Technology Development vs Education Development
America’s evolution from a small group of farmers to a global powerhouse took place in five major phases of development.
1. Agrarian & Handcraft
2. Industry & Machine Technology
3. Advanced Technology
4. Super Technology…The Nascent Period
5. Super Technology…The Rapid Development Period.
A comparison of Technology Development and Education Development during those phases is presented below.
AGRARIAN & HANDCRAFT
1620-1869
Technology Development
* America was pre-industrial throughout the first third of the 19th century. Most people lived on farms and produced much of what they consumed. A considerable percentage of the non-farm population was engaged in handling goods for export. The country was an exporter of agricultural products.
* Technology Development was dormant from 1620-1729.
* Technology Development was in the nascent stage from 1730-1789.
* The start of the American Industrial Revolution in 1760 was the catalyst for continuous, increasing, Technology Development for the balance of the Agrarian & Handcraft phase.
Education Development
* During the early stages of Phase 1, education took the form of home-schooling, single-room schoolhouses, and apprenticeships with local craftsmen. The focus was on the basics (i.e., reading, writing, arithmetic), and learning a trade.
* Teaching the basics was considered woman’s work, and teaching an apprentice a trade was highly regarded.
* As the population grew the home-schooling and one-room schoolhouses became obsolete, giving way to larger schools and students being placed in classes with children of the same age. Vocational training still went the way of apprenticeships.
* The first Board of Education was established in 1647.
* State colleges were established. Baruch College in New York was founded in 1847 as the Free Academy; the first free public institution of higher education, according to the college.
INDUSTRY & MACHINE TECHNOLOGY
1870-1939
Technology Development
* In 1870 the completion of the Trans Continental Railway opened up America’s west for development.
* An explosion of new discoveries and inventions took place.
* The plastics industry was born. Numerous plastic materials were invented or discovered, and the search for processes to fabricate and assemble plastic parts started. The age of plastics was off and running.
* The assembly line was invented by Henry Ford.
* The concept of Quality Control was implemented.
* America’s industrial power continued to grow at a fast pace.
Education Development
* Vocational schools were started in 1889 to address the growing need for a workforce with technical skills.
* Brooklyn Technical High School (BTHS) was established in 1922. It was the first STEM high school, but no one knew it at the time.
* Chemical, Mechanical, and Electrical Engineering college curricula were developed, and colleges started to contribute to the technical component of the Workforce Pipeline skill sets.
ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY
1940-2009
Technology Development
* An explosion of new discoveries and inventions took place.
* The number of patents granted in the 1940s was less than the number granted in the 1930s. That anomaly could have been the result of a number of disrupting events ( WWII, the atom bomb, the Roswell UFO incident ).
* The federal government was late in responding to the 1950s Technology Boom; the transition from analog to digital technology.
* The 1950s Technology Boom highlighted the need for more STEM workers in the Workforce Pipeline.
* The growth of America’s Industrial Power continued at a fast rate.
* America’s growth in Automated Manufacturing started in the 1950s, and continues to grow.
* As time moved on the demand for technology kept growing. All the latest and greatest things were coming out and everyone wanted the newest technology. Lexar announced the firs SD card that could store 1 terabyte. Uber, Lyft and Airbnb were introduced.
Education Development
* K-12 schools became prominent.
* Vocational schools continued to deliver technical skill sets to the Workforce Pipeline.
* Colleges with rigorous and comprehensive curricula in Chemical, Mechanical, Electrical. etc., engineering continued to contribute to the Workforce Pipeline skill sets.
* Up until the late 1969s state universities were tuition-free.
* Changes began after WWII as the GI Bill increased the number of Americans wanting to go to college, continued into the 1960s, culminating in Civil Rights and student protests. These events, the new influx of college eligible Americans, and their demand for education (which outpaced supply and funding) led to the end of tuition-free state universities and the start of a pay-for-education business model for the state universities, and the start of the student loan crisis.
* Before the for-profit business model, the requirements for admission to, and remaining in, college were rigorous and comprehensive; resulting in graduates with significant skill sets that were in sync with the Workforce Pipeline requirements.
* The conversion from tuition-free education to a for-profit business model resulted in lowered requirements for college admission (i.e., empty seats do not generate cash flow), and lowered requirements for staying in college (i.e., empty seats do not generate cash flow), and reduced quality of the skill sets of graduates entering the Workforce Pipeline. America’s talent pool was being filtered based on the ability to pay.
* Since the late 1960s the quality of Workforce Pipeline skill sets has been declining as poorly trained college graduates entered the Workforce Pipeline while “old school” college graduates (i.e., rigorous and comprehensive curricula) were leaving the Workforce Pipeline (i.e., retirement, down-sizing, etc.). Buy the early 2000s, the Workforce Pipeline contained 100% of poorly trained graduates with questionable skill sets.
* After WWII international studies of student performance indicated that America’s students performance was mediocre compared to other industrialized countries. The relative decline of American education has long been a national embarrassment, as well as a threat to the nation’s future.
SUPER TECHNOLOGY…THE NASCENT PERIOD
2010-2019
Technology Development
* Technology is off and running! Some of the achievements and activities included…Mobile Internet…Robotic agility…Gene editing…self driving cars…Tesla’s Powerwall…Re-usable rockets…Supercomputers reached 100 petaflops…Electric car ownership reached one million worldwide…Agricultural robots…The first five-atom quantum computer…Sales of electric and hybrid trucks reached 100,000 annually…Electronic paper started seeing widespread use…Foldable phones and dual-screen laptops were on display…More than 300million smartphones were shipped with some form of neural networking capabilities…Every day 700 million people use some form of smart personal assistant, like an Amazon Echo or Apple’s Siri…Lexar announced the first SD card that could store 1 terabyte…Uber, Lyft, and Airbnb were introduced…etc.
Education Development
* The performance of America’s students continued to be mediocre compared to other industrialized countries.
* COVID had a major negative effect on the Education System; making matters worse.
SUPER TECHNOLOGY…THE RAPID DEVELOPMENT PERIOD
2020-2025
Technology Development
* The rate of change keeps increasing. Here are some of the achievements and activities.
2020…Automation…Telepresence…Telehealth…DataSecOps…AI and machine learning…MLOps Platforms…Quantom Computing For Cyber Warfare…Robotic Deliveries…Platform-As-A Service…Low-Code/No Code…Drag-And-Drop Website Building…Tech Tools For Remote Work…Cloud Workplaces.
2021…Internet of Behaviors…Distributed Cloud…Intelligent Composable…Total Experience…Anywhere Operations…Artifical Intelligence…Privacy and Confidential…Computer Security…Hyper-automation.
2022…The end of passwords…COVID Variant Tracking…A long-lasting Grid Battery…AI for protein folding…Malaria Vaccine…Proof of Stake…A pill for COVID…Practical Fusion Reactors…Synthetic data for AI…A carbon removal factory.
2023…Artificial Intelligence…Internet of Things…Cybersecurity…Quantum Computing…Augmented Reality…Metaverse Goes Physical…Blockchain…Edge Computing…More Sustainable Technology.
2024…Generative AI…Internet of Things…Robotics…Quantum Computing…Artificial Intelligence…Sustainable Technology…Blockchain…5G…McKinsey Technology Tre.
2025…Generative AI…5G Expansion…Quantum Computing…Virtual Reality…Augmented Reality…Internet of Things…Biotechnology in Agriculture…Autonomous Vehicles…Blockchain…Edge Computing…Personalized Medicine…Neuromorphic Computing…Green Energy…Wearable Health Monitors…Extended Reality (XR) for Training…Voice-Activated Technology…Space Tourism…Synthetic Media…Advanced Robotics…AI in Cybersecurity…Digital Twins…Sustainable Technology…Telemedicine…Nano-Technology…AI TRISM.
Education Development
* The performance of America’s students continues to fall behind that of their international peers.
* The number of young people choosing teaching as a career continues to decline.
* The number of teachers taking early retirement continues to increase.
* A number of experienced teachers will “hang-in-there” until they qualify for the full pension.
* The use of people from other countries that have been trained in the STEM subjects is increasing.
* The interest of America’s teenagers in STEM careers continues to decrease.
NO COMMON SENSE
ANALYZE THE EXAMPLE
* Which supports and barriers were in play?
* What were the dynamics?
* Who, or What, won the Tug-Of-War?
* Discuss the outcome with your friends and family.
* Use Post #4 as a reference for the relationships and dynamics between supports and barriers.
