This question has been lingering in my mind for a long time. Every now and then, I come back to visit this question. I am yet to find a satisfactory answer to it.
I have tried to look at what the future may be, (for another post may be). This piece The New Literacy via elearnspace describes well what has happened to us.
This is my own journey, so far. I started as a high school Physics teacher. During my Certificate of Education, I was re-introduced into programming (I have some experience with punched cards in FORTRAN, COBOL etc. while I was still undergrad) using a hand-held programmable calculated. This has started my journey into personal computing - starting with a 4K RAM Z90 computer from Sinclair. My M.Ed was on the ethnographical study of an electronic bulletin board system. Because of that, I was involved in a project for delivering English language teacher training to secondary schools. I became the first computer officer of the TeleNex project between June 1993 to 95.
As a high school Physics teacher for almost 20 years, with 15 of those being the head of the Physics department, I have all the necessary experience and qualifications. When I first came to Australia, I was unable to find a job in teaching Physics - but ended up being a lecturer in Computer Science - although I have no formal qualification in this area.
My experience echoes very well with "The New Literacy". I have been mainly working for the education field and still am. For me, the field has not changed. However, the need of constantly upgrading myself is obvious. The job I am doing today would not have been conceived when I graduated. In between, some job I have done came out to be quite unexpectedly.
With the coming of Information Age (or it has already arrived!), the path to be taken by my daughter will be different from mine as well. How different? We don't know. How to give her the best preparation? I am wondering...
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