Future-oriented Education

FUTURE-ORIENTED EDUCATION

         "Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today."
 - Malcolm X

We have been talking about educational technology in this course, on how we are going to use technology in teaching and understanding our new learners or the students born in the 21^st century.  We have many strategies and techniques in teaching but most of these strategies are not effective in the digital world. We are now in the 21^st century where students are engage in high-technology gadgets and they are more interested in learning from it than listening to their teacher’s lectures. As I observed, there are still teachers who are stuck in the 20^th century and as a learner I also felt boredom in our class. We should be transparent to our learners and be creative enough to think new strategies that are more interesting than the traditional one.

First, we should be asking these questions, “What is future-oriented education is all about? What its significance as future educators and for the learners in digital world? According to Marc Prensky, future-oriented education means going far beyond adding a few so-called “21^st century skills” on the top of what we currently teach. It means getting beyond teaching the same math, language arts, science and social studies we taught in the past to every student—and even beyond just adding more critical, mathematical and scientific thinking. It means adding a huge range of subjects we don’t teach systematically today but that will be needed for tomorrow.  We should extend our mind and be knowledgeable enough on how we will facilitate our students in their learning. We should not stick in the past. Our students are more fluent than us in using of technology so don’t let your student control the class.

In this new high-tech world, changes are needed especially in education, but what kind of change? Educationalists first started to talk about “21st century learning” during the latter years of the 20th century.  Many serious challenges characterize the 21^st century world. Some authors describe these as “wicked problem”. They are “highly complex, uncertain, and value-laden”, spanning multiple domains: social, economic, political, environmental, legal and moral. It is argued that learners­­—and teachers, school leaders and families/communities—need support to actively develop the capabilities they need to productively engage in 21^st century wicked problem solving.

(https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/schooling/109306)

          We’ve been discussing about change in education but we must consider first the economic status of our country. Is our country ready for the change? According to Miss Goldy Bless Esmeralda, Binibining Pamantasan 2016 of Assumption College of Nabunturan, the k to 12 program is well planned by the specialist and before they implement this program in our country, it was filtered and tested many times.

Our country is still in a process in changing its educational system like implementing the K+12 programs.  Some Filipino disagrees to the "k-to-12" program. Some doesn't want this program to be implemented in the country. From the OMMSTER website, I found this article K+12 Education System: Not A Good Idea, For Now by Sherica Fabienne Ocbanbia. The writer is obviously disapproved the k to 12 education system. She said that the k to 12 would be a bad idea in our country as of today. In the article she explained her reasons why k to 12 is a bad idea to our country. She pointed out 5 reasons why it is a bad idea, those are: poverty, teacher’s training interest, student’s interest to study, private schools will be benefit…on the business side and lack of facilities.

The implementation of K-12 curriculum in the country drew negative reactions from various societal groups. Since 2011, critics have been very vocal on their primary concerns. They insist the government isn’t yet ready for this new system and that this is more of additional burden to students and their parents. http://k12philippines.com/three-practical-benefits-of-the-philippines-k-to-12-curriculum

The government believes that k to 12 curriculum in the Philippines will put Filipino students at par with the rest of the world, truly, investing in education is the key toward reaching national growth and development. I include k to 12 in "future-oriented education" because it is one of the example that Filipinos are preparing for the better tomorrow for the digital learners.

Image above sourced from Flickr

The education world is rapidly changing. Schools face an emerging cluster of new ideas, beliefs, knowledge, theories, and practices related to 21st century learning or future learning. In response, many have created future focused visions that redefine learning, the learner, and the teacher. (http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-resources/NZC-Online-blog/Graduate-profiles-a-vision-of-future-oriented-learners)