Imagine one day you’re passing the halls to your next boring class when suddenly you see a robot prepping the materials needed for the day and getting ready to teach the class. Pretty crazy, huh? Or better yet, rather than going to a school classroom, you would log in to a virtual world in VR to attend class, with your classmates and teacher––represented by their avatars, of course. It seems weird thinking of school and education in such a futuristic manner, but who knows? Sooner or later, this might become the future of education.

Swapping out flesh-and-blood faculty for metal-and-wire counterparts––fondly referred to as Mr. Robot––might seem crazy, but it might not be such a bad idea. Mr. Robot won’t get tired, so they’ll never be absent from the classroom and can always be teaching students at school. Furthermore, using robots can lead to better efficiency. Robots could be fitted with analyzing features that could allow them to achieve the best curriculum needed for teaching students appropriately. Sure, it might be a little creepy, but we won’t really know until we try. Lastly, robots don’t have to be moved from school. Just like how every fourth grader thought their teacher lived at school, Mr. Robot will actually live at school! They can simply be plugged in before school lets out for the day and remain there overnight, like plugging in your phone before you go to bed. 

We may be getting ahead of ourselves with these ideas, but technology has been ingrained in our education since the dawn of the 21st century. Students have grown increasingly sneaky over the years, though, and sometimes utilize technology for…sub-savory purposes. For example, kids are given the holy privilege known as the MacBook here at JP. The good news is that kids are given access to the Internet, the bad news is also that kids are given access to the Internet. A student’s personal device is meant for studying purposes only, but think about how many other things are made available to students: they can search up answers for assignments, commit the unspeakable crime of playing Geometry Dash during class, or watch YouTube when they’re supposed to be doing an EdPuzzle.

We’ve talked about how technology is used here around J.P. Stevens, but what about other places? How do they use technology differently? In Japan, for example, textbooks are stored online on a shared school server that students can access with their devices. In multiple countries, robotics is taught at school. This allows students to not only study technology, but also be able to create it and understand how to create devices and technology with a wide array of functions. This is contrary to the US where the extent of most kids’ computer skills is typing “wordle” into Google and clicking the first link that comes up.

Due to the age difference between teachers and students, who basically used AirPods as pacifiers, it can be quite amusing to see teachers struggle with technology. Whether it be maneuvering through Google classroom or manhandling the volume button before waving the white flag and asking a student for help, it can be quite funny to see teachers use technology in a confused manner. Now, of course, there are plenty of teachers who teach technology-related courses here at JP, but there are still certain aspects of technology that they still are unaware of. Even though some students might snicker at a teacher’s inability to finesse a Quizlet Live, there are always those who are willing to tamp down a chuckle and help the teacher out. 

But who knows what awaits us just a few years from now? With the rapid pacing of technological advancements, it’s not hard to think about how new technology could be implemented into education. At present we may distance ourselves from the use of AI out of fear of misuse, but maybe in the future, we could use it to calculate how many dozens of hours we should spend studying for Calculus. And maybe phones are restricted, but a few years from now, we could be texting our teachers, asking them for extensions! Technology in education could slingshot us forward into an exciting world where learning is streamlined and Mr. Robot welcomes you to class with a digital smile and wave!