Key Emerging Technologies For Schools

Although written for American schools, The New Media Consortium (NMC) produced  Horizon Report: 2009 K-12 Edition, provides a useful insight to a number of emerging technologies that are likely to impact on learning and teaching over the next five years.  The report sponsored by Microsoft and developed in consultation with an internationally renowned Advisory Board, identifies emerging technologies based on their time-to-adoption horizon – one year or less, two to three years and four to five years.

The New Media Consortium (NMC) is an international not-for-profit consortium of nearly 300 learning-focused organizations dedicated to the exploration and use of new media and new technologies.

Emerging technologies detailed in the report include:

Time-to-Adoption: One Year or Less

• Collaborative Environments
• Online Communication Tools

Time-to-Adoption: Two to Three Years

• Mobiles
• Cloud Computing

Time-to-Adoption: Four to Five Years

• Smart Objects
• The Personal Web

 The report also outlined key trends and critical challenges associated with adoption of these technologies.

Critical Challenges

• There is a growing need for formal instruction in key new skills, including information literacy, visual literacy, and technological literacy.
• Students are different, but educational practice and the material that supports it is changing only slowly.
• Learning that incorporates real life experiences is not occurring enough and is undervalued when it does take place.
• There is a growing recognition that new technologies must be adopted and used as an everyday part of classroom activities, but effecting this change is difficult.
• A key challenge is the fundamental structure of the K-12 education establishment.

Key Trends

• Technology continues to profoundly affect the way we work, collaborate, communicate, and succeed.
• Technology is increasingly a means for empowering students, a method for communication and socializing, and a ubiquitous, transparent part of their lives.
• The web is an increasingly personal experience.
• The way we think of learning environments is changing.
• The perceived value of innovation and creativity is increasing.