Why Now?

Jada’s decision to start a classroom transformation bodes the question, why now? We believe it is because her students cannot wait any longer. The world is changing at a fast and furious pace, and when it comes to creating deep and meaningful learning opportunities for students, we as educators must stay current. To understand just how quickly things change, consider the significance of the date June 29, 2007 (Chen, 2009). On this day, the first iPhone was made available to consumers worldwide. This product, a popular example of a first-generation smartphone, ushered in a new era for our world. In the coming months and years, every aspect of our lives began to evolve as over 1.4 billion of these devices were sold worldwide in the decade that followed. The smartphone became the ultimate multitasker, keeping notes, contacts, and calendar appointments; providing an alarm clock and a digital camera; and acting as a GPS device. It became nearly as powerful and useful as a desktop computer, and led to the rise of multibillion-dollar companies that didn’t exist before the invention, such as the ride-sharing apps Uber and Lyft, or the food-delivery service Grubhub. We bank, shop, and socialize, all from this multitasker. When you really stop to think about it, there isn’t a single aspect of our daily lives that hasn’t been in some way impacted by the rise of the smartphone.

What else happened in June of 2007? High school seniors from the Class of 2021 were about to enter preschool, a milestone that for many would be their first experience in a formalized schooling environment. How many of these students entered a classroom where their teacher knew how best to prepare them for life in 2021, a world changed dramatically by the introduction of a pocket-sized piece of technology with a white apple on it? Was the teacher looking to future trends in society in order to determine which instructional strategies to employ or what skills to focus on? Did the teacher’s school have a vision to support deep, meaningful, relevant learning in a way that would set these students up for future successes? Was the teacher skilled at predicting the future?

Predicting the future is never a perfect science. To quote fictitious character Dr. Emmett Brown from one of Brian’s favorite movies, Back to the Future III (1990), “Your future is whatever you make it, so make it a good one.” While we can’t say for certain what the future will hold, we can look to trends to help us stay on the right path and influence our future choices. The advent of the iPhone was huge. It didn’t take long for smartphones to get smaller, faster, and ultimately smarter. As they did, our appetite for real-time access to data and information drove an upsurge in smartphone applications that revolutionized how we interact with our world, how we act as consumers, and even how we socialize. With this evolution came a need for individuals to possess a deeper toolbox of higher-order thinking and problem-solving