What are the Top ICT4E Trends in 2010?
If 2007 was the apex of OLPC hype, 2008 brought us mobile phones as the solution for everything, and 2009 ushered in the dominance of the netbook, what do you see as the next new thing for 2010 ?
Will there be a continued focus on flashy but educationally suspect hardware? Could this the year Linux, lead by Ubuntu, breaks out? Can Windows 7 bring back the luster to Microsoft? Or will multi-platform Android make both moot?
Enough about technology – where is the educational breakthroughs? Will Constructionism flourish in 1:1 computer deployments? Can Open Content gain traction in curriculum development? Might teacher training actually get more than lip-service?
Finally, will we really stop wasting children on ICT4E assessments?
For the January Educational Technology Debate, we’ll take a fresh look at the low-cost information and communication technology trends emerging in 2010 and discuss what they mean for educational systems in the developing world.
To capture these trends in a holistic fashion, I’m soliciting commentary from each of you. What do YOU think are the top trends and their impact? Feel free to summit your thoughts and ideas in the comments below.
At the same time, if you find yourself with too much to say in a comment box – Stop! Email it to me instead and I’ll publish it as one of this month’s posts.
Ref "low-cost information and communication technology trends emerging in 2010 and …. what they mean for educational systems in the developing world". I have all kinds of thoughts and hopes on this – too much for the comments box. I hope low cost phones will enable people in rural Africa to join in debates like this.
The Bob Hawkins has done a short post on the World Bank EduTech blog on ten trends he sees for 2010. It might be of interest here … it is available at http://blogs.worldbank.org/edutech/10-global-tren…
My apologies: the link is http://blogs.worldbank.org/edutech/10-global-tren…
(It appears that the end period was automatically included in the URL by mistake when I submitted the above comment)
Open Source software and the methods of Web 2.0 will begin to seep into learning methods. Children will start to be the creators of their own digital learning resources sharing them with their peers. It will begin to dawn on people that the best learning takes place when motivated through real contributions to society and open systems and free digital resources lend themselves to this through re-mix and similar methods. There will be key two pressures against this. One will be the current education technology suppliers that are locked in to selling "glossy" software and content on the paid for license model, the other is apathy from the education profession and administrators and general resistance to change. Thus 2010 will be a start year but it will take quite a few years to become fully established. As time goes on the tools and resources to support change will get better. it could be that the developing world takes the lead in that they are not locked in with the same baggage and inertia to change.
This will be the year when governments in developing countries up their expenditure on ICTs in Education. However, I think that overall the emphasis will (still) be on "teaching and learning about ICTs." There is a growing sense among developing country governments and funding agencies that the developing countries can and should position themselves to become the next India or China i.e. ICT outsource centers. So we are increasingly hearing about Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) in many places in Africa and Asia. This belief comes with the understanding that ICT education must be prioritized to get a trained workforce ready. So sectors likely to get the most money are the secondary and technical and vocational training sectors (aka TVET). Look out for new "solutions" designed for the developing world hitting the shelves soon. For advocates of "teaching and learning with technology", there will be some positive spin-offs from this drive to "teach and learn about technology." First off, teacher education will be a big beneficiary as it is now recognized that trained teachers are key to investing in ICTs. While initially the focus will be on equipping new and existing teachers with ICT skills, this will eventually lay the foundation for using ICTs to train more teachers and to improve teacher's overall knowledge and abilities. Secondly, we shall see an explosion of home-grown content along with open resources as its also increasingly recognized that hardware deployment must be supported by content if the benefits of ICTs are to be realized. The improving connectivity (fiber, fixed wireless and 3G) will also drive content creation. Thirdly, I think we are going to see a lot of curriculum reform efforts to integrate ICTs and digital content and to make the curriculum more "relevant" by integrating 21st century skills. This will lay the foundation for constructivism to take off. There will be lots of buzz around "mobile learning" and perhaps the emergence of many pilots (mainly in teacher training) but I dont think that mobile phones will make their break through this year. 2011 is likely to be the year of mobile learning. And I suspect that we are likely to see lots of "flashy but educationally suspect hardware"! A fused "olpc-netbook-ereader-smartphone" with 3G connectivity perhaps? I dont hold much hope for Linux! In some ways, it will be business as usual except that business will be brisk! However, I think we are likely to get traction on learning with and through technology.
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That is some inspirational material. Ne’er knew that beliefs might be this varied. I liked studying it and can add it to my bookmarks.