Continuing a tradition that started last year, I am listing my predictions for the big stories that will impact the education world in 2009. My predictions from last year were hit-and-miss, but I did well overall. How will I fare this year?
- No Child Left Behind won’t get left behind. Contrary to all the data that shows that NCLB is a miserable failure, it still has too many fans within the Washington Beltway to disappear. Besides, would the Obama administration want to send a message that they’re giving up on the noble quest of educating all children? NCLB is here to stay, but it will evolve into something else. Would we recognize it by 2010?
- The economic downturn will get much worse before it gets better, but the international impact will be greater than within the U.S. Expect economic tragedies in China and elsewhere that depend on exports to the U.S. and other highly industrialized nations.
- With limits in available venture capital and new development funds within corporations, technological innovation will slow in the United States. Companies will focus on improving their core products and services at the expense of research and development. What does this mean for education, which is in desperate need of transformative, innovative technologies?
- The footprint of open source software will increase, but development will slow down. Unless if a business is committing code to the OSS community, individuals and corporations have fewer time resources available to contribute to projects. However, OSS adoption will increase as a cost-saving measure in homes, offices and schools. (This contrasts with last year’s prediction, where I said “education-oriented open source development will boom.”)
- I’m keeping my money on India, and repeating last year’s prediction: India is the place to be. As more U.S. companies quietly continue to offshore their creative work to India, India’s knowledge economy will boom. The world will take notice of this in 2008 2009.
Here are predictions for 2009 from elsewhere:
- The Futurist’s top ten forecasts for 2009 and beyond
- Futurecast’s annual review
- 2009 predictions: Wall Streeters as villains, working mothers as heroes, baby boomers as rivals (MercuryNews.com)
- 8 really, really scary predictions (Fortune)
- Green predictions for 2009 (The Daily Green)
- CNET’s tech policy predictions for 2009
- Four tech predictions for 2009 (Fortune)
- 2009 predictions and trends: Sharing some good links (MediaFuturist)
Five predictions for 2009 …and more! http://tinyurl.com/8qybdd