I believe the more important issues are going to be the challenges facing school administrators managing teachers born in the year 2000 or later, known as "Generation Z."
Generation Z teachers and aides entering the field beginning in the year 2020 will never have experienced a world without: computers, Internet, all-in-one printers, Smartphones, Wi-Fi, digital music, email, YouTube, Google Earth, Facebook, Twitter, or Wikipedia. As a result, school administrators of this generation will face the following challenges managing these teachers:
1. Dependency on Technology: While technology in the classroom has many strengths as a teaching aide, it can also become a weakness in that it may create a dependency for the teacher. Furthermore, technology innovations are advancing so quickly, for example, that people are now able to mentally interact with computers and use their brains to move the cursor on screen (Smartboards will become as obsolete as chalkboards). How soon before teachers and students are both "plugged in" and communicating using only mental interaction? A Generation Z teacher who has never taught without modern technology may find it challenging should the technology become unavailable.
2. Inability to articulate: Despite the plethora of Internet blogs, Generation Z is trained to communicate with each other using 140 characters or less (Twitter), 15-second videos or less (Instagram and Vine), texting, chat abbreviations (LOL, TTYS, etc), emoticons, social networking posts and terse email messages. When it comes to fully expressing themselves -- academically, socially, emotionally, professionally -- their challenge will be articulating their thoughts and delivering a message human-to-human.
3. Attention span of teachers: Many studies have been dedicated to understanding the diminishing attention span of students, but in a future era with aggressive 'information overload' techniques intended to capture every free second of your attention, Generation Z teachers -- once the subjects of attention span studies themselves -- will find it challenging to focus on delivering a solid 45-90 minute lesson. Try having a conversation with a 20-something and wait for a break in the conversation; if they don't reach for their phone to check email or post a social update, it's only because their battery has died.
4. Peer and supervisor relationships: By the year 2020, new teachers entering the job market will be technologically savvy, but will they have the interpersonal skills to be able to work in a peer environment and subordinate to a supervisor from an earlier generation? With technology advancing the way we express ourselves and communicate, will Generation Z teachers have the conflict resolution skills necessary to work in an academic environment? Their challenge will be to step away from the dependency of technology to build and maintain relationships among peers and supervisors.
5. Conflicting information: Google Glass is an example of an input device facilitating instant access to information. With students coming to class with input devices attached to their person, the probability rises that for every opinion taught in the classroom there are 10 conflicting opinions being presented to the student almost immediately through the Internet -- much of which from questionable sources. The challenge of the Generation Z teacher will be how to respond to the deluge of misinformation students will be able to access almost immediately.
The world of education has come a long way since the little red schoolhouse, and while technology has greatly improved our quality of life, it has to some degree impaired our ability to communicate, think and organise.
