“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

-- Henry Ford

Who would have thought of an automobile to replace travel by horses before Henry Ford's time? In 1896 Ford invented the first "horseless carriage".  Now look where we are with cars. Again, who could have imagined such a future?

In the development of technology today, we are at the "horseless carriage" stage. In other words, we are at the cusp of an explosion of technology such as the development of AI and Web 3.0. 

Only seven years ago, we were tinkering with CNN and RNN, older versions of neural networks which were responsible for pattern recognition (e.g., language) using 72,960 parameters. Today, AI engineers are working on transformers to work with 530 billion parameters. The use of AI has hundreds, if not thousands of applications, many of which are transforming the way we educate our students. 

As an educator, I know that the benefits of using technology in the classroom are numerous. First, it creates enriching experiences for students who could, for example find themselves inside the human body as they study anatomy.

Students can explore the bottom of the ocean, and enjoy conversations in French just as they would if they were in Paris.

In addition, technological devices benefit collaboration. Students share their insights, questions, and work on team projects online from anywhere, at any time.

Elementary students use gamification to help them memorize math tables or learn the phonemic sounds of letters and letter combinations.

We're in the early part of the 21st century.

How will life be in the year 2100?