Key Trends

From Horizon.K12

2009 Short List Time-to-Adoption: One year or Less Collaborative Environments Communication Tools Personally-Owned Devices One-to-One Laptop Initiatives Time-to-Adoption: Two to Three Years Mobiles and Next-Generation Mobile Virtual Worlds New Forms of Assessment Cloud Computing Time-to-Adoption: Four to Five Years Smart Objects New Tools for Filtering and Security Expanded Personal Web Semantic-Aware Applications Critical Challenges Key Trends

1. Technology continues to profoundly affect the way we work, collaborate, communicate, and succeed. Information technologies impact how people work, play, gain information, and participate in communities. Increasingly, it is also a component of success in almost every endeavor, as those who can use the technologies to a greater extent are more likely to advance, while those without access or skills lose out. The digital divide was once seen as an "earning divide" but is now more of a "learning divide," with those who have access to education in a better position to obtain and make use of technology than those who do not. Evolving occupations, multiple careers, and an increasingly mobile workforce are aspects of this trend.
2. Technology is increasingly a means for empowering students, a method for communication and socializing, and a ubiquitous, transparent part of their lives. Technology is impacting our lives, and the lives of students, in new and expanding ways. Once seen as an isolating influence, technology is now recognized as a primary way to stay in touch and take control of one’s own learning. Multisensory, ubiquitous, and interdisciplinary, technology is integrated into nearly everything we do.
3. The web is an increasingly personal experience. We have an unprecedented level of control over online content, not only in terms of the information and activities that we select, but also in the way they are represented to us. Students are very familiar with the idea of “skinning” — customizing the look and feel of — their virtual experiences. They expect and experience personalized content in games and websites that is at odds with what they find in the classroom.
4. The notion of collective intelligence is redefining how we think about ambiguity and imprecision. Collective intelligence may give rise to multiple answers, all equally correct, to problems. The notions of collective intelligence and mass amateurization are redefining scholarship as we grapple with issues of top- down control and grassroots scholarship. Today’s learners want to be active, connected participants in the learning process — not mere listeners; they have a need to control their environments, and they understand that content and knowledge is available at their fingertips.
5. The ways we think of learning environments is changing. Traditionally, a learning environment has been a physical space, but the idea of what constitutes a learning environment is changing. The “spaces” where students learn are becoming more community-driven, interdisciplinary, and supported by technologies that engage virtual communication and collaboration. This changing concept of the learning environment has clear implications for schools, where learning is the key focus of the space.
6. The perceived value of innovation and creativity is increasing. Innovation is valued at the highest levels of business and must be embraced in schools if students are to succeed beyond their formal education. The ways we design learning experiences must reflect the growing importance of innovation and creativity as professional skills.
7. Web 2.0 applications continue to grow in popularity in a variety of forms but remain hard to bring into schools. Tools for social networking, mashing up and sharing digital media, and online communication, along with personal devices that keep those tools close at hand, are converging with more traditional technologies like telephones and media players. Students understand and rely on these tools, yet there remains strong resistance to incorporating them into educational practice. It is likely that with or without formal support, students are using tools like these for collaboration; if pressed into service, web applications and personal devices could become powerful enablers for student-to-student communication, tutoring, and personal instruction.