TRENDS: Education and the Future of Technology

If you are 1 in a million in China, there are 1,300 people just like you. China will soon become the #1 English speaking country in the world. The 25% of India's population with the highest IQ's is greater than the total population of the United States. TRANSLATION - India has more HONORS kids than America HAS kids. The Top 10 IN-DEMAND jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004. We are currently preparing students for jobs that don't yet exist...using technologies that haven't been invented...in order to solve problems we don't even know are problems yet. The U.S. Dept of Labor estimates that today's learner will have 10-14 jobs... by the age of 38.
1 in 4 workers has been with their current employer for less than 1 year...1 in 2 has been there less than five years. 1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. last year met online.
There are over 200 million registered users of MySpace. If MySpace were a country, it would be the 5th-largest in the world (between Indonesia and Brazil)
The #1 ranked country in Broadband Internet Pentration is ... BERMUDA. #19 The United States. #22 Japan.
We are living in EXPONENTIAL TIMESThere are 31 billion GOOGLE searches every month. In 2006, this # was 2.7 billion. To whom were these questions addressed B.G.? (Before Google).
The first commercial text message was sent in December of 1992. Today, the # of text mssgs sent and received everyday, excees the total population of the planet. Years it took to reach an audience of 50 million: Radio 38 years. TV 13 years. Internet 4 years. iPod 3 years. Facebook 2 years.
The # of internet devices in 1984, 1,000. The # in 1992, 501,000. The # in 2008 1,000,000,000
There are 540,000 words in the English language, 5X as many as during Shakespeare's time.
It is estimated that a week's worth of the New York Times contains more information than a person was likely to come acrsoss in a lifetime in the 18th century.
It is estimated that 4 exabytes (4.0x10^19) of unique information will be generated this year. That is more than the previous 5,000 years. The amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years... for students starting a 4 year technical degree this means that...half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study.
NTT Japan has successfully tested a fiber optic cable... that pushes 14 trillion bits per second down a single strand of fiber... that is 2,660 CDs or 210 million phone calls every second. It is currently tripling every six months and is expected to do so for the next 20 years. By 2013, a supercomputer will be built that exceeds the computational capabilities of the human brain. Predictions are that by 2049, a $1000 computer will exceed the compuational capabilities of the entire human species.
In less than 5 minutes - 67 babies were born in the US, 274 babies were born in China, 395 babies were born in India
SO WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?(source: FLIXXY.com, Education and the Future of Technology)
Thank you Tony for emailing me the link to this information - I imagine a few of us will have some comments and insights into what this all means - I'll have a printout of this for you at the meeting to take home and discuss with your kids and family.
All the best,
Tim