It is helpful to place the digital age within its historical context as follows:Stone Age, Copper/Bronze Age, Iron Age, Agriculture Age, Medieval Ages, Renaissance, Age of Enlightenment and Exploration, Industrial Revolution, Telephone/Radio, Space Age, Technology Revolution, and the Digital Age. Although this is not a comprehensive list, it highlights how technological discoveries or inventions push societies into paradigm shifts creating new systems of human interaction with each other and the world around them. Many have looked beyond the digital age to the informational age and going further with the understanding age. If the past paradigm shifts are used as examples it becomes much more fun to predict where we are heading. Because of our abilities to communicate and collaborate and our access to unlimited information, the focus becomes: What are we going to do with it?
It is because paradigm shifts force society into unknown opportunities that reforming education becomes crucial for the good of society. “Adding” technology use to a 150 year old industrial education model does not address the needs of our current society. It is precisely because the time span between these shifts is so much faster that education needs to exist in somewhat of a beta model where new technology and technology uses are more easily implemented without having to create yet another model. Accountability has always been a factor with education but if children have access to technology and some guidance they can become educated at a bare minimum. This forces the conversation to what is the purpose of organized education or schools specifically. There is no longer a need for an assembly line school day and a regimented structure at school. Whether the current paradigm is coined digital, informational or understanding, schools and education are no longer a stationary experience. Instead, education is a process constantly in flux and motion with each technological interaction pushing learners into new spaces of discovery.
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