What Education Technology Could Look Like Over the Next Five Years

This is a very interesting and thought provoking article from KQED's Mind/Shift exploring future trends and challenges for Ed Tech. It's based on the NMC Horizons 2015 K-12 Education report.  The New Media Consortium (NMC) annually sponsors a panel investigation among expert educational technologists (56 experts, 22 countries, 6 continents) from around the world to explore the major trends and challenges of Ed Tech.

To read the 2015 report click here

As you might expect, future trends are dominated by opportunities to fundamentally transform the structure of education to enhance student engagement and challenging the traditional structure of the school with innovative approaches such as project based learning. There is also strong emphasis on the changing role of the student - taking more responsibility for their own learning, more independent learning, and a greater reliance on blended learning and authentic learning.

When looking at challenges, interestingly the focus is less on the technology infrastructure and technical capacity (as we often hear) but rather on the human infrastructure and capacity - professional development, personalized learning and the role of the classroom teacher.

Another interesting note, the expectation is that Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) will be commonplace in a few years. We haven't even begun to think about this seriously!