Running Head: THE WONDROUS EVER CHANGING WORLD 1

The Wondrous, Ever Changing World of 2037

Jared Callis

Western Oregon University

THE WONDROUS, EVER CHANGING WORLD 2

The world is flattening! Yes, miracles do happen. Our round earth is growing flatter and

flatter with the passing of every year as various technological advances occur (Friedman, 2005).

It is important to note that as Thomas Friedman mentioned over the past 20 to 30 years, our

world has become increasingly easier to traverse; hence become flatter. Physical travel is much

easier and more cost effective than it ever has been. Digital communication is convenient and

cheap. We send various documents through cyberspace and in just seconds a colleague can see

the work we have done on a project from around the globe. But what does all of this mean for

our homes, our workplace, and our education systems in the next few decades? In our homes

we will have more automated technology than we could even imagine. We will see the job

market shift to include more of the trades and services, as the majority of other sectors become

more and more automated. We will see education become digitized, data driven and tailored

to each students specific learning styles.

Automated Homes

Lets first look at our homes and how they will be more automated. The ever idealized

smart home will be full of many automated devices. As we see the evolution and adoption of

the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag, we will see it used not only in retail stores, but in

the home. This is a new type of barcode, which would allow not only a product to be labeled a

specific brand and item, but each individual item would be able to have its own code. This

would allow us to have a SMART refrigerator and SMART cabinets within our kitchen. These

items would catalogue each item placed in them. It would register the quantity of the item, the

expiration date, and it will help you generate your shopping list based on what you are running
THE WONDROUS, EVER CHANGING WORLD 3

low on, or what has expired. The display on the fridge could show you all of this information as

it reads the RFID tags of all items within the specified radio distance, probably 20 feet or so. It

also would have a mobile app for you smartphone, tablet, or home control center (tv). This app

would allow you to generate the shopping lists, view what needs to be thrown away, and menu

plan based on suggested recipes from the food that is in your fridge and cupboards (Itzkovitch,

2013). I also see the same RFID tags being used within clothing. You could specify which

articles of clothing go with which person. The house would be equipped with an automated

laundry system where you just throw the clothes in the dirty bin and they go through the

automated laundry machine and then end up cleaned, dried, folded, and sorted into piles for

each person within the household. (Hamm, 2013) This would save many mothers a lot of time

that they currently spend doing laundry. Another aspect of our daily lives, which we spend a

lot of time doing is driving. In the next 20 years, we will see driverless cars becoming the norm.

They will allow us to do other things while we drive. Time which was focused on driving the car

will now be spent either doing something of leisure or putting in extra hours for work. This car

will use sensors to monitor the traffic around it and specific road signs as they are passed. It

will be a much safer car that does not allow for driver error. This type of car will enhance our

experience when travelling down the road (Kelly, 2014).

Work Force Shift

In the United States, we have already seen a huge push for manufacturing outside of our

borders. This has forced many workers to go back to school and change their careers. We have

seen governors in a few states make a push to bring back more vocational options for students
THE WONDROUS, EVER CHANGING WORLD 4

starting in high school (Zinth, 2013). As technologies change and enhance the business sector,

we will see more and more office jobs go away. Various technologies will allow fewer workers

to do the same, if not more, amount of work. We will see sales managers control computers to

run market campaigns instead of a team of marketers. (See social media apps such as

HOOTSUITE which control social media updates and schedule them when you want.) The

software will be available where a computer will create a full on advertising campaign solely

based on the data and trends of the consumers they are trying to target. With the business

sector decreasing, we will see a rise in the vocational sector. Many who are currently in these

fields will be retiring in the next 10 to 15 years. There will be a rush to fill this void, otherwise

those who work within the vocations will be able to charge large amounts due to the demand

that will exist. As people lose jobs in the business world, they will be retrained and move to

some sort of trade industry. As the population grows more people will be creating food and

energy sources as well. Whether it is adapting resources that we already use, or researching

some new resource that can be used to meet these needs.

Educational Revolution

As I look 20 years out from now, I see six through twelfth grade education as making the

big shift to a more hybrid style of class, mixing online aspects of the class with the at school

classroom. Classes would be designed so that the online work specifically aided the more

projects and group based learning atmosphere in the classroom. You will see students

spending time reading and watching educational media at home (New Media Consortium,

2014). The physical school week could be shortened and still allow for student learning time to
THE WONDROUS, EVER CHANGING WORLD 5

be optimized as they are required to do their online work at home. School districts will make

sure that students have the resources necessary for this to happen. For students who might

not have internet available at home, they will still be able to come complete their work at

school in a supervised setting. It would also be necessary for first through 5th grade education

to be emphasizing computer literacy and building the foundations to create good digital

citizens. Plus this emphasis will prepare them to be mature enough to be good collaborators

and engage in online classwork on their own.

Adult education will move completely to hybrid and online classes (New Media

Consortium, 2014). The use of new instructional technologies will allow the majority of

learning to occur in online settings. We will see higher education move towards including more

and more multi-touch technologies. Along with that virtual assistant technology will help us

organize thoughts and process new information. Our virtual assistants will help us run our lives

and they will play the biggest role in the classroom or learning environment. These virtual

assistants will help us study and keep our information in an order that is most logical to our

learning styles, because they will know how we work. This type of technology will be

embedded within a smart phone, smart watch, or smart glasses, which will be with us at all

times. This allows the assistant to learn so much about us. They will not take over the teacher

role, but will be of great assistance to helping us learn more efficiently. The world will begin

communicating to others through these assistants as well. We will be able to dictate emails,

texts, and even pre-record video messages which our assistant will send to whichever contact

we choose.
THE WONDROUS, EVER CHANGING WORLD 6

All of these circumstances and predictions are based on the trends we are currently

observing in our world. Within the home and auto industries, we are seeing a push for

everything to be completely automated and more convenient for our use. We are starting to

see the technology begin to exist and it will only be a matter of time before it is developed

further and mass produced for all consumers. The job market will see a dip in the vocational

fields and the work force will scramble to fill the gap once it is acknowledged. Many of the

same technologies will effect and drive changes within the workforce. Educational will also see

a large change in the way students learn. Mobile technologies and new inventions will help

students prepare more effectively for the workforce and we will see the learning environment

change to include more interactive and web based learning media. In 2037, our world will

include many new technologies that help us be more efficient no matter what we are trying to

accomplish.
THE WONDROUS, EVER CHANGING WORLD 7

References:

Friedman, T. L. (2005). The world is flat: A brief history of the twenty-first century. New York: Farrar,
Straus and Giroux.

Hamm, S. (2013, December 17). IBM's 5 in 5: In the Future, Computers will learn [Web log post].
Retrieved from http://asmarterplanet.com/blog/2013/12/ibms-5-5-future-computers-will-
learn.html.

Itzkovitch, A. (2013, September 18). The Internet of Things and the Mythical Smart Fridge. Retrieved
from www.uxmag.com/articles/the-internet-of-things-and-the-mythical-smart-fridge.

Kelly, H. (2014, January 9). Driverless Car Tech gets serious at CES. CNN. Retrieved from
http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/09/tech/innovation/self-driving-cars-ces/ .

New Media Consortium. (2014, January 31). The NMC Horizon report: 2014 higher education edition.
Retrieved from http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2014-nmc-horizon-report-he-EN.pdf.

Zinth, J., & Education Commission of the, S. (2013). Career/Technical Education: Not Your Father's
Vocational Education. The Progress of Education Reform. Volume 14, Number 1. Education
Commission Of The States,