The Future of Writing

In his keynote address titled “Teaching and Learning at the Edge of Change” at the UCET 2007 conference, teacher and author David Warlick asked participants to consider the workplace of the future. Through technology, we will see many changes, including the making of our offices more mobile without being tied to the wires of phones, fax lines, and computer cords, changes we are already beginning to experience.

In his presentation, educators were asked to look at the typical classroom environment, one that was established by the 1950s to teach students “to sit in straight rows performing repetitive tasks under strict supervision.” These were the skills they needed to work in the manufacturing age. But today we are part of the information age, where, according to Warlick, “for the first time in history, we prepare students for a future that we cannot clearly describe.” Technology has placed us into an ever-changing world. The advances of today become outdated almost by tomorrow. Adults are scrambling fast to keep up, while our children move light-years ahead of us in adapting.

Another change that is inevitable, according to Warlick, is the need for students who can work in collaborative environments rather than the isolation that today’s classroom and testing seem destined to achieve. Already the students seem to be far ahead of the educators in this regard. Interactive video games played via the internet allow kids to communicate and collaborate with other players from around the world in a matter of seconds. Chat rooms, blogs, and video posting sites like You Tube and My Space make the world a lot smaller than before.

“Teachers should credit their students with inventing a new language ideal for communicating in a high-tech world,” Warlick added. Although we as adults might not approve or even be able to translate the literary shorthand teens use—TTFA (ta-ta for now), LOL (laugh out loud), wombat (waste of money, brains, and time)—something can be said about the fact that kids are writing, perhaps in greater amounts than ever before. I personally have many students who run web sites and regular blogs, both of which require composition, editing, and design skills to be successful.

The advancements that are being made in technology will effect the jobs of future generations. Warlick feels that those jobs will lie in the areas of math, science, and the cultural arts, including film and literature. He presented statistics to show that already education cannot keep up with the need for engineers for organizations such as NASA, where “almost half of the 18, 146 employees are over 50 years old, and employees over the age of 60 outnumber those under 30.”

There will be a need for writing in the future of our world, and those who intend to succeed must hone those skills, but perhaps in a way that today’s educators have not yet conceived. If you are interested in knowing more about the ideas presented by Warlick at this or other similar conferences, his presentations can be found at http://landmark-project.com