Predicting obsolescence

Cartoon from Due by Monday website

At the beginning of a new year, it seems relevant to focus on the future. I've written in previous posts about the way I've used predictions with my engineering students (Back to the Future today, October 26, 2015; Past predictions of the future, October 20, 2015; Predicting businesses that use driverless cars, August 10, 2015).

But instead of predicting what will be new in the future, a recent article I found predicts what will be obsolete in only 5 years.

From Techcrunch: "Five Things That Will Disappear in 5 Years."

http://techcrunch.com/2016/01/03/5-things-that-will-disappear-in-5-years/?ncid=rss&cps=gravity_1462_-2989922718624594926#.6nzpswd:J5qT

First I had students brainstorm things that existed about 5 years ago, but are now obsolete (or are currently being replaced). The ideas generated will depend on which country one is in.

For some ideas, see the slide list, "obsolete technology" on the Boston Globe website:
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/gallery/obsoletetechnology/

Then students read the article and discussed their reaction to the ideas. A couple of the ideas were ones they had thought of. The discussion of the others focused on whether they agreed or not, or more specifically whether they agreed with the time frame.

For language work, the article uses the future tense (of course!), but also refers to the future in other ways. And - particularly in the beginning - there are sentences that use other tenses, providing good examples of how these tenses are used and contrasted.

In only the first paragraph:

"Just five years ago the world was a very different place. In 2010, the iPad had just made its debut, Kickstarter was introducing a new form of venture capitalism that would change the face of fundraising and Square was letting vendors of any size accept payment with a swipe of a card on a mobile device. And we haven't looked back."

• contrast between simple past and past perfect: was - had just made
• past progressive: was introducing; was letting
• future in the past: would change
• present perfect: haven't looked back

These tenses are used further in the article, as well as present simple, present progressive, present perfect tenses and the use of conditionals.

Examples of the use of the future tense with will:

• The next five years will no doubt unleash products ...
• But as we progress, what will we leave behind?
• Soon you will have ...
• In the more distant future, there will be no cash.
• Mobile data networks will cover ...
• ... there'll be little need for ...
• ... will need to come up with ...
• ... will replace your ...
• These will have their own ...
• No one will miss this ...
• ... will connect ...
• ... will just no longer make sense.
• ... we will rely on ...

Other ways of referring to the future:

• ... products and services that we have yet to imagine.
• ... but even that is well on the decline as property managers switch to ...
• No cash means no cash machines -- bye bye ATMs.
• By 2020, 70% of the world will be using ...
• ... the increase in standard storage for mobile devices in the next five years.
• Biometrics are already becoming mainstream ...
• The research firm ... forecasts that emerging categories ...
• ... are taking voice search and commands to a new level. 
• With so many new devices connected to the Internet by 2020, ...
• ... are fast becoming archaic ...
• ... consider getting a head start on ...
• ... to make way for ...
• ... technology disruptions taking place right now ...

Another advantage for me (with German-speaking students) is the usage in the article that illustrates the difference between in a year and by a year. My students often use until when they mean by (for example, "Do we have to finish this until Friday?").So, I like to point out this difference whenever I get the chance!