Youth Re-envisioning the Future of Education

The locus of discussion on empowerment through student voice often rests in refined adult writing. Here, four students were given the opportunity to offer perspectives of the future of education as a result of attending the ninth Workshop on the Impact of Pen and Touch Technology on Education. The authors, three females and two males ranging in age from 13–15, were part of two teams in the High School Design Challenge during WIPTTE in 2015, now known as the Conference on Pen and Touch Technology in Education (CPTTE). This contribution provides insight into the process students took to design concepts for original games leveraging gesture, pen and touch technology that “strategically attracts users for long-term use (over many months).” They discuss their designs for game concepts they named Live & Learn, and Plumbum and Touch. They conclude with their vision for the future of education. The experience allowed them to realize the power of student voice in education. Their writing provides a glimpse into formal and informal learning environments they have lived within. Evidence of blended learning allowing for the intersection of human connection, experiential learning, lecture, and cross-age mentoring have been transferred into this culminating piece that originated from complex, real-world design challenges, failure, redesign, redrafting and communicating ideas.