Will 2013 see a Continued Decline in Education Technology?

Posted on January 7, 2013 by Doug

Will 2013 see a continued decline in education technology?

.

It’s the start of a new year and it is traditional at this time to look back over the previous year and also to look forward to the coming year and try to predict what will happen in the months ahead. Well, here you are, this is my post on what I think will happen during 2013 in the arena of education technology.

.

Looking back at 2012, I think they have been two trends which have emerged and which will continue to develop in 2013. These trends are BYOD and the flipped classroom, both of which would seem to have developed into a bandwagon during the past year and, yes, I think they will continue in the coming year. But ( am I allowed to start a sentence with but?) I think during 2013 the enthusiasm will be tempered by experience and that we shall see more people reporting on their findings as they try to implement one or both of these. My worry would be that the potential benefits of either approach could be lost as people focus on the practical barriers to implementation.

.

So what else will become ‘big’ in 2013? I do think 3d printing will continue to develop but I think we will need to look beyond one more year before it becomes established in education. My hot tip ( please question my record in betting before following this though ) is that the ‘Internet of things‘ will become the next big thing, again I don’t see it becoming established within the year but I do feel interest in it will grow.

.

What about ‘cloud computing? Well I still wonder whether this will truly come to education. So far cloud computing has failed, in my eyes, to live up to its promise. So far we have seen cloud storage , remote access, sharing and syncing across devices via the cloud but we have seen very little yet of real cloud computing. By real cloud computing I mean the ability to operate programs or services remotely via any device connected to the Internet. We may be beginning to see this with Microsoft’s office 365 and with Google docs but, in education, we need more than just ‘office’ apps to offer learners. The key in true cloud computing is not just in the range and versatility of services offered but also in their device agnosticism, which will enable a learner to access and use services from any device of their choosing ( and not always the most sophisticated or expensive ones) .

.

Sadly, during 2012, we have seen more and more rivalries develop to dent the spirit of collaboration. Viz Apple v Samsung, Google v Microsoft, Amazon v Apple, Twitter v Instagram, Twitter v LinkedIn, Twitter v Facebook etc. etc., sadly, I do not seen any end to these coming in 2013 and I feel this can only been to the detriment of the end user.

.

There is a further trend which we have seen develop in previous years and which I feel we need to question. That is the trend toward paying for software and services via subscription. Almost invariably, these subscriptions have been charged based upon the size of a school and, even then, often grouped into ‘bands’ which make it prohibitive for small schools. Obviously, there is a commercial implication in providing services to schools via subscription and companies involved are often in the ‘middle’ and having to meet charges for hosting and access levied by their suppliers or providers. Nevertheless, to date most subscriptions would appear to work in favour of companies and against schools. I won’t go into all the arguments the but I have already argued elsewhere that subscriptions should be more flexible and based upon actual user numbers rather than school size. Hopefully, though I am pessimistic, companies will start to be respond to this need during 2013, it would be something I’d urge visitors to BETT 2013 to check out.

.

2012 has continued to be a divisive year in some ways, with the divisions between proponents of ‘computing at school’ and proponents of ‘ICT’. However, I do feel and sincerely hope that the coming year will see a reuniting of all edtech ‘camps’ and give us the opportunity to build rather than split ourselves further. After all, it is my opinion that technology in education is a very wide field and that technology has many roles to play in education, the divisions we have seen in 2012 are largely, I believe, a reflection of that breadth.

.

So, do I feel that 2013 will see a continued decline in education technology?

.

No.