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By Lucinda Rector

n a warm October afternoon, 2025, a class of more than 50 eighth-graders sits quietly at its desktop computers. Interactivity consists of reading-comprehension flash cards on screens and answering multiple-choice questions. There is even less interaction between the students in the crowded classroom and their teacher, who sits idly by, quantitatively evaluating their assignment drills. The computers seem to function as much like an electronic babysitter as a learning tool.
An alternative picture from the same classroom: 15 students are scattered about the room in groups of threes and fours; a dozen of their classmates are doing scientific field-work at a nearby state forest, scanning pla nt samples for a multimedia presentation with a hand-held digital camera. The rest of the kids are logging on to school from home or elsewhere. In the classroom, one group of students is exploring a simulated excavation site of an ancient Greek city, whil e a few others join a group of students from England on a virtual-reality bike expedition to study local flora in the Yucatan in Mexico. The teacher is a guide on their journeys, not just a lecturer.
While the second scenario is infinitely more appealing, education and technology experts say both scenarios are equally likely. If the push to reduce overhead costs of public education continues, the children of today' s students could end up in schools with zippy technology supporting standardized, memorize-and-drill instruction. "A lot of people see technology as a way of increasing efficiency, much as it has in the workplace. I think that's a really destructive impul se," says Luyen Chou, president of Learn Technologies and a nationally recognized expert on technology and education.
"We're at a crossroads right now. In 30 years, the shape of schooling will change at a rate that we haven't seen in the past 400 years," says Chou. Paul Saffo, a respected analyst at the I nstitute for the Future in Menlo Park, California, agrees: "We're teetering on the edge of a fundamental change in how we do classroom education. The teacher assembly line approach is not good. But the notion of a teacher as a mentor can get a boost f rom technology. We're going from a physical classroom to a classroom without dimension."

Teachers Hold the Key

In 30 years, today's computer technology will be ubiquitous, cheap and invisible in the classroom. Today's high-speed ISDN Internet connection will be passe, replaced by fiber-optic lines, or satellite hookups that will end the need for wiring altogether, making powerful multimedia computers as portable as cellular phones. Many experts predict, that in less than 10 years, computers will be as common as television, with interlinked networks covering the globe. Teleconferencing and videoconferencing will op en up a movable feast of educational opportunities for students, teachers and parents.


Those who know technology best are also painfully aware of its ability to be misused. "Computers in a classroom with no thought given to the curriculum is educational junk food. Kids love it, but there's no nutritional value to speak of," says Dr. Terry C rane, Apple Computer's senior vice president of education. "In an effort to deliver a healthy combination of both education and entertainment, teachers hold the key. If we can inspire them to embrace technology as a tool for creating, expressing and communicating their ideas, they in turn will inspire students."
Rapid technology advances mean that the classroom environment, unchanged for centuries, could quickly change beyond recognition:

Schools The school building as a physical place where students spend 12 years of their lives may not exist in 30 years. "It won't be necessary," says Peter Grunwald, president of Grunwald Associates, a new-media cons ultant based in Santa Barbara, California. "The classroom walls will become more permeable, boundaries between community and school reduced," he predicts. Grunwald believes schools will continue to provide an important socialization and meeting place, but students will use portable computers to connect to the rest of the world from anywhere. Futurist Saffo agrees: "We'll see more distance learning because, as a society, we're becoming more mobile."

Classes Old-fashioned, face-to-face contact and interaction with teachers won't disappear, but classes will feel more like meetings with a focused agenda. There will be more "asynchronous class activity," says Bob Ma tsuoko, associate director at the New Laboratory for Teaching and Learning in New York City. A child could be taught by a Columbia University professor or another student in England as easily as by hi s own teacher.

Textbooks Textbooks will still be with us. But within 30 years, the balance will shift, with books becoming supplemental to computers. Display quality will improve so that words on a screen will be virtually indistin guishable from words on a page. "There will be a blending of the technologies within the next decade or so," says Chou.

School Days The structure of the school day will become more flexible, the experts predict. The day will be partially based at school and partly at home- or neighborhood-resource centers. With students constantly n etworked to outside institutions, the very notion of having attended a particular school may soon be as quaint as a one-room schoolhouse.

Self-guided learning In more advanced classes, students will meet with teachers, perhaps on a weekly basis or every several days, and be given assignments or lectures. Teachers will offer guidance, but the student w ill do the actual research in a library or study center.
Will advances in efficiency mean fewer teachers? Will ever more complex technology turn teachers into engineers? Heidi Rogers of the University of Idaho doesn't think so. "The ratio of teachers to students is going to stay the same. The demand for teachers will remain constant," says Rogers. "Classroom learning needs a human factor. There has to be someone to guide." Rogers, who specializes in technology training for educators says, the teacher of the future will need skills in instructional strategy and in applying technology to the curriculum, but, she says, "they won't need to be technicians."