The education system in the future “knowledge society” will be aimed at developing the structures of the digital economy and the formation of a new middle class. Its representatives will receive education throughout their lives, “for the task” and in innovative formats. Universities will turn into intellectual leaders of the technological “revolution”, but in the future, they may be supplanted by network providers of educational services.
Under the conditions of a “knowledge society” emerging in developed countries, the university acquires the role of the intellectual leader of the digital “revolution”. The functions of the university are the production of innovations, as well as the formation of communities of a new level – the “thinking environment”.
- As part of the development of the digital economy, universities are becoming centers of technological clusters (innovation zones) like Silicon Valley and Stanford University.
- Studying in such areas is focused on achieving design results, conducting practical research in terms of access to huge amounts of information.
- The new habitat around universities is fostering consumer education with a new lifestyle that will drive the demand for innovation. Innovation production cycles will be reproduced in such conditions over and over again.
- The territories of innovation zones become models of new cities, and the participants in the production of innovations living in them become pioneers of a new type of consumption. A highly skilled middle class receives a model for the design of a new life.
- Technological development will lead to lower education costs and the removal of language barriers. As a result, the university involved in building the digital economy will be not only the center of innovative cities but also operating in the virtual space as a “university for a billion.”
- By 2030, a “flipped university” can become a typical educational model, in which instruction is taught through mass open online education (MOOC) platforms such as edX, Coursera, etc., and in the universities themselves only laboratory work, training projects, and live discussions are being implemented.
With the development of the digital economy, the role of the state in the development of education will decrease. It will remain the creation of conditions for the emergence of new providers of educational services that are competitive in the domestic and global markets.
A quick change of information and the technological background will lead to the fact that training will become permanent.
- There will be another apparent peak in educational activity due to an increase in life expectancy: after reaching retirement age, many will need retraining to maintain labor activity.
- An individual approach will be put at the center of the educational process – the curriculum will be formed by the students themselves. Traditional diplomas will be replaced by individual competency profiles.
Familiar training formats will be gradually replaced by new ones.
- The need for a teacher as a knowledge relay will disappear. There will be a need for mentors responsible for motivation to learn, transfer skills, and mentoring.
- Instead of theoretical studies, training will become widespread within real projects or in real organizations.
- Textual forms of information transfer will gradually disappear and give way to video, stimulation systems, electronic simulators. In the future, gaming developing multi-user environments will encompass both youth education and adult learning.
Future education will also reduce the distance between the employer and the employee, while the educational services market will increase its degree of flexibility and self-regulation.
- Large corporations will be able to “order” certain professions and competencies without state mediation.
- Organizations in which collective intelligence and team building are especially in demand can themselves enter the educational market and offer specialized courses.
- Carriers of new interactive educational technologies will be able to unite in professional communities and form “community universities” with their standards and teaching methods. Over time, these structures can compete with traditional universities, displacing them from the educational services market in 25-30 years.
To implement the education model of the future, a developed high-tech infrastructure will be required.
- Online databases based on BigData technologies will be formed.
- Over time, there will be exchanges of educational opportunities for co-education and individual training, platform-stores of educational content.
- Mass certification tests to determine the general educational level will gradually lose relevance. They will be replaced by Internet assessment and certification systems, allowing you to get an externally validated assessment of the presence of certain competencies and skills.
In the next decade, the next degree of globalization and mass education is expected, which will change the role of universities.
About the author
Melisa Marzett is a freelance writer who is currently working for writing service. She is a fitness enthusiast who enjoys summer and an animal rights activist. She is a former journalist and a translator who does much of charity work does not like to talk much and more of a listener. She tries to lead a healthy lifestyle and believes that a healthy mind lives in a healthy body.