Urgent?? Facing the future--

In 2006, from Clarence Fisher:

“I was worried about hundreds and thousands of teachers who were trying to "catch up" with skills their kids were learning, thinking that if they worked bit by bit, over time, they would be in the same place as their students were. I thought at the time (and realize even more strongly now) that this simply isn't true.

Working incrementally will only leave us further and further behind the literacies that our kids are working with, playing with, growing. I believe that we are soon reaching that "all - or - nothing" point that Doug talks about. It is a tipping point, but I believe (without trying to be too dramatic) that we are currently standing on a dangerous edge. We have created a lot of resources, momentum, and pedagogy this year as a blogging network striving to understand what many of these new technologies mean for classroom life and learning. We have demonstrated the value of these tools, and have learned how to use them. But if these efforts are cut off, either for political reasons, or through reaching a point of stasis for some other reason such as a simple loss of momentum, we will be in a troubling area.”

Jump to 2007 From Futurelab on 2020:

“By 2020, digital technology is embedded and distributed in most objects. All personal artifacts – your keys, clothes, shoes, notebook, newspaper – have devices embedded within them which can communicate with each other. As a result, we will interact with these technologies in ways which are more seamlessly and invisibly integrated into normal activities...

Digital technology is everywhere; it is embedded in everything around you from city streets, to buildings, to flagpoles and bus stops. These technologies can talk to each other and to the technologies and sensors you have embedded in your own clothes. As a result, your environment can adapt to you and connect with you and know everything about you – where you are, how you feel, what you’ve done, what you might want to do.” ...

If educators are to shape the future of education (and not have it shaped for them by external technical developments) it is crucial that we engage with developments in digital technologies at the earliest stages. We need to understand what may be emerging, explore its implications for education, and understand how best we might harness these changes."

From Miguel Guhlin via Scott McLeod:

Urgent?? Would you agree?