Archives For future
The Future Is Now: 15 Innovations to Watch For – Commentary – The Chronicle of Higher Education via kwout
I have been monitoring innovation in education for the past 20 years so I am always looking for new insights so any post, article or story that points to “innovations to watch for” catches my attention. Even before I fully read the article I did a quick look up of the author Steven Mintz to see if he had the credentials or the experience to be offering these types of predictions. He does openly warn he readers he is a “historian and far better at interpreting the past than forecasting the future.” In addition to being a Professor of History, University of Texas at Austin, Mintz is also the Executive Director for the Institute for Transformational Learning in the University of Texas System. Finally, he points to over a decades worth of teaching with technology and walks the talk with a personal website http://stevenmintz.com/ that demonstrates his belief and skill in using technology to enhance learning.
Mintz points to following 15 innovations that he suggests will alter the face of higher education over the next 36 months:
1. e-Advising
2. Evidence-based pedagogy
3. The decline of the lone-eagle teaching approach
4. Optimized class time
5. Easier educational transitions
6. Fewer large lecture classes
7. New frontiers for e-learning
8. Personalized adaptive learning
9. Increased competency-based and prior-learning credits
10. Data-driven instruction
11. Aggressive pursuit of new revenue
12. Online and low-residency degrees at flagships
13. More certificates and badges
14. Free and open textbooks
15. Public-private partnerships
Despite not being an acclaimed expert in educational technology Mintz’s predictions fall in line with the literature and research in this area and more importantly he points to changes in learning as the key disruptive innovation in 8 of his 15 predictions. He sees evidence based pedagogy not only informing instructional design but also personalized adaptive learning. He accurately places the emphasis on student-centred, competency based, well designed and collaborative constructed learning experiences as a major catalyst for change. His remaining predictions point to the disruptors of open educational resources (OER), growth of online learning and the loosening of credentialing through certification and badges and the move toward public-private partnerships.
Mintz sums up his piece with a positive challenge to faculty members to work together and:
take the lead in designing an education that will truly serve the needs of our 21st-century students.
Mobile Internet – Increasingly inexpensive and capable mobile computing devices and Internet connectivity
Automation of knowledge work – Intelligent software systems that can perform knowledge work tasks involving unstructured commands and subtle judgments
The Internet of Things – Networks of low-cost sensors and actuators for data collection, monitoring, decision making, and process optimization
Cloud technology – Use of computer hardware and software resources delivered over a network or the Internet, often as a service
Advanced robotics – Increasingly capable robots with enhanced senses, dexterity, and intelligence used to automate tasks or augment humans
Autonomous and near-autonomous vehicles – Vehicles that can navigate and operate with reduced or no human intervention
Energy storage – Devices or systems that store energy for later use, including batteries
3D printing – Additive manufacturing techniques to create objects by printing layers of material based on digital models
Advanced materials – Materials designed to have superior characteristics (e.g., strength, weight, conductivity) or functionality
Advanced oil and gas exploration and recovery – Exploration and recovery techniques that make extraction of unconventional oil and gas economical
Renewable energy – Generation of electricity from renewable sources with reduced harmful climate impact
From the Futurist
“Of the above, the Mobile Internet, which could change the lives of more than 5 billion people around the globe, the automation of knowledge work, and the Internet of Things would have by far the largest economic impacts, according to McKinsey. All together, the above technologies could generate $14 to $33 trillion. But the authors caution that much of that growth will be at the expense of older technologies and even entire industries falling into obsolescence.
“When necessary, leaders must be prepared to disrupt their own businesses and make the investments to effect change,” the report’s authors write. “By the time the technologies that we describe are exerting their influence on the economy in 2025, it will be too late for businesses, policy makers, and citizens to plan their responses. Nobody, especially businesses leaders, can afford to be the last person using video cassettes in a DVD world.””
