Focus on the tides, not waves – future trends in education

By shifting the paradigm from resisting the tides to moving with them, and through the lens of embracing opportunity, opens the doorway to new thinking and possibilities.

The move towards personalised learning, the integration of technology, the emphasis on collaboration and such things as the Carey’s Positive Learner Attributes, have been on our radar over a long time could be seen as the tides.

However, the speed at which technologies like ChatGPT are developing and the rise of virtual reality are creating the feeling that we are, in fact, smashing against a wave.

Marc Whitten, CEO of Manticore Games and technology executive who has worked in various companies such as Microsoft, Amazon and Sonos says, ‘The metaverse will be the biggest ever platform revolution, bigger than the impact of mobile devices or the web.’

Whitten has written about his vision for the metaverse. He says it has the potential to transform various industries such as education, entertainment and business through new forms of collaboration and social interaction experiences which will become key to our digital lives.

Michael McQueen, well-known Australian futurist, speaker and author says education can leverage from this and there is an opportunity here to emphasise ‘the experience of learning’ through the virtual world.

Our role as educators is to help students to build capacity equip them with skills and a toolkit to embrace the world. It is important for us all the see AI and the new wave of technology not as a hindrance to learning, but as a real part of the world students are walking into. Students need to be prepared and equipped to live in a world in which these technologies will be an everyday reality, which means integrating them into the classroom.

As we look ahead to the future, these trends have a significant impact on how we teach and learn and we can better prepare our students for the future industries, including education because the cycles of tides and waves will continue.

We will be continuing the future trends in education conversation at the upcoming staff Centenary Education Conference, which is the next big-ticket item in our centenary year with guests including Kynan Robertson, David Price and Sophie Renton exploring this topic from their own expert perspectives. All Carey staff will be engaged in the conference for two days at the start of Term 2. This conference is one of the key staff events during our centenary year and we are excited to deliver a thought-provoking and engaging program across the two days. Our comprehensive program includes a range of high-profile keynote speakers, panels, interactive activities and workshops covering a range of pertinent topics, including:

• ‘Who’s afraid of Chat GPT/AI’ with bestselling author, futurist and trainer David Price
• What can we learn from TED around speaking and influence? A workshop with Carey alumni, John Yeo from TEDX Melbourne
• Futurist and demographer Sophie Renton from research firm McCrindle will explore current and future trends and what we can expect to see and prepare for over the coming decade within the education sector and beyond
• A session with economist-turned-business-storyteller Yamini Naidu titled ‘Hooked – How stories connect, engage and inspire’.
• A workshop focussing on individual health and wellbeing led by our own Carey specialists Luke Boyd and Kayla Herbert
• Tracing 100 years of educational change at Carey. Celebrating the launch of our centenary history book, Torchbearers, learning more about the School’s history from some resident experts and walking the heritage trail.

Kate Croft
Deputy Principal – Learning