By the turn of the century, educators say, there will be a shift from engineering and other appliedskills since computers will be able to solve such problems. The focus will be on reasoning ,with emphasison the basic subjects of Maths,Chemistry,Physics and English.
Just because students will carry a personal computer instead of a book bag, teachers will not dis-appear. Futurist Richard Dude of the University of Houston at Clear Lake notes that computers will be ef-fedive in teaching subieds such as Maths, but "in areas such as creative writing, where there are manydifferent right answers, machines will never teach as effectively as people".
Fifty years from now, a college education will mean as much as a high school degree for the gener-ation who came of age in World War II. In 2033 ,more than 60 percent of American adults will have at-tended college, compared with less than 30 percent today.
That doesn' t mean college won' t face problems. In this century, a 25 percent drop in the numberof 18-to-22-year-olds will doom scores of small private schools. The remaining 3,000 colleges and uni-versities will provide only a part of a person' s never ending education.
Industry,for one,will become much more involved in education and job training. Hundreds of cor-porations will grant degrees, most often in high technology, science and engineering, where state-of-the-art equipment and research will surpass that on most computers.
Use of television, computers and videotapes will also create classrooms in libraries, museums,neighborhood centers and the home. As a result, futurists see a surge in" public" professors——nationalexperts appearing electronically across the country. In the next century, academia' s motto" publish or perish" could well become" perform or perish".
As learning becomes more accessible, more efficient and more rewarding for a greater number ofpeople,the result should be a better-educated citizenry. But educators fear that not all Americans will bepart of this march toward better learning. Children with home computers will outpace those who havenone. Ubraries and small firms in poor neighborhoods will not be able to offer the same educationalprograms as wealthier facilities. The Carnegie Foundation' s Boyer warns:" The gap between the edu-cated haves and the have-nots may well increase. "
The hope for the future is that as the opportunities for lifelong learning expand, computer literacy will become a basic right for all Americans.
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