EdTech Futures

2030: Education Technology: to the future?

¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 David Longman, January 2020, for MirandaNet

¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 0 “The future is already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed.” (Attributed to William Gibson)

[Update March 2025: I have republished this MirandaLink material which I created in 2020 in order to return to a discussion with TPEA/ITTE colleagues about the future direction of EdTech.

¶ 4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 0 The turn of a decade is a convenient calendar moment in which to consider what is to come, to look ahead to consider how educational technology (edtech) might develop during the coming decade. 

¶ 5 Leave a comment on paragraph 5 0 Here are some possible questions for discussion:

• ¶ 6 Leave a comment on paragraph 6 0
• How will edtech develop during the coming 10-15 years? 
• How will the provision and ‘delivery’ of education change (if at all)?
• Perhaps, most importantly, how can we influence the direction of edtech as the future unfolds?

¶ 7 Leave a comment on paragraph 7 0 To frame our thinking a little below I link to three recent and interesting papers about possible futures of edtech.

¶ 8 Leave a comment on paragraph 8 0 There are different futures to consider, each is possible, some are already emerging. (These articles are what Neil Selwyn and his colleagues describe as “social science fiction“.)

¶ 9 Leave a comment on paragraph 9 0 Two articles (1 & 3) are open access. Article 2 has been contributed by the author(s).

¶ 10 Leave a comment on paragraph 10 0 Aiming to lighten the reading load a bit, I have added three synopses of the articles. I hope they are reasonably accurate summaries of the main content while offering a lighter/quicker read and a convenient method for commment on the major ideas. The papers on which the  synopses based are available from this site:

¶ 11 Leave a comment on paragraph 11 0 Synopsis 1: What’s next for EdTech? Paper: Selwyn et al. (2019a). What’s next for Ed-Tech? Critical hopes and concerns for the 2020s. (Open Access)

¶ 12 Leave a comment on paragraph 12 0 Synopsis 2: The school of 2030 – social science fiction. Paper: Selwyn et al. (2019b). What might the school of 2030 be like? An exercise in social science fiction. (Author copy)

¶ 13 Leave a comment on paragraph 13 0 Synopsis 3: Three future histories. Paper: MacGilcrhist et al. (July 2019). Students and society in the 2020s. Three future ‘histories’ of education and technology  (Open Access)

¶ 14 Leave a comment on paragraph 14 0 ADDITIONAL MATERIAL can be found on this blog page