CyberSmart! : Lesson Plans : Imagining the Future

Imagining the Future

Download Student Activity Sheet(s) for printout in PDF Format

Overview
Students are presented with emerging computer and Internet technologies, and predict how such changes might directly affect the lives of kids in the future.

Objectives

		Recognize the difficulty of predicting future technological developments
		Predict how changes in computers and the Internet will affect how kids learn and how schools are run

ISTE^® National Technology Standards

Performance Indicator # 2

Site Preview

No Internet site is used in this lesson.

Online Resources

Visit sites providing background information on the future of the Internet.

Materials

Activity sheets (2)

Introduce

		Ask students to predict what color of shirt or sweater you will wear tomorrow.
		After hearing their predictions, ask volunteers to explain how they arrived at their predictions. Guide students to understand that before predicting what might happen in the future, they should think about what happened in the past and the present.

Teach 1

		Distribute Activity Sheet 1.
		Explain that the person quoted was a very smart grownup who spent all his time thinking about making and selling computers. NOTE: The quote is attributed to Kenneth H. Olsen, computer part inventor and co-founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, in 1977.
		Have students complete the page, inviting volunteers to share their statements.

Teach 2

		Distribute Activity Sheet 2.
		Explain that speech recognition software is currently used by some physically disabled people, but is not widespread because of cost.
		Have students work in teams of four, with each student leading the discussion of and recording the team's prediction for one topic.

Teach 3

		Invite team members responsible for each topic to present their predictions to the class.
		Point out that there is no right or wrong answer and that it is very difficult to predict how technology will impact the future.

		Ask: Is it hard or easy to predict future inventions correctly? (very hard)
		Ask: What change in computers or the Internet will most change how kids are schooled in the future? Students' evaluations should be supported with details.

Extend
The following activity can be added for students who completed this lesson in a previous grade.

Have students write and illustrate their ideas about how changes in technology will affect schooling five years in the future. Place their predictions in a sturdy container to use as a time capsule. Arrange to store the time capsule somewhere in the school, such as an office safe, marked with the year in which it should be opened.