It is important to understand the difference between today’s reality, where students occasionally use a computer in school, often as part of a group, and the future, where they will always have their personal handheld computer available … Soon there will be schools where all students have their own networked computer that they can use year in and year out, at home, in school, on the bus, on vacation, and in the family car … Wireless networking will be common, so students will have the full resources of the world at any place. And because they are small and mass-produced, handhelds will be less expensive than desktop computers. Thus, it seems reasonable to assume that the most common educational computers in 10 years will be small, networked, handheld computers.
Predictor: Tinker, Bob
Prediction, in context:In 1995, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology commissioned a series of white papers on various issues related to networking technologies. The department convened the authors for a workshop in November 1995 to discuss the implications. The following statement is taken from one of the white papers, “The Whole World in Their Hands,” by Bob Tinker, the president of Concord Consortium, he has a Ph.D. in physics from MIT and a reputation as a pioneer in constructivist uses of educational technology. Tinker writes: ”It is important to understand the difference between today’s reality, where students occasionally use a computer in school, often as part of a group, and the future, where they will always have their personal handheld computer available … Soon there will be schools where all students have their own networked computer that they can use year in and year out, at home, in school, on the bus, on vacation, and in the family car. For these students, education, especially science education, can be much richer and more interesting and meaningful. Networking will soon make these new uses possible with affordable handhelds, rendering these computers far more useful than they would be without connectivity … Wireless networking will be common, so students will have the full resources of the world at any place. And because they are small and mass-produced, handhelds will be less expensive than desktop computers. Thus, it seems reasonable to assume that the most common educational computers in 10 years will be small, networked, handheld computers.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: E-learning
Name of publication: The Future of Networking Technologies for Learning
Title, headline, chapter name: The Whole World in Their Hands
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.ed.gov/Technology/Futures/
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney