????說起教育的未來，常常會引發這樣的想象：學生人手一部iPad，機器人監控課堂甚至授課，老師隨時可以通過網絡攝像機向成千上萬的學生講課。

????有些已經以這種或那種形式實現。毫無疑問，技術將成為未來教育的重要組成部分。全球移動通信系統協會（GSMA）和咨詢公司麥肯錫（McKinsey & Co）在2012年進行的調查顯示，移動教育市場（囊括了從電子書到平板電腦授課再到教學管理軟件的方方面面）目前的規模為34億美元。到2020年，這個涵蓋了蘋果（Apple）iPad和谷歌（Google）安卓平板等設備銷售的市場預計將達到700億美元。

????然而，盡管對電子產品和新軟件的宣傳可謂天花亂墜，但教育的未來實際上取決于老師和學生的角色轉變。“主要的轉變在于逐漸放棄我所說的以老師在課堂上授課為主的模式。”比爾和梅琳達?蓋茨基金會（Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation）的項目官員斯科特?本森解釋道。本森指出，學生們將按照各自的進度，使用適應他們優缺點的軟件來進行學習。換句話說，在新興技術的幫助下，師生關系以及課堂本身將得到重塑。這就是即將來臨的教育革命。

????老師將不再在講臺上授課，而是監督學生們的學習進度，在特定時候出面幫助那些遇到困難的學生。理想的情況下，老師將讓成績好的學生自己學習，把更多的精力用在那些需要幫助的學生身上。

????“有了這種新的方法和能力，你會發現老師們突然之間可以應付更多的學生了。”麥格勞-希爾教育集團（McGraw-Hill Education）總裁兼CEO、綽號“噪音”的勞埃德?沃特豪斯說。該集團和培生（Pearson）等出版業的競爭對手正在競相打造能夠實現這種未來愿景的數字產品（更別說確保他們不受到這種商業模式的干擾）。“突然之間，生產力有望提高到原來的兩倍或三倍。”

????在上周二的消費電子展（CES）技術會議上，麥格勞-希爾教育集團推出了一套面向大學生的自適應學習新產品，其中最引人矚目的是“SmartBook”。它能夠根據學生的個人需求進行調整，可以說開創了教育界先河。這種常常被稱為“個性化學習”的方法在近些年里日漸流行。該教學方法的部分依據來自于芝加哥大學（University of Chicago）教育心理學家本杰明?布魯姆在大約30年前進行的研究。布魯姆在上世紀八十年代早期發現，參加一對一輔導的學生表現明顯好于接受普通課堂教學的學生。

????但為每名學生都聘請一位導師是不可能的。因此，很多新興科技公司、出版商和教育機構花費大量的精力和資金，使數字課程進入全國各地的課堂，模擬那種能夠適應學生個人需求的一對一教學。

????我們正在取得進展，但還沒有完全成功。蓋茨基金會的本森說：“如果我是涵蓋了110萬學生的教育系統的首腦，我不可能只采用一種模式。我們絕不會這么做。”

????蓋茨基金會已經向非盈利教育組織EDUCAUSE管理的一個項目投資了近900萬美元。作為“下一代學習挑戰”（Next Generation Learning Challenges）計劃的一部分，該項目將使200間學校找到一種可靠的、在經濟上可持續的方法來實現個性化學習。獲得款項的所有學校將同時使用數字和傳統教學方法。

????When people talk about the future of education, it often triggers visions of an iPad in every student's hands, classes monitored—or even taught—by robots, and teachers lecturing via webcam to hundreds of thousands of pupils at any given moment.

????Some of this is already happening in one form or another. Without a doubt, technology will be a crucial part of the future of education. The market for mobile education—which encompasses everything from e-books to courses delivered to tablets and learning management software—is currently worth $3.4 billion, according to a 2012 study by GSMA, an association of mobile operators, and consultants McKinsey & Co. The market, which includes device sales like Apple (AAPL) iPads and Google (GOOG) Android-based tablets, is expected to be worth $70 billion by 2020.

????But despite all the hoopla over gadgets and new software, the future of education really hinges on the shifting roles of teacher and student. "The main shift is away from what I'll call a teacher-in-classroom-centric model," explains Scott Benson, a program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Instead, Benson says students will learn at their own pace, using software that adapts to their strengths and weaknesses. In other words: aided by emerging technology, the teacher-student relationship—and the classroom itself—will be remade. That is the coming education revolution.

????Instead of lecturing at the front of a classroom, a teacher would monitor students' progress and assist those who are struggling on an ad-hoc basis. A teacher will, ideally, be free to let advanced students do their own thing and pay more attention to those who need help.

????"With this new method and capability, all of a sudden you could see a teacher handling many more students," says Lloyd "Buzz" Waterhouse, president and CEO at McGraw-Hill Education (MHP), which, along with publishing competitors like Pearson (PSO), is racing to build digital products that fulfill this vision of the future. (Not to mention ensure they aren't disrupted out of a business model.) "All of a sudden, the productivity could double or triple."

????On Tuesday at the CES tech conference, McGraw Hill Education revealed a set of new adaptive learning products for college students, most notably a "SmartBook" that changes based on a student's individual needs, arguably a first in education. This approach, often referred to as "personalized learning," has picked up steam over the years. It is partly based on research conducted around 30 years ago by University of Chicago educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom. In the early 1980s, Bloom observed that students who engaged in one-on-one tutoring performed significantly better than those who had a typical classroom experience.

????But hiring a tutor for every single student is not possible, so a whole slew of tech startups, publishers, and educational institutions have poured significant energy and money into placing digital courses into classrooms across the country that simulate the kind of one-on-one tutoring that can adapt to an individual student's needs.

????We're getting closer, but we're not there yet. "If I were the head of a 1.1 million student system, it's not like I could pick a single model; we are by no means near that," says the Gates Foundation's Benson.

????The Gates Foundation has invested just under $9 million in a program administered by education nonprofit EDUCAUSE that will allow 20 schools to figure out a solid, financially sustainable way to achieve personalized learning as part of a program called Next Generation Learning Challenges. All of the schools awarded grants will use some combination of digital and traditional instruction.