Each year, Gartner Research compiles a list of the top technology trends that have the potential to affect individuals, businesses and IT organizations during the next three years. The audience for this research is information technology executives, not educators per se, but it is still important to get this global perspective.
The Gartner 2020 Top Ten Strategic Technologies report is here.
Gartner’s technology trends are something I believe educators should keep a close eye on. I work for a post secondary IT department and I can assure you we take Gartner’s trends into account when building strategic plans and investing time, money and research into up and coming technology. In my experience Gartner tends to do an excellent job of picking technology trends and there is a good change the IT department at your organization is investigating those technologies. If we really want to push education and technology integration forward, it is important for IT departments and faculty to coordinate and something as simple as keeping an eye on Gartner trends can give you a much better understanding of where your IT department may be headed.
I find this compilation to be very comprehensive and not only clearly highlights the trends that should be our focus, but also draws indirect links between the development of technology in our daily lives and other areas in life (such as training and education).
Interested to explore further, I found this for 2021 Top Strategic Technology Trends:
https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/gartner-top-strategic-technology-trends-for-2021/
The 2021 list explicitly discusses the effects of COVID-19 pandemic having a significant impact on the technology sector. I particularly agree with the point on “Anywhere Operations”. As mentioned, with COVID-19 fast-tracking digital transformation in companies, both companies and employees presumably will be more flexible, comfortable and accountable in terms of remote working. In terms of students, they would also be also more open to anywhere learning. As Gartner predicts that there will be growth in organizations adopting and embracing digital transformation. It will be interesting to explore this further in terms of education and training.
As mentioned above, I believe that Gartner publications are a must for those interested in technology trends. I have been following Gartner trends and/or their hype cycles for a while now and thoroughly enjoy looking back and reviewing how trends pan out. They now have Top Ten Strategic Technology Trends, subdivided for K-12 and Higher Education. For administrators and CIOs, Gartner also publishes Insights (also for K-12 and Higher Education) which gives a unique insight into what is likely more practical and likely closer to (financial) reality. Finally, they have the yearly Gartner Hype Cycle (added as a new post under Opportunities Horizon/Market Forecast), which serves as a companion to the this Top Ten Strategic Technology Trends post.