10.1 Trend Watch
Trend watching is one of the ways to keep your finger on the pulse of emerging technologies. Importantly, it provides us with an opportunity to be proactive when it comes to thinking of which technologies might best support our students. More often than not, in education, we tend to be reactive and respond to new technologies with a sense of urgency rather than a measured approach to using them with purpose and intention.
Trend Watch
One of the best reports concerning trends in emerging technologies for education comes from the New Media Consortium. Since the mid 2000s, they have been researching and forecasting their understandings of how technologies may evolve. They also offer guidance on how to leverage the technologies.
(Image source: NMC)
Evolving Teacher Roles
In addition to being aware of emerging technologies, it is also incumbent upon us to be aware of the changing roles of educators and the educational landscape. For some time now, I have followed KnowledgeWorks' Forecast on the Future of Learning. It is,one of the more informed and well-researched programs helping to imagine what possibilities my lie ahead for our discipline.
Watch this brief video for their most recent Forecast 4.0 . It provides an overview of their latest forecast and highlights the types of questions we should be asking if we want to be proactive about creating a flourishing environment for learners.
When you have reviewed these artifacts, move onto 10.2.