Technology-Inspired Fictions of Future Education

Education is one of the social spheres that today is actively transforming under the pressure of external and internal factors. The Covid19 pandemic has contributed to the active use of digital technologies in educational institutions all around the world. This study examines the future of education through the fictional stories of students (N = 196) about how they see education in 2050. The “future” in the stories is formed primarily due to a more advanced technological environment than today. Students especially often described “alarm clock” technologies (40%), access to a university (25%), technologies for learning (82%), university equipment (45%), multilingual technologies (31%), transport (47%), catering technologies (65%). Although distance learning technologies are described in the vast majority of stories, the authors nevertheless strive to preserve the university as a physical place and the opportunity to at least sometimes come there. Despite the described total immersion, which blurs the line between virtual and real presence, students are wary of digital isolation. Many educational technologies are thought to remain the same, but a number of students are thinking about new technologies to prevent cheating. Artificial intelligence and robots are present in 76% of stories, while strong AI, assessing students and regulating all social processes, is presented in a third of them. Another revolutionary technology featured in the stories is the brain implant. Fantasies about the future allow us to see the hopes and desires of students who imagine a high-tech future as pleasant, fast, and individual as well as the limits of students’ imagination. Technologies might allow them to solve the problem of wasted time (during moving, cooking, recording lectures, etc.), and increase the comfort of the environment, and adapting to the characteristics and interests of students.