This year's high school graduates will barely recognize the high schools that those born this year will attend, as technology dramatically transforms education in the next decade.
Technology already helps students learn more and better, and makes their learning more relevant to the changing needs of families and the economy.
The Washington Post named 3D printing one of the tech trends to watch in 2013. These devices "print" objects designed on computers using plastic resin. Such new technologies may transform our futures as much as the microcomputer revolution did starting 35 years ago. Manufacturing may return to the United States, even to our personal garages with do-it-yourself tools unleashing untold creativity.
Local firms already use 3D printing to prototype new product ideas. Locally, Tustin High School has been teaching students 3D printing for several years as a tool to teach engineering and manufacturing with hands-on experience. We need to expand such offerings to enable every motivated student such opportunities.
Microphones and in-class sound systems subtly magnify teachers' voices, assuring that every child hears well regardless of where he or she is sitting. In 1999, researchers from Ohio State found that most classrooms had acoustics that inhibited many students from hearing all that was said by their teacher.
Now, inexpensive sound systems are proven to enhance student learning and improve student behavior. This simple and inexpensive technology results in more children reading at grade level.
Students already use devices from iPods to tablets to computers to integrate with the world around them – to absorb, create and share information, practicing writing and analytical skills. They just don't get the opportunity to do so in the classroom often enough.
Until recently, and in some cases even today, schools remain Internet-free.
Expanding wireless access to allow every student in every classroom to be connected gives all students access to literally billions of dollars worth of curriculum development and real-life textbooks for minimal investment.
The more technology is integrated into classrooms, the more engaged students become in learning, and the more opportunities are provided for advancing at their own pace, personalizing instruction and practicing real-life skills as they learn.
Local communities face a challenge in funding needed investments in technology at their neighborhood schools. In today's political and economic environment, no solution will come from either Sacramento or Washington, D.C. And school budgets – already down by 20 percent, with class sizes at the highest in recent history – can't be stretched.
Only those local communities willing to step up and pass school technology bonds will have the funding necessary to do careful long-term planning of how to use evolving technologies to gain proven benefits for neighborhood schools and students.
The Tustin Unified School District is a leader, having passed a $135 million technology bond with more than 60 percent voter support, enabling technology acquisition in the next couple of decades.
– Lynn Davis spent more than two decades as a manager and executive in the computer software industry, and was first elected to the Tustin Unified School District board in 2002. He is also working to help other school districts pass technology bonds. He and his wife, Brenda, live in North Tustin, have two children who graduated from Foothill High School and have a 1-year-old grandson.