Continuing a tradition started in years past, I list out my predictions for the key stories that will rock the education world in 2011. If I could put it into five words, 2011 will be all about mobile, mobile, change, change, and mobile. This next year, I’m looking more at the big picture:
- 2011 will be the Year of the Tablet, but schools still will not know what to do with them. Let’s face it, technology companies do not quite know what tablets are good for, either. Rather than provide consumers with details on the iPad, Apple called it “amazing” and “magical” at its launch — but what does it do? Tie it in with the unfortunate reality that schools lag behind in technology leadership (they generally need others to tell them what to use), my fear is that we will end up with a lot of schools buying into the tablet craze but having no idea what to do with them. 2011 will be the year that we start to look for real leadership for educational technologies, and start to look into using new technologies to do “amazing” and “magical” things.
- Accelerating adoption of iPads, iPhones and other mobile technologies into social and cultural frameworks is transforming computing into an ambient experience — that is, immediate and purposive access to ICTs is available anywhere and anytime. Just as 2010 saw shifts in culture where it is no longer socially awkward to check into FourSquare or Facebook while on a date, 2011 will see the social and cultural acceptance and embracing of ambient computing continue.
- The New Normal: The recession is officially over, but many people are left unemployed or significantly underemployed. This human capital crisis needs to be dealt with promptly as people who thought they could live a middle-class lifestyle with old economy jobs (i.e., manufacturing and retail) are now considered as obsolete and unemployable. The challenge for educators and governments is to help them retrain for relevant career pathways — or, enable them to create new, innovative jobs that have not existed before. This new recognition of the importance of life-long learning and human capital development could launch a “Manhattan Project” equivalent in education that will transform our generation.
- We’re not out of the woods, yet. The principle of accelerating technological change prompts social change, which requires new technological transformations, and so forth. We are slowly recognizing that the only constant is change, and many industries will experience increasingly rapid cycles of transformation — for humans that are ill-prepared for change, this could mean more socioeconomic turmoil and unemployment. 2011 will give us a taste of what’s to come.
- People are mobile, too. Rapid developments in mobile technologies also enable society to become much more mobile, and we will see this reflected in the workforce, of which the leading edges will exhibit Knowmadic qualities. 2011 may not yet be the year of the Knowmad, but it could be the year that individuals wake up and realize they have options. For countries like the U.S. that are obsessed with controlling immigration, how would they respond when their best and brightest (especially our most competent educators) begin to migrate elsewhere? Will anybody be left around to turn off the lights?
What do you think?
Read my predictions from previous years:
- 2010: The Education Futures timeline of education, 1657-2045
- 2009: Five predictions for 2009 …and more!
- 2008: Five predictions for 2008 and more
Comments
Thank you for your article. It is very inspiring for me because I am trying to reach out to my students with new content witch focuses on creating a new world while learning at school. Your webbased approach fits in my approach. I hope to meet you soon somewhere in Europe or Holland.
Roy Silos
http://www.twitter.com/roysilos
It’s very refreshing to hear that technological companies themselves do not really know what their own gadgets are for. Technological leadership is absolutely critical if technology is to be harnessed effectively in education to enable both students and teachers to make informed decisions on how it can be used effectively to enhance teaching and learning.
Many schools have made purchases because of a craze, interactive whiteboards are a case in point. Without content and adequate training, the majority are used as projectors and not interactive tools. There is a lot of indecisiveness around purchasing hardware, in the absence of relevant pedagogical evidence to support such purchases.
If the creators of such devices cannot inform educators of their value in the classroom – who can?
Thanks, Roy and Joanna!