What Education Technology Could Look Like Over the Next Five Years
By Katrina Schwartz JUNE 29, 2015
In a fast-moving field like education technology, it’s worth taking a moment to take stock of new
developments, persistent trends and the challenges to effective tech implementation in real
classrooms. TheNMC Horizon 2015 K-12 report offers a snapshot of where ed tech stands now and
where it is likely to go in the next five years, according to 56 education and technology experts from
22 countries.
TRENDS
Deeper Learning: The expert panel identified several long-term trends that will greatly influence
the adoption of technology in classrooms over the next five years and beyond. They see worldwide
educators focusing on “deeper learning” outcomes that try to connect what happens in the classroom
to experts and experiences beyond school as an important trend.
Teachers at the cutting edge of this work are asking students to use technology to access and
synthesize information in the service of finding solutions to multifaceted, complex problems they
might encounter in the real world. The popularity of project-based learning, global
collaboration and integrated learning experiences is driving this trend and powerful tech use as an
extension of it.
Rethinking Traditions: Educators are also rethinking how school has traditionally worked,
questioning everything from school schedules, to how individual disciplines are taught and how
success and creativity aremeasured. This macro trend to shake up typical ways of schooling is opening
new opportunities for technology to play an even bigger role in education. Finland took a big step
toward reimagining school when it did away with many traditional subjects in favor of
interdisciplinary classes that more accurately reflect a world in which disciplines influence one
another. Some U.S districts have also tried to reimagine how school would look with movements
toward competency-based models that don’t rely on time in class as the constant variable.
Collaborations: In the next three to four years, experts see collaborative social learning and a move
to transition students from consumers to creators as big trends in education technology. Educators
have long known learning is a social process — when teachers and students create meaning together,
often the results are much more effective. TheNMC Horizon report highlights four principles of
collaborative learning: “placing the learner at the center, emphasizing interaction and doing, working
in groups, and developing solutions to real-world problems.” Working in this way necessarily pushes
students to create solutions, rather than passively consume content, lectures and lessons handed out
by teachers. Access to mobile technology especially has helped students feel comfortable in the role of
digital creator.
Blended Learning: Blended learning, or the use of technology alongside in-person instruction from
a teacher, has been included in the NMC Horizons report before. Now, experts see it as a short-term
trend that is quickly becoming common in many classrooms and is driving many efforts to integrate
technology. STEAM programs, in which teachers integrate the arts and humanities into teaching
about science, technology, engineering and math, is also a short-term trend driving technology.
CHALLENGES
Authentic Learning: As with any changing industry, there are many problems standing in the way
of effective technology implementation. Some problems are already being solved in creative ways by
educators setting an example of the way forward, while others are more difficult and haven’t yet been
solved. One challenge that persists in mainstream education is how to create truly authentic
learning opportunities within the bureaucracy of schools. As with other education buzzwords, many
schools believe they are providing authentic learning, but they don’t offer the apprenticeships,
vocational training and portfolio-based assessments that often characterize work that carries larger
life lessons.
Professional Development: Another challenge being met in some places is how to incorporate
technology into teacher-training programs. When teachers don’t use technology in their classrooms,
it’s often because they don’t feel comfortable with it or don’t see how it enhances their
teaching. Exposure during teacher training would help seed good practices early and ingrain digital
literacy as an important skill for students to learn. As things stand now, many teachers receive
professional development around technology platforms that often turn over or are replaced by
something else. The report notes, “This challenge is exacerbated by the fact that digital literacy is less
about tools and more about thinking, and thus skills and standards based on tools and platforms have
proven to be somewhat ephemeral.”
Personalized Learning & Teacher’s Role: Two of the much more difficult challenges facing tech
integration are effective strategies for personalizing learning and reevaluating the role of teachers in
education. These two challenges go hand-in-hand, as they require a complete re-engineering of the
school experience, rather than tinkering around the edges of traditional school. Many school leaders
believe that by using technology and adaptive software to allow students to move at different paces,
they are offering “personalized learning.” But the experts behind this report caution that, “this
approach may be indicative of personalized learning solutions being sold to schools as a mass
commodity that helps them raise standardized test scores, ultimately missing the goal of making
learning a more meaningful experience.”
The value in “personalized learning” lies in student autonomy and individualized instruction and
support, not in the control and compliance model required to achieve high test scores. If this more
radical and child-centered definition of “personalized” is to be achieved, the role teachers play also
need reimagining. With online interactions facilitating collaboration for both students and teachers,
and learning taking place at all times of the day online and off, a lot is being asked of teachers. Their
guidance is no longer confined to school hours.
The report points out that teachers are no longer information distributors, but their new role has not
always been well defined or supported by education leaders and policymakers:
“In ideal situations, the teacher’s role is becoming that of a mentor, visiting with groups and
individual learners during class to help guide them, while allowing them to have more of a say in their
own learning. However, these types of interactions and the enabling use of technology are not always
inherent or sufficiently integrated in pre-service training.”
Scalability: The really thorny challenges — those that are “complex to define, let alone address” —
provide food for thought. Experts identifiedscaling innovative technologies and approaches as one
intractable dilemma. Educators are familiar with the frustration of trying to break through rules and
bureaucracy to experiment with innovative ideas. While inspiring teaching is happening all over the
world, in many cases it does so in pockets, due to the tireless work of a dedicated educator, and not as
part of mainstream education.
A similarly tricky problem lies in how to teach students the complex thinking skills that will be
required to nimbly move through future challenges. One way educators are trying to cultivate these
skills is through computer science and coding. However, coding alone won’t solve all the problems of
the world, and as long as traditional school remains siloed into discrete subject areas, it will be
difficult to allow students opportunities to tackle truly complex problems.
DEVELOPMENTS IN ED TECH
BYOD/Maker Movement: In just one or two years, experts predict Bring Your Own Device policies
and makerspaces will be commonplace in schools. A 2014 Consortium for School Networking (CoSN)
survey found that 81 percent of surveyed schools either had a BYOD policy or planned to implement
one. These policies reflect the reality of students’ lives and can also cut down on school technology
costs. Similarly, the popular Maker Movement and increasing emphasis on hands-on learning has
propelled school makerspaces into the limelight. School leaders see these spaces as a way for students
to take initiative: designing, prototyping and building their ideas from start to finish.
3-D Printing: The report notes that in the next two to three years, 3-D printing and adaptive
learning technologies will have become mainstream school technologies. Experts believe 3-D printing
offers tremendous opportunities for students to explore objects and concepts that might be difficult to
experience in school. The printer can help students visualize mathematical graphs and models or
touch replicas of historic artifacts. Low-cost online design tools and cheaper machines are helping to
make 3-D printing accessible to schools, while project-based pedagogy is making it popular.
Adaptive Learning: Adaptive learning refers to software that adjusts to students’ learning needs as
they use the product. Increasingly, this kind of software is being used to allow each student to move at
his or her own pace. The idea is tremendously appealing to some education leaders, while others
worry that relying on software to recognize student needs will actually diminish the personalized
attention from an educator that each student deserves.
While the authors of the NMC Horizon report feel adaptive learning could soon be a game changer,
they caution that the software may not be sophisticated enough yet to meet educators’ dreams.
Instead, the authors posit its best use may be to analyze macro-level data on the effectiveness of
curriculum and instruction.
Badges and Wearables: On the long-term horizon, experts see digital badges and wearable
technology as important technology developments in four to five years. Badges are already being used
to recognize competence in a skill in digital spaces like Khan Academy. Increasingly, schools are
looking to badges as a way to validate informal learning for both students and teachers. While not yet
pervasive, badges could offer a more comprehensive way to certify learning opportunities, inside and
outside of school.
NMC Horizon reports have highlighted wearable technology in the past, pointing to learning
opportunities in virtual reality experiences and the potential for biometric devices to teach about
nutrition and exercise. Now, educators around the world are beginning to use wearable technology
to push limits and offer creative outlets, but use is not widespread. Experts note one place that
wearable technology could have a particularly large impact is on disabled students.
EXPLORE: DIGITAL TOOLS, 3D PRINTING, ADAPTIVE TECHNOLOGY, BADGES, BYOD, COSN, MAKER
MOVEMENT,NMC HORIZON REPORT, PERSONALIZED LEARNING