Vision of the Future of Education. After taking this course I feel like we are entering the world of the Jetsons! As familiarity with computers and their applications increases, they will become integrated into our culture. Much as the cell phone has become what many consider an integral part of life. In many ways this will make communication and hopefully understanding of other cultures easier. With understanding comes acceptance and hopefully a world with less strife between cultures. Where will education be in 13 more years? That is so hard to tell. Thirteen years ago, computers were just starting to enter into everyone’s homes; cell phones were a novelty and large bulky items. It is so hard to say where the new technologies will take us. This course has really opened my eyes to new things that are available to educators. I look at my 4 year old and how quickly she has adapted to the computer and all it has to offer. The basic challenges of education will remain the same, reading, writing, thinking strategies must all be mastered. The basic philosophy of education will remain – how to best prepare our students for success in the world they are entering and what tools will they need to create a better world. However, with the advent of new technologies, the emphasis will change as to how these are utilized. The importance of thinking strategies will become more and more apparent. Students of the future will be bombarded with information, as the wikis and blogs expand they will need to be able to differentiate what is fact from what is fiction. Furthermore, they will need to be able to censor their thoughts much more quickly. In the past, you had to take time to plan your written response. Letters took time to write and type, then you had a small window of time until you posted the letter. Today the word post has taken on a whole new meaning and it is possible to respond in the heat of the moment, with written words that are hard to recall. The challenge will eliminate the digital divide and to keep socioeconomic factors from inhibiting student learning will take on vital importance. For our lower income and at risk students to have a chance at success in this new world of technology they need access to the technology. As technology and its hardware becomes rapidly out of the date, the laptops bought with our CFF grant will need to be replaced. The hardware must be available for all students in order for them to access the new web technologies. This course has really opened my eyes to all of the possibilities of educational diversity and the ability to tailor education to each student’s learning needs. I never dreamt that it would be possible to make a photostory of my lesson so that the students would be able to view what information they are unsure of. The ability to have a moodle account and instantly know if students have submitted an assignment or not is invaluable for the at risk student to keep them current with information. I always thought of myself as a very techno savy individual. But, after taking this course I realize how in the dark I really was. This will be the greatest challenge to me as an educator, to stay current and on the cutting edge of technology so that I have the skills and depth of knowledge to help my students explore the future. To do this requires a whole new type of teacher in-service plan and a new type of allocation of teacher resource time. At the start, there will be a significant learning curve as all teacher struggle to learn the power of web 2.0. The public will probably not appreciate the time it will take to incorporate new technologies into the curriculum and I can see a serious conflict in teacher contracts with expectations and real world integration.