tpleasan@polytech.k12.de.us

When we talk about technology in education and what it may be like in the future, we need to first define what we mean by "The Future". You could go on to say what education and technology might be like in say, one thousand years, but it would probably be little more than an educated guess, in some cases not so educated a guess. To be somewhat more realistic you would have to limit your prophecy to far less years in the future, say twenty-five to fifty. For the intent of satisfying the requirements of this article I will adjust my clairvoyant abilities to twenty-five years.

If one were to look at any technology based timeline, they would notice the bulk of activity to have occurred in the past twenty or so years. Before that time technology in education was moving at a somewhat slower and more predictable rate. The current rate of development makes one wonder if this pace can be sustained for much longer. It is not that new and better technological advances will be produced, but can society and mankind find the ability to make use of these "advances".

The limiting factor in the development or use of technology in the future may not so much be the limits of technological advances, but the limits of man and the useful

nature of these advances. Predictions for the future of technology should take into account the psychological capabilities of man, and how these limits could possibly affect the future and the desire to move at the current rate in the development of technology.

Mankind at some point may question the development of technology and what it will really do for mans' future. A movement will develop that will create a backlash of support for future developments of technology. Man will cease to find the useful nature for new developments in the field of communication and information technology. Personal interaction between individuals will have become almost obsolete. This will create a situation that precipitates a frontal attach on the moral nature of men in general. It will be this destruction of society that will impede or possibly reverse the technology that would be in place. There will be a revolt which will be spearheaded by the instinctual nature of man as an animal, a social animal. This revolt would specifically be against the technology that dissolved mans' ability to communicate at the social, personal level. This phenomenon could be closely associated with the mental state a person is subjected to in solitary confinement. Deprivation of these social and psychological needs will cause, in some cases, violent and dangerous reactions to this unrequited need for humanity. Maslow had recognized a good many years ago the hierarchy of needs for all of man. In these needs he describes social needs and mans' need to belong. It will be this social

need that will undermine the nature of technology and the advances in communication technology.

It will be this re-evaluation that would serve to change the overall makeup of the classroom. By the time this point has come, classrooms will have developed a heavy reliance on communication and information technology. There will be classrooms that totally rely on the use of technology. Secondary classrooms will in some cases have no teacher that physically appears in class. Teaching will have taken a remote approach to learning. Much of the learning and teaching will be totally self-paced. Some students will graduate from the secondary level at age twelve while others will never meet the requirements of graduation. It will be these non-graduates that will lead the "cause" to redesign technology. Secondary institutions will have lost the social aspect they were once know to promote, in fact in most cases the student would have little or no need to set foot in the school more than once or twice a year. It will be this loss of social interaction in the high school that will have detrimental effects on society as a whole. This lack of social maturation will combine with the already uneasy nature present in future society to fuel a full-fledged coup.

The unrest will begin at the public level and climb through state and local government. Once this unrest has manifested itself in politics, the end to technology for the sake of technology will soon be over. Mankind will re-define the useful nature of technology.

Medical technology that best serves the wellbeing and health of man will remain in place, both in society and the teaching institutions. Communication and information technology will be evaluated at the federal level, and the funding for future projects that fail to address the affective and social needs of students, as well as these needs in society, would cease to be funded. When this funding stops at the federal level, it will also stop at the state and local level. When this economic deprivation occurs, technology will, in many cases revert to levels it knew many years before.

The Level of Technology:

Before this point of social re-evaluation, technology in the classroom will have gotten to be the sole method for teaching and learning. "Teaching Machines" would manage and facilitate learning activities. Students would rely on this method for instruction. Classes would be held and attended on a twenty-four hour basis. Motivated students could in theory take as many classes as their time and inspiration would allow. As stated previously, graduates from secondary institutions would be as young as twelve

years old. These individuals would lack the social maturity necessary to go on to post secondary education, although that is exactly where they would go. The influence these students would have on post secondary education would be profound. With this prevalent influence in the colleges and universities of the world, post secondary education would be forced to cater to the wants and needs of these students. Transportation, housing, and campus life in general would have an element of daycare. The independent nature of some college level classes would prove to be the undoing for some students. The lack of ability to monitor their lives as responsible adults could prove to be disastrous. Although, a system of safety checks would have been developed to assist with this problem, there will be cases that will slip through.

If man sees this loss of the 'human element" as important, he may choose to address this situation before it becomes a problem. The technology that is currently being used in education should assist the curriculum, not become the driving force that the curriculum is built around. If we value the importance of the social and affective aspects of learning and life, we should strive to keep these elements important. The classroom of the future can still possess these human elements if we allow it. We as educators need to remember that technology as it applies to the student should be used to make our teaching

more effective, and their learning more efficient. Technology in the classroom can be beneficial to all if we maintain our human perspective.