Envisioning CPE

Envisioning CPE

            Continuing professional education is a topic that has been a greatly researched and discussed topic. However, for the most part the research and discussion that has been performed pertains to the current climate of continuing professional education. More specifically, any issues or technology that had been analyzed were that of current. With this in mind, there is need to take a look at what continuing professional education will look like in the future from an issues and technology standpoint.

            There will always be issues and technology that surround continuing professional education, and for this reason among others it may prove helpful to envision what continuing professional education will look like in the future. I have chosen to narrow my focus of what I believe continuing professional education will look like in the future to the following:

-       - The technologies that will play a significant role in continuing professional education will be cloud based technologies as well as web conferencing technologies.

-       - The issues that will play a significant role in continuing professional education will include time constraints, cost, and ethical issues.

-      - The technologies and issues that will have an affect in the future will more likely than not correlate with one another.

The first section that I would like to focus on in terms of how I envision the future of continuing professional education is that of the issues that are associated. The three issues that believe will play a major role in the future is the time, costs, and ethical dilemmas that come along with providing or obtaining continued professional education.

Cost

            Cost will continue to be a significant issue, and I believe this will be more profound in the near future. The basis for this belief is that as more individuals attend college and the job market becomes more competitive, there will most likely be a classic example of supply and demand. For example, as demand increases and more individuals seek out continuing professional education, supply will begin to decrease, thus making the costs associated with providing CPE more expensive. Another aspect of this that I believe relates is that as more people attempt to obtain CPE, the value of the information learned will eventually become less valuable. Therefore, it is my opinion that in the coming years continuing professional education will become virtually unaffordable essentially reserved only for those who are financially fit. This will only be compounded if the economic climate with the U.S. continues to be dismal. These beliefs on their own bring up ethical issues; however this will be discussed later.

Time

            Another aspect of continuing professional education that I believe will have an impact will be time. I believe that there has been a gradual shift of people becoming busier and busier, and I feel that this will affect people’s ability to participate in continuing professional education. I also believe that as continuing professional education continues to evolve and develop, the curriculum will become more difficult and will more time will be needed to adequately educate professionals. This by itself would not pose a problem, however I believe that majority of the professionals that will seek CPE will be currently employed. Now instead of workshops taking a few days to complete, seminars and workshops will take significantly longer, which will create a burden on those employed.

Ethics

Ethics is something that I believe is the most interwoven issue within continuing professional education. I believe that almost every issue or problem that surfaces in continuing professional education can be related to an ethical dilemma. For example, I previously mentioned how the cost of continuing professional education will increase due to the increased demand, and the value of particular information will begin to decrease as more people obtain the information. With this being said, is it ethical to increase the cost of continuing professional education in an attempt to either discourage or make participating virtually impossible? While I believe everyone should have an opportunity to learn, I believe that those stakeholders who determine such parameters will decide to increase the cost of CPE.

The increase in cost of continuing professional education will happen two-fold. First, I believe there will be an initial increase in cost for participating. This means instead of a seminar currently costing $50 to participate, the same seminar will cost $150. Second, I believe that the frequency of updating information will increase, thus making a person’s knowledge outdated more often. This will consequently force professionals to spend more on keeping their knowledge current, in addition to the initial increase in cost.

           

Technology

With regards to technology and the future of continuing professional education, I foresee a couple technologies that will prove to be very valuable. The first such technology that I would like to focus on is that of cloud computing. Cloud computing has been a technology that has rapidly become very popular, not only in the business sector, but in commercial use as well. I believe that cloud computing will become a major component of providing continuing professional education to people. While I do not feel that this type of communication will replace traditional collaboration, I do think CPE educators will implement this technology more effectively.

The effectiveness of utilizing cloud computing will help combat some of the issues that surrounded continuing professional education. For example, with regards to time I see more professionals having the ability to engage in continuing professional education by utilizing the efficiency capabilities of cloud computing.

            Another technology that I believe will play a major role in the future of continuing professional education is that of web conferencing. I believe that with regards to continuing professional education, educators will conduct more of their teaching though web conferencing, which will allow more flexibility and convenience for professionals. One example that I feel will become quite common begins with a CPE educator being tasked with teaching several professionals in different states will implement a web conferencing technology, which will allow professionals to collaborate as if they were in the same room. This will again combat some of the issues presented in CPE, one of which is cost. I think educators in the future will embrace technology more in the delivery and facilitation of continuing professional education.

            The future of continuing professional education will be one of a combination of issues that will need to be combated by the innovative technologies that continue to be developed. I see continuing professional education to be more pioneering, insightful, and adaptive and will continue to be a significant part of society.