A number of experts weighed in on the six technology trends that are making the biggest impact on education. If you read the report itself, you’ll see not only a description of what the trend is (which we’ve summarized below), but also a few examples of institutions or organizations that have already embraced it. Source <> http://www.edubilla.com/articles/education-trends/important-trends-in-education-technology-1347/

1. Important Trends in
Education Technology
A number of experts weighed in on
the six technology trends that are
making the biggest impact on
education. If you read the report itself,
you’ll see not only a description of
what the trend is (which we’ve
summarized below), but also a few
examples of institutions or

2. organizations that have already
embraced it.
1. The Need to Develop Cultures
of Innovation
The world is changing and higher
education must change with it. Many
schools have recognized this fact and
are working to change how things are
done in order to better accommodate
new tech and to encourage
innovation. Some universities are
borrowing ideas from the business
world, and are adopting processes
that resemble an agile startup model,
which makes incorporating change as
you go easier.
Likewise, a number of universities
have already embraced the idea that
technology itself can and should be

3. treated as a catalyst for improving
how learning works. A fairly
widespread example is the growing
adoption of BYOD programs. Why not
turn the tools everyone is already
using into a means for making your
courses better?
A culture of innovation not only
embraces the new technology and
ideas re-shaping education, but also
adapts to the changing ideas about
what’s most valuable in the world
outside of higher education. Policies
that emphasize the high-level skills
increasingly valued in the business
world –creativity, risk-taking,
collaboration, entrepreneurship –
help make higher education both
more meaningful to students in the
moment, and more valuable to them
in the future.

4. 2. Increasing Collaboration
Between Institutions
The number and importance of
educational consortia is growing.
Technology is one of the catalysts of
this on two very different levels:
i) Tech is expensive, but also
increasingly important.
Schools can’t just opt out of using
technology, but with budgetary
concerns and complaints about
tuition already a huge issue for
educators at all levels, purchasing the
tech needed is a challenge. This is
especially so considering that “the
tech needed” has a frustrating
tendency to change within a couple of
years (or less).

5. Consortia make it possible for
colleges to band together and
demand more affordable and
sustainable tech solutions. One
university alone has limited power,
but many universities negotiating as
one can make a difference in how
tech deals work.
ii) Schools can share data and
content.
Technology makes it possible for a
college to make a large number of
lesson plans available to anyone who
might benefit from them. It allows
colleges to cull the large amounts of
data they’ve each collected to gain
greater insights from it all. We’ll
address this one further in #4, but the
takeaway here is that tech makes
collaboration and sharing between

6. institutions and their students
possible on a large scale that benefits
everyone.
3. Possibilities of Assessment and
Measurement
Tech brings with it an increased
access to data. Colleges can now
collect extensive and detailed data on
how students are learning, what
teaching methods work the best, and
which kinds of education and career
paths lead to the greatest success.
Basically, from day one of a student’s
educational experience through their
life after graduation, they’re
producing a huge quantity of data
that can be put toward improving the
individual experience of students, as
well as how higher education works
as a whole.

7. Data is playing a key role in adaptive
learning, which empowers students to
better understand their progress and
take more control over their learning.
Additionally, adaptive learning gives
teachers insights into how students
are doing and what they need most. It
can also help drive more informed
curriculum decisions designed to help
students perform better. Data-driven
learning and assessment is becoming
a big and influential field in the higher
education space.
4. Proliferation of Open
Educational Resources
As mentioned earlier, technology
makes it easier than ever for colleges
or professors to make resources
freely available to anyone they may
benefit. Many educators are happy to

8. jump on the bandwagon. The number
of open educational resources (OER)
available to anyone willing to do
some digging to find them is growing.
OER can refer to any type of digital
content, including:
-> Courses
-> Course materials
-> Textbooks
-> Research articles
-> Presentations
-> Videos
-> Tests
-> Software
The movement to make more
information free goes beyond just
insisting that there be no cost to
students. It extends to encouraging
that the resources be free from any

9. ownership and usage rights.
While the cost of higher education
remains one of the most consistently
debated topics in the industry,
making use of creative commons
resources and open textbooks could
be the key to bringing costs down in
at least one area of higher ed. OER
repositories and search tools already
exist, but they could still use some
work and are likely to improve if the
trend continues in years to come.
5. Increase in Blended Learning
Online learning is growing at a rapid
pace. As the report points out, one in
ten students were taking courses
exclusively online already by 2012,
and even more were taking at least
some of their classes online. The shift

10. to online learning has been heavily
aided by tech improvements in fields
like learning analytics, adaptive
learning, and asynchronous and
synchronous tools.
But blended learning may be the even
bigger innovation to come of the shift
to online learning, as it combine the
benefits of the technology of online
learning with the accessibility of
working with teachers face-to-face.
Access to more online resources in
whatever format students learn from
best, accessible wherever and
whenever they want, enables better
learning outside of the classroom.
Add to that a greater availability of
teachers once in the classroom and
you have a powerful tool that
provides students with the best of
both worlds.

11. The best practices for blended
learning are still being developed, but
as more colleges experiment with it
and track what works best, it can only
get better.
6. Redesigning Learning Spaces
If we’re bringing more tech into the
classroom, the classroom must
change to accommodate. The
traditional model of a lecturer
standing at the front of a classroom,
talking to a room full of students
seated in rows, ignores the
possibilities of what tech can add to
the equation.
Some colleges are experimenting
with re-designing the classroom
space to encourage the integration of
technology and more collaboration

12. between students. A common
example of this is a classroom in
which the lecture’s podium is moved
to the center and surrounded by
round tables for students that
integrate a key piece of technology
like an interactive whiteboard or a
computer.
Other colleges are working to expand
the idea to other spaces. Many
libraries are being re-designed to
enable more access to technology
and comfortable learning spaces
within them. Schools are adding more
power outlets and comfortable
seating to hallways and atriums so
students can do their studying there.
Learning can happen anywhere, just
as long as students have access to
the right tools. A few tweaks to what

13. the common spaces on college
campuses look like can help take that
idea further.
Still, while NMC report seeks to
predict the tech trends that will
influence education the most in the
next five years, five years is a very
long time in the tech world. These
trends are all poised to change how
the educational landscape looks, but
may be taken over by newer
technologies and the trends and
issues they produce. We’re living in
an exciting time for ed tech. The
possibilities of new opportunities for
schools and educators will only grow.
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