The Jetsons-era technology innovators have been predicting since the 1970s hasn’t hit the classroom yet, said Adrian Sannier, former UTO of Arizona State University and product vice president for Pearson eCollege, in Tuesday’s Connected Summit. But it’s at our fingertips, educators just need to grab hold.

“Technology has been dancing around the edges of education, but it hasn’t come yet,” Sannier said. “But when it does come it will blow down the house.”

The trick, Sannier said, is adapting ourselves to best use the technology in education.

Technology gives people three powers: telepathy, a vast memory, and the ability to recall facts they never learned. But so far, those advantages haven’t been allowed to help students in the classroom.

“Now, the only place you aren’t allowed to use these things are at school,” Sannier said.

But to truly innovate the classroom, Sannier said educators must go beyond textbooks, bookstores, learning management systems and schools to create an education in which textbooks are downloaded in digital form online instead of purchased as a paper copy in a bookstore. Learning management systems must implement a team-based approach, and where schools will need to provide more modalities for students to learn.

“We are absolutely on the verge, and by the four signs- we will solve those problems. And I know everybody in the room feels that,” Sannier said.