This will revolutionise education, or will it?

Thousand of years ago most people were ’employed’ in the field of agriculture.

Then a few hundred years ago when the Industrial Revolution occurred there was a gradual shift to manufacturing as a key employer.

Of course as time has marched on we have seen the number of jobs in both agriculture and manufacturing plummet as machinery and automation has taken jobs away from humans.

The constant push for increased efficiency and cost effectiveness will only see this trend continue:
– The transport industry will change it when self-driving cars and trucks become mainstream.
– Retail is already seeing changes to employment with the increase in self-checkout shops.
– Tireless robots will supplant humans from jobs such as cleaners, painters, and many more.
– Computers are already writing news articles.

It may not happen tomorrow, but it will come.

As an educator this brings up two key questions:
1) How do we ensure we are preparing our students for the only jobs that will be left in the creative, managerial and often university degree based fields?
2) Will we as teachers ever be superseded? People have talked about revolutionising education for a long time and will continue to do so. But will it happen ….

Tags: Education, Future