Reflection #10 – Science Fiction Thinking

This week we got to present our group projects which was really fun! I loved seeing how creative everyone was! I also loved being able to show the class what we had been working on the last few weeks. Our project was on Teacher TikTok, so of course we made some TikTok’s to show the class.

This week we also began thinking into the future and what education may look like in the year 2045. We each wrote down what we thought this would look like (fiction allowed) then milled around the room trading papers with others until the music stopped. When the music stopped, we had to rate the paper we were holding (1-5, with 5 being most likely, and 1 being least likely). I loved this activity as it was low-stakes, anonymous, served as a movement break, and just overall fun. This is something I definitely want to use in the future with my future students. We were also encouraged to create a piece of art that reflects our vision of what the future will hold in regard to education. We were told we could draw, paint, do digital art, or even use AI. I decided to use AI to see what it thought. Here was my prompt: “What will education look like in the year 2045?” and here is what Gencraft, the AI tool I used came up with:

I found this picture really sad, as all the students seemed to be unhappy as none are smiling. Though, I found it depressing, I must say that I would not be surprised if this is how the year 2045 looked. Every year, students, younger and younger, are being introduced to technology, which can come with many benefits, but also many consequences. Screen time is becoming more and more of an issue, and children are spending less and less time outdoors. I mean I look at kids today, playing on phones, and think back to when I was their age, I did not even really know what a phone was, and was probably out making fairy houses in the forest with my friends.

Overall, I think it is important to remember to take students outside. Technology is growing everyday, and there is no way of stopping this, so the only thing we can do, is to put our students first!