This is the student who has been schooled in classes with limited access to shared workstations, with learning still delivered by worksheets and text books.
With the exception of a few forward-thinking schools these students are experiencing school mostly as we experienced it.
Fortunately for the higher education sector these remaining transitional students provide universities and technical institutes an important window of opportunity to make essential changes.
Current high school students will continue to follow tradition and sign up for tertiary courses that lead to qualifications that are no longer needed. They will sit in legacy lecture halls in the absence of real alternatives.
However, this window of opportunity is small and closing by the day. Today’s 12-year-old today are just 6-years away from signing up for tertiary study.
By 2021 this new generation of learners will have moved through today's high school system. During their time in high school they will see new education practices rolled out as schools are forced to transform in respond to increased unrest by students who will question outdated teaching practices and the relevance in today’s world.
The speed and extent of change needed is not for the faint-hearted, the fearful or the resistant.
The time to debate new teaching approaches has past and the education leaders of tomorrow will be those who champion progress and reward those who embrace change.
However change comes slowly in the assessment-delivering, assurance seeking, compliance ticking world of higher education.
There will be many educators who will continue to posture and criticise progress from the confines of aged infrastructure, and traditional classrooms.
I welcome the next generation of platform floating, cloud space storing, super googling, Pinterest glamourising Insta-spotifying students.
Let us support you to collaborate, co-habitat and converge the subject silos to bring authentic learning to your world.
Read more: Joint venture unveils post-grad qualification in digital learning
It is time for new modalities, where co-constructed knowledge is scaffolded and powered by digital pedagogies.
Let us be part of the solution as we build a new education system that supports the development of creators, doers, innovators, coders and problem-solvers.
We need resilient thinkers who can solve today’s problems for the environment, for energy and global sustainability.
The answers to these problems are found in discovering new things we don’t already know, not in the end of year exam printed on worksheets.
Let us start now.
By Frances Valintine - Chair of the Board, The Mind Lab
Frances is the Chair of the Board at The Mind Lab by Unitec, Director Harper Lilly Ltd Consultancy