This is not the future of learning.

A video produced by Good Magazine and the Unversity of Phoenix titled “Future Learning” (see video below) has been making the rounds on the Internet. In the video a bunch of so-called “eduvators”, that are likely well-known to anyone involved in education: Salman Khan, Sugata Mitra, Ntiedo Etuk, etc., describe learning through things like engaging videos, video games and youth working together to collaboratively to figure things out in authentic settings. This is not the future of learning. It is the current state of learning. Show me a youth in any developed region of the world who hasn’t learned something using any, or even all, of the methods described in the video in the last week…

The main problem with this video is that it doesn’t distinguish between learning and education. As I’ve said, all of the methods for learning that are described in this video are used daily by youth all over the world – and they learn from those experiences. They don’t always learn what we want them to but they learn something nonetheless. The issue then is, how do we construct purposeful educational environments that are mindful of these ways that today’s youth learn? And more significantly, how do we create educational environments that can keep up with the rapid change in the ways that youth learn? If we build educational environments today that take as their starting points the ways of learning that are discussed in this video, then we’re really just trying to catch up. That falls somewhat short of forging our way into the future.

The future of learning will be driven by augmented reality technologies, cheap 3D printers, sophisticated authentic simulations, ambient intelligence, etc. Youth starting school today will be mired in these technologies long before they complete even their compulsory education, not to mention by the time they enter college or the workforce. What are we going to do in education today to make sure that youth are best prepared to use these emerging technologies to be active and critical self-motivated learners? It’s when we start seriously considering questions like that that we really start engaging with the future of learning.