The Global Education Crisis and The Solution Staring Us In The Face

We are not preparing the next generation for the future of work and careers with educational systems and structures that were created a hundred years ago. We must shift from teaching students how to use technology to teach them how to make technology. This shift from users to creators requires a fundamental shift in what students learn and when. We have to leave irrelevant lessons behind and embrace the future of learning, work, and technology.

A massive shift in what the workforce needs is underway. Leaders around the world continue to debate the future of work and the impact of technology and automation. The fact of the matter is that the world is not adapting our education systems fast enough to prepare students for the future. Automation is more likely to lead to a shift in the definitions of most occupations and required skills rather than the mass unemployment that many alarmists are touting.

The shifting needs of the workforce are clear in recent reports from the Brookings Institute and the McKinsey Global Institute. The Brookings Institute's findings are vast and far-reaching but the headline is that half of the jobs for 16-24 year-olds will be replaced by automation and artificial intelligence in the coming years as over 70 percent of the tasks involved are prime for automation. The McKinsey Global Institute estimates that more than half of job activities across industries are highly susceptible to automation - and that's through adapting current technology alone.

We are not doing enough to prepare students to thrive in this shifting landscape. My three-year-old daughter will graduate from university in the mid-2030s and her career could last through 2070. It's impossible to predict what the workforce will need in the middle and latter half of the century, but we know needs are changing and that change is only going to accelerate with the pace of technological change.

Most schools around the world in 2019 are teaching almost the exact same subject matter as they taught in 1919: reading, writing, math, science, history, and languages. Debates on the future of education tend to focus on changing how we teach and embrace technology. There is little to no debate about updating what students learn in class. If we are going to talk about the future of work we should also be talking about the future of curriculum.

Essential skills like collaboration, creative thinking, and problem-solving are needed more each year yet they are not taught in our schools. When students learn about technology lessons tend to focus on how to use technology rather than on how to create technology.

We still teach students some skills that will be redundant in the 2030s: handwriting is virtually obsolete, memorizing facts has been replaced by the internet, and complex arithmetic is not done by hand anymore. According to estimates, 77 percent of jobs will require some degree of technology skills by 2020.

We must redefine the foundations of education to equip the next generation with the skills required to solve problems, innovate, and succeed. We are failing to adequately prepare the next generation for the future. We must teach technology as part of the core curriculum to prepare students with the collaborative, creative and problem-solving skills of the future.

Modern technology education encourages creativity, collaboration, ethics, and problem-solving skills which are important in every career in all economies not just in technical careers in the developed world. In a study, students ranked computer science and engineering second only to the arts in terms of classes they liked most.

Our schools should teach the curriculum of the future, not the curriculum of the past. Teaching technology in schools may sound intimidating but it generates hope and inspires teachers while engaging students. Even though the majority of the world’s teachers don’t have experience in computer science and many of the world’s schools lack internet-connected devices, these are the problems we can and should solve.

The future of work may be uncertain but there is one thing that is absolutely clear: technology skills will be in greater demand than ever before and every student, in every school, should have an opportunity to learn it as part of the curriculum.

These are just some of the reasons I am so passionate about my new role with Digital Media Academy. Our Certified Schools program has been developed and launched to address this global crisis in education with an affordable, accessible solution for technology education for teachers. Learn more at schools.digitalmediaacademy.org and by enrolling in two full courses for free.

Thank you for reading. I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments down below.