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Education? Computer, Naturally
By the turn of the century, educators say, there will be a shift from engineering and other applied skills
since computers will be able to solve such problems. The focus will be on reasoning, with emphasis on the basic
subjects of math, chemistry, physics and English .
Just because students will carry a personal computer instead of a book bag, teachers will not disappear.
Futurist Christopher Dede of the University of Houston at Clear Lake notes that computers will be effective in teaching subjects such as math, but "in areas such as creative writing, where there are many different right answers, machines will never teach as effectively as people. "
Fifty years from now, a college education will mean as much as a high school degree for the generation who came of age in World
War II. In 2033 , more than 60 percent of American adults will have attended college compared with less than 30 percent today.
That doesn't mean college won't face problems. In this century, a 25 percent drop in the number of 18-to-22-year-olds will doom scores of small private schools. The remaining 3,000 colleges and universities will provide only a part of a person's never ending education .
Industry, for one, will become much more involved in education and job training. Hundreds of corporations will grant degrees, most often in high technology, science and engineering, where state-of-the-art equipment and research will surpass that on most campuses.
Use of television, computers and videotapes will also create classrooms in libraries, museums,
neighborhood centers and the home. As a result, futurists see a surge in "public" professors ---
national experts appearing electronically across the country. In the next century, academia's motto "publish or
perish" could well become "perform or perish. "
As learning becomes more accessible , more efficient and more rewarding for a greater number of people,
the result should be a better-educated citizenry. Says Robert Glaser, co-director of the Learning Research and
Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh : "The average intelligence should be greatly moved up in the
population. "
But educators fear that not all Americans will be part of this march toward better learning. Children with home computers will outpace those who have none. Libraries and small firms
in poor neighborhoods will not be able to offer the same educational programs as wealthier facilities. The Carnegie Foundation's Boyer warns: "The gap between the educated haves and the have-nots may well increase. "
The hope for the future is that as the opportunities for lifelong learning expand, computer literacy will become a basic right for all Americans.
From U.S. News and World Report, May9, 1983
Approximately 800 words
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