by futurist Richard Worzel, C.F.A.

An edited version of this article first appeared in the November/December 2008 edition of Teach magazine.

In my last blog, I talked about how we both can and should move away from the local monopoly of whatever teachers happen to be available to a given student. To recap, what I am proposing is that each student’s curriculum be customized to suit the talents and interests of that student, and that instruction should be focused to emphasize that student’s learning style and emotional intelligence. I also suggested that the instructors should be selected based on who would be the right fit for that student instead of giving the student whoever happened to be nearby. To do that would, almost inevitably, rely on new ways of using technology. In particular, this approach would depend on distance learning to make available educators who might not be nearby, self-directed learning at the student’s pace, plus using technology to supply and support the information flow and gauge the student’s accomplishment. I also suggested that each student’s progress should be monitored by his computer, using biometrics. This would assess their interest, engagement, and motivation, but under the supervision of a human tutor or guide who would intervene when difficulties or uncertainties arose.

This time, I’d like to talk about how we might accomplish this. Right at the outset, though, I should say that I do not know how this will happen, only how it might happen. Predicting the future accurately and consistently is not given to humans, including (or perhaps especially) me. (more…)