Thing #5.  School 2.0
The idea that the web has somehow been reinvented or redesigned into something different is foolish. I guess for those who grew up with the web as a part of their lives, it may seem that it has never changed and that the web as we see it now could be the second generation. I grew up before computers and have watched the web grow and evolve. At best, there is a smooth progress of the technology; at worst there are sudden bumps and improvements where suddenly you have a bunch of new stuff all at once. Apple has a habit of doing this sort of thing. When I was in school, the height of technology was an overhead projector or an opaque projector that would fry the pages of a book if you weren't careful.

When I was working as a trainer, we had computers, and PowerPoints, and projectors similar to what we see today. But that stuff is old technology compared to what is available today. Smart boards are probably the most flexible of the new tools, and even they have evolved in the last few years. It is inevitable that our schools use these tools, especially since the kids are so entranced by them. If there is any problem, it's keeping their hands OFF the toys. As an educator, we have to be able to use these tools. I remember teaching aspiring presenters to use an overhead projector. How could anything be simpler? But they would become completely dumbstruck because they were thinking so much about the projector that they couldn't talk. If we have that problem with our high-tech tools, we won't be effective teachers in school 2.0.

What are schools of the future going to be like? Probably were are seeing the beginning of the end of the hard copy publishing business. Got a Kindle? There are schools already that don't have books because they have converted to e-textbooks. This will take a while because of the expense and logistics involved, but it's coming. Blackboards and whiteboards are going away.  Traditional classroom desks are going away. Maybe classrooms are going away. The ultimate in one-on-one specialized instruction will probably be done online. Tracking student progress will be done automatically online. Challenging gifted students will be done online. We will be online!