Three innovations for the future of education

In our Future 2043 report, we asked what the word 'school' will mean in 20 years. Discover three innovations that suggest what the answer might be

According to Nelson Mandela, “education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” And with so much change needed to tackle the global climate crisis, what and how we teach our children is perhaps more important than ever. But what will education look like in 20 years’ time? And will we even have ‘schools’ as we would recognise them today? To find out we asked some of the world’s leading futurists in our Future 2043 report.

“In 2043, school will likely be a concept rather than a place,” explains Dan Fitzpatrick, a director at EduFuturists. “Systems of education led by governments will not be able to keep up with innovation, and a decentralised offering will be where most parents go to educate their children,” he adds.

For Bryan Alexander, a senior scholar at Georgetown University: “It seems likely that there will be a range of physical presence modes, from entirely in person to all online, and all kinds of hybrids in between.” Alexander also expects to see more robots in schools, “doing a wide range of functions: some staff operations; as teachers; and representing remote users.”

In terms of what students will be taught, Alexander believes that: “The largest and most challenging topic to cover is the climate crisis.” And, for Fitzpatrick: “The progress of automation and artificial intelligence will enable people to develop the skills that make them different from technology. Skills such as empathy, critical thinking, communication, and moral awareness.”

Education is an exciting area of development and exactly what form the schooling of the future will take remains to be seen. There are also likely to be significant differences between countries and education systems. Nonetheless, read on to discover some of the most exciting education innovations we are seeing on Springwise today.

A TOOL IDENTIFIES STRUGGLING READERS SOONER

Early intervention is key when it comes to struggling readers. The sooner a child is identified as struggling, the sooner they can be given the necessary support to help them succeed. However, identifying those who struggle with reading takes time and incurs expense. Now, a new online tool developed by Stanford University researchers is changing that. The Rapid Online Assessment of Reading (ROAR), developed by the Brain Development and Education Lab, helps schools spot struggling readers in a fraction of the time taken by existing methods. Read more

PROGRAMMABLE ROBOTS TEACH KIDS HOW TO CODE

With gender and socioeconomic achievement gaps remaining in most areas of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), sparking the interest of primary school children could be one of the most effective ways of democratising STEM subjects. One solution is the out-of-the-box teaching package for primary-age students created by the Austrian coding and robotics company Robo Wunderkind. Designed to be taught by educators of any background, packages include a curriculum, teaching support, and continuous professional development opportunities for teachers. Students build their robot before programming it to perform a huge range of tasks. Read more

MOBILE-FIRST EDUCATION PLATFORM LAUNCHES IN PAKISTAN

Pakistani-based edtech startup Maqsad has designed a mobile-first education platform for the full range of childhood education. Maqsad means ‘purpose’ in Urdu, and the content is available in both Urdu and English. Classes progress as a student moves from competency to competency, and gamified aspects of the platform keep the learning fun. With many residents of the country dependent on mobile data, the mobile-first model makes education accessible to millions of children, especially girls, who live too far away from a school to attend regularly. Read more

Want to discover more about what the world will look like in 2043? Download our free Future 2043 report which draws on the insights of 20 of the world’s leading futurists. For more innovations, head to the Springwise Innovation Library.