30 Trends In Education Technology For The 2015 School Year
by Terry Heick
What’s trending up for 2015 school year in terms of education technology?
iPads are still the standard but other platforms are making headway. That should be fun to watch over the next 3-5 years.
Educators are getting better at spotting crap edtech, but waste still abounds. There are even some educators who are against technology in the classroom at all.
Schools are getting better at thinking tech-first (not in terms of priority, but design). But they are still struggling to meaningfully integrate edtech at the learning model and curriculum level.
Apps are getting downright brilliant in spots, but in-app purchasing? That’s getting a bit out of hand, isn’t it? And something has to be done about all of the usernames and passwords.
Below are 30 entirely subjective but hopefully somewhere close to reality takes on what’s trending up and what’s trending down in education and education technology for 2015 and beyond. A handful of these aren’t pure edtech items, but it’s all part of the same ecosystem yes?
Note that this list isn’t an endorsement–meaning this isn’t necessarily the way I think things should be, but rather what they seem to be–at least from my vantage point, right here, right now. Ask me again in August.
What’s trending up, what’s trending down, and what’s in that awkward middle ground of education and education technology? Below are 30 guesses.
30 Trends In Education Technology For The 2015 School Year
Trending Up
- Teacherpreneurs
- Decentralizing academic standards
- Rethinking data in the classroom
- Adaptive learning algorithms
- Digital Citizenship
- Focus on non-fiction, digital media
- Depth of content
- Experimentation with new learning models (including flipped classroom, sync learning, blended learning, etc.)
- Teacher self-directed PD, webinars, streams, etc.
- College as a choice
- Collaborative learning
- Digital Literacy
- Focus on learning spaces
- Design thinking
- Mindfulness, meditation, downtime
- Teacher as guide-on-the-side
- Gamification of content
- Genius hour, maker hour, collaboration time
- Workflows
- Cloud-based word processing
- Mainstreaming + co-teaching
- Platform Agnosticism
- Librarian as digital media specialist
- YouTube channels, Google Chromecast, AppleTV
- Apps like Storehouse
- 1:1 tablets/devices
- Project-Based Learning
- Mobile-first #edtech design
- The innovation of apps
- Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive
Awkward Middle Ground
- Google, Microsoft, Apple, etc.
- “Accountability”
- Professional Learning Communities
- Differentiation
- Computer coding
- Traditional reading lists of truly great literature
- Pure creativity
- Self-directed learning
- Massive in-person education conferences
- Colleges in general
- Experiential learning
- Cultural Literacy
- The physical design of most school buildings and universities
- Memorization of prioritized content that leads to design thinking
- Debate
- Pressure on systems
- Gamification-as-grading-system
- Tutoring
- To-do lists
- Cloud-based learning
- One teach, one drift/prompt/observe
- Moving from one OS to another (e.g., from Android to Windows Phone)
- Librarian/DMS as bibliophile
- Online encyclopedias
- Apps like Prezi
- Socioeconomic disparity
- Mobile learning
- Mobile assessment
- Honest-to-goodness free apps
- iCloud
Trending Down
- Mass education publishers
- Common Core standards, Race to the Top
- Data Teams
- Scripted curricula
- Draconian district filters
- Humanities
- Coverage of content
- “21st century learning” as a phrase or single idea
- The perceived quality of teacher certification & training programs
- College as the standard
- MOOCs
- Agricultural Literacy
- The traditional classroom
- “Low-level” recall of easily accessed data (facts) or skills (arithmetic)
- Lessons that favor “verbally expressive” students
- Pressure on teachers
- Standards-based grading; pass/fail; student retention
- Increased “instructional hours”
- Whole class processes
- Flash drives, hard drives, CDs, emailing files
- Alternative schools/classrooms for special needs students
- Apple-centric thinking
- Librarian as no-nonsense, ruler-wielding taskmaster
- Cable television, subscription-based content streaming
- Apps like PowerPoint
- Oversimplifying BYOD thinking
- “Doing projects”
- Mobilizing non-mobile content
- In-app purchase gouging
- Dropbox
30 Trends In Education Technology For 2015; image attribution flickr user flickeringbrad
Typical list of items that reinforce the fact that ‘surface’ beats ‘deep’ in the new millenium of teaching. We are going to breed generations of idiots with this kind of thinking. People say teaching hasn’t evolved alongside the other dramatic social changes that have occured (internet etc), that’s because it has been effective for about 4000 years. People need experts to teach them both basic skills and complex ideas. We’re in deep trouble if teacherpreneurs is the way forward…
Dang! I just learned Dropbox too! Will you be updating these lists as Up and Down Trending changes? Thanks!
And where is “digital badges”? Not on your radar yet?
I absolutely agree with this vision. All that I’m recently doing in TEL falls in trending up category, all that I try to omit falls in trending down category. However, with one correction. Namely, Self-Directed Learning, which is the north star of adult ecucation, should be definitely included in the first category.
This list seems to be incomplete and what’s missing is a basic rational for why any of the items are considered trending up or down. Any thoughts?
Does the “Doing project” in Trending Down is the same topic with Project-Based Learning in Trending Up?
What data proves that #12 Ag Lit is a downward trend? I’d be interested to read any real data to support that claim.
Sorry, but I still see Common Core trending up in 2015 especially with PARCC testing coming online now for many schools.