Windows on The Future:

Foreward by David Thornburg

As frequent speaker at conferences throughout the United States and Canada, I was bound to encounter Ted and Ian sooner or later. It was "sooner," and it has been my pleasure to see, hear, and collaborate with these two thinkers for well over a decade. Together we have travelled far and wide, spoken at conferences from Alaska to Florida, and most places in between. We've lost luggage together, faced the terror of equipment failure minutes before major presentations, and gotten into the kind of trouble that makes for good stories (but not, fortunately, for this book). The authors of this book are, like many gifted speakers, larger than life. They exhort, cajole, plead and inform audiences throughout the US and Canada for one simple reason: they believe that schools need to meet the needs of children -- and that the educational systems of our respective countries are out of whack with reality.

Like all who live by the crystal ball, Ted and Ian have modified their perspectives on technology many times as reality outstripped projections that (at the time) seemed to be "far out." This is the common dilemma faced by anyone trying to make sense of the world of technology as it applies to learning. Just as you are being criticized for "pie in the sky futuristic" thinking, the headline of a morning paper announces the release of a technology that you thought would take another few years to come to market. Futurism is a dangerous craft, especially if it wanders into the domain of forecasting. This is why we look for touchstones like Moore's Law (described in the following pages) and other rules of thumb that use history as a basis for extrapolations that appear too fantastic for words on one hand, yet are reasonable projections of where we might be in the future.

While the technologies they have talked about over the years has changed, their underlying ideas have not: The challenge is not to think about changes in the technology itself (although you will see plenty of that in this volume), it is to think about the transformations of education that can be facilitated by the effective use of this technology. It is the transformations of our systems of learning that deserve our attention, not the technologies that can facilitate this change. I am not a believer in technological determinism (a good thing, given how slowly schools have adopted information technology into their core structures). I do believe, however, that tools known to have value for learning outside of school (namely home and work) should be used more effectively in the only place where learning is the only job: school. McCain and Jukes concur.

Ted and Ian call for dramatic changes with a fervor that acknowledges how far we have to go just to catch up with the world outside of school. I share their concern while, at the same time, heeding the advice of my colleague Paul Saffo who reminds me never to mistake a clear view for a short distance. Can we envision a different kind of schooling? Of course, and Ted and Ian do so in this volume. Can we change our institutions to reflect these changes? Of course -- they are human inventions, and therefore subject to adaption by humans. Will we have the courage to make the changes needed to bring educational practice in line with the needs of 21st century learners? It turns out, in my opinion, that this is an interesting but not essential question. I truly hope that we will have the courage to make these changes, but if we don't our children will still be well served -- just not by their old schools. Schools that fail to adapt to the needs of the society in which they exist will simply go out of existence, replaced by new educational institutions funded by the public or private sector. The initial move will probably come from corporate sponsorship, either in the form of new private educational institutions (some of them web-based) created by new companies to meet the need, or, second, in the form of schools created by corporations who are driven into the education field because their employees lack the skills they need to thrive in the world of work. (This has already happened at the college level with institutions like Motorola University who plans to open another campus or two in mainland China.) If this view appears far-fetched, one need only look back as far as Horace Mann to see how his model of the common school dovetailed with the needs of Massachusetts employers in the 1800's.

Do I care how this all plays out? Yes, of course I do. Education is far more than training. In the United States it is the primary means through which people learn to take part in the running of a democracy. Personally, it would be tragic if educators were to ignore some of the points made in this book -- if they were to continue to "Yes, but" themselves into the next century.

The volume you hold contains some simple, yet powerful, ideas. As you read, you'll learn how to "live life like a quarterback," you'll learn that how we use technology is (as I like to put it) more important than if we use technology.

Ted and Ian have provided a map. Not the only map, by any means, but a map just the same. The challenge is up to you. How will you use their map? What will you see when you gaze through their windows on the future? And, most importantly, what concrete actions will you take as a result of reading this book?

With these questions in mind, I send you on an adventure to get a highly personal perspective on ways that education can take advantage of technology -- an adventure presented by two of the most popular presenters in this field. I hope you enjoy the trip as much as I did.

David D. Thornburg, Ph.D.

San Francisco, December, 1999.