Facebook to Physics: Education and the Digital Native

Author: Terry Rapoch

May 2008

"The principal goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done." -Jean Piaget (1896-1980)

At no time in history is this quote more true, and particularly so when it comes to education. In this article, the third in a series on a new development agenda, the focus is on the challenges, opportunities and strategies related to the education and training of not just a new workforce, but the existing one as well. [Editor’s note:  Previous editions of Technology First can be downloaded at www.gdita.org.] The article builds on the material discussed previously regarding the underlying demographic challenges that the American economy faces, but also looks at other economic and cultural issues that affect how a new education and training agenda will have to be crafted.

The demographic structure of America will result in a significant exit of knowledge capital from the workforce as the current baby boom generation moves into its retirement years.  While economic circumstances and the improved health of this generation may attenuate this process, the losses will be significant. The effect of this transition will be further exacerbated by the shortage of available workers in the generation immediately following that of the baby boom; Generation X.  

There are additional challenges to developing adequate education and training programs, including the erosion of the in-service training and education provided by large organizations, what I have often referred to an effectives “guild system” for knowledge workers.  This reflects the changed economic reality for large organizations, but is of particular concern when taken in conjunction with the outsourcing of lower-level jobs, in many cases by moving them offshore.  This means that the learning of many basic business skills needed to support the more sophisticated management and operating activities that are coming about as a result of globalization must stake place in academic programs.  

One last challenge concerns the changing values of the new workforce as evidenced by the concern within the United States in the area of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills.  Simply put, this economy is not producing sufficient numbers of workers skilled in these disciplines. When coupled with an economic system focused on the short term that is effectively eating our own “seed corn”, the impact is reinforcing, a second derivative, in which the rate of decline in our competitiveness is increasing while other nations are becoming “smarter”.

So what is the opportunity to address these challenges?  First, it must be recognized that a very large segment of the American population has access to sophisticated technologies far beyond that of most of the world and certainly of some of our major competitors in India and China.  This truth is pointed out in the movie, 2,000,000 Minutes which compares the high school experiences of students in the US, India and China.  The early exposure to sophisticated technology, particularly computers and other electronic technology creates an inherent understanding and comfort with technology that can be leveraged significantly as we seek to find ways to maintain and increase our competitive edge. The challenge of course is how to take advantage of this “headstart” that many in our society have. The US Air Force white paper “On Learning: The Future of Air Force Education and Training” make the point that its current entrants are “Digital Natives” and recommendations build on this reality.

The second area of opportunity is that there has been research and development regarding new ways of teaching and learning.  There is an increased understanding that the kind of accessible and user-friendly environment of the kindergarten classroom needs to be propagated so that we are in fact open to engagement as opposed to restricting it.  Aside from the challenge of transforming the mindsets of those who manage the educational process and institutions, what strategies can be used to take advantage of these opportunities to better enable and accelerate the learning process?

While it may appear from the above comments that the appropriate strategy is simply to place students in front of appropriately programmed computers or workstations to get the job done, that is not the case. Information technologies, in particular the use of visualization in conjunction with advanced simulation modeling can create very powerful and compelling learning environments.  This has been proven by the application of these within our military and other areas, and it is daytaOhio’s view that the use of these technologies in this fashion will continue to expand and grow significantly in the years ahead.  However, it is the intersection of the human element of the educational process, facilitating student to student, student to teacher and teacher to teacher engagements through these types of technologies that will create an environment for the continuing education and learning that will be needed in the coming century.  

In effect these technologies can be used to amplify the efforts of teachers and students, enhancing their productivity in important ways and certainly broadening the scope and nature of their contacts with other students and teachers across the US and around the world.  This same approach of using the technologies to amplify or enhance productivity is fundamental to solving the work for shortage problems as was discussed in the previous article. In addition, it should be possible to leverage work being done for education and training in areas such as the military, emergency response, medical, and engineering, into the traditional teaching environments of our current educational system.

The question of how these types of new technologically advanced learning environments will be developed links to the next article in this series which will deal with the challenge of how this economy avoids being commoditized.