Education in the "forty-year present": Perceptions of computer scientists on educational futures in a context of rapid technological change

This thesis argues that technological pervasiveness and rapid change effects shape the current context of education. It proposes that these effects are potentially transformative and may result in radical departures from traditional approaches to education in the near future. Perceptions of that future form the focus of the research. The concept of a "forty-year present" is used to represent a small window of time surrounding the present in which it is reasonable to conduct such discussion. A futurist approach to research is presented, and an iterative, Internet-based survey technique is used to gather some narrative data about educational futures from a small body of respondents with an interest in computer science education. The research approach itself is evaluated as part of the work and some recommendations for future Internet-based techniques are raised as a result. The data is used to generate an account of 37 futures issues raised by the respondent community, and to derive a list of 19 broad priorities for the future.