The practice of education will be revolutionised and the role of schools and teachers dramatically and traumatically changed

Report

Tests will be marked by machines and schools will be seen more as organisations than buildings, says a report from the Institution of Electrical Engineers.

The report is the latest challenge to educators to respond to a predicted fundamental shake-up in the way children are taught within the next few years.

But a crucial factor will be to overcome the "generally negative" attitude of teachers towards new technology, argues the author, Alasdair Kemp.

In the wide-ranging and deliberately provocative report, Mr Kemp says that if education fails to make use of information and communication technology (ICT) it will be failing pupils and society.

Marking by machine

The role of teachers - and parents - will be vital in developing the materials for ICT-based individual learning, but there is an opportunity for better and more cost-effective education, he says.

All children might have personal games and learning machines

He foresees children having their own learning machines, probably some sort of combination games player, mobile phone, calculator and voice recorder, which can also be used for educational purposes.

Hand in hand with individual learning will be automatic monitoring and evaluation of pupils' progress - with marking done by machine rather than human teachers.

"Although teachers will be sceptical of such developments, the extent to which machines are used for routine tasks is a measure of the success of ICT innovations.

"Reductions in the need for the exercise of human judgement are a consequence of such developments."

The implications will be widespread, Mr Kemp says.

Change of role

"The practice of education will be revolutionised and the role of schools and teachers dramatically and traumatically changed."

Traditionally schools have been a means of handing down information. But this will change to a "multi-way information communication" involving teachers, parents and pupils - with "no single locus of control".

People will still come together for some activities - most obviously "learning how to behave and playing games".

But for the intellectual side of learning the groups can be scattered geographically and might involve pupils of different ages.

Going to school "will not always be necessary" because learning with machines can take place anywhere, and a classroom might not be the best place for it.

"Schools or learning centres are however likely to continue, to some extent as organisations rather than as dedicated buildings," he says.

Teacher training implications

"Village schools and neighbourhood schools in towns and cities, used for both primary and secondary education and as resources for the community, may be more appropriate than having large premises with traditional classrooms, and daily long-distance travel by pupils."

Part of his prediction is that, as a result of all this, the role of parents and other relatives is likely to become even more important - not least in providing the right sort of room, without distractions, in which children can study.

The "digital divide" - the gap between the technology haves and have-nots that is already widely appreciated - is likely to grow in that respect.

In all this Mr Kemp sees a big catch: the "largely and generally negative" attitude of the teaching profession towards the introduction of new technologies.

"ICT is widely seen as a threat rather than as an opportunity," he says.

As those who are training now might reasonably expect to be still in teaching by 2020, he says present-day teacher training needs to change to reflect the future he predicts.