks: The future. The American Journal of Distance Education, 30(3), 145-155. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923647.2016.1186466
Danielsson, K., & OAPEN. (2021). Multimodal texts in disciplinary education: A comprehensive framework. Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63960-0
Education, N. M. I. X. D. (2015, December 7). Dystopian education. Medium. Retrieved August 1, 2022, from https://medium.com/@NMIX.Dys.Education/dystopian-education-d5ffc0984b2f
Hassey, K. (2018, July 18). What is the future of textbooks and digital learning? Future textbooks digital elearning. Retrieved July 27, 2022, from https://blog.gutenberg-technology.com/en/future-textbooks-digital-elearning
Pele, A. (2016). Two teachers, one textbook: Challenges and changes. Buletinul Stiintific Al Universitatii Politehnica Din Timisoara. Seria Limbi Moderne, 1(15), 89-96.
Turin, Ornat. (2017). How is the futuristic school imagined in science fiction movies and literature?. History of Education and Children’s Literature. 12. 673-697.
Ye, W. (2022). The return of “One guideline, one textbook” policy: Moral education textbook and teacher interaction in china. Comparative Education Review, 66(1), 60-79. https://doi.org/10.1086/717725