ZDNet\u2019s Top 10 Education Tech predictions for 2011 provides a brief look at some possible trends in the upcoming years.\u00a0 I believe this article provides more \u201cfood for thought\u201d as opposed to a solid launching platform for venturers or organizations to base their purchasing decisions off of.\u00a0 The list compiled by Adam Garry, Dell\u2019s manager of professional learning, and Christopher Dawson, a staff writer for ZdNet Education.\u00a0 This article is geared towards the broader community of educators, as well as parents.\u00a0 In particular, the trends\/predictions are divided into two categories:\u00a0 pedagogical approaches and products.<\/p>\n
The pedagogical approaches are provided by Adam Garry.\u00a0 He notes the following:<\/p>\n
All of these ideas are fantastic to speak about, but the main question that remains is how to move forward on these in the current education climate. Garry does expand on each of these ideas and notes that Dell is piloting a platform (personalized learning platform) to aide in this manner.\u00a0 A lot of these concepts moves past the idea of just obtaining hardware and using \u201cthe expensive keyboards in our labs\u201d effectively.\u00a0 Developing of key programs with assessment built into them, will be the main challenge.\u00a0 Most educators if not all I\u2019m sure would agree they would love each one of these points, but the main question becomes, \u201chow\u201d?<\/p>\n
The products are provided by Christopher Dawson.\u00a0 He notes the following:<\/p>\n
Dawson provides the product solutions to the pedagogical approaches given by Garry.\u00a0 In the list of suggestions he mentions that the advancements of each of these will drive prices down and in effect be more prevalent in classrooms.\u00a0 In particular, the tablets and thin clients, will be less of a purchasing costs on organizations.\u00a0 Cloud services and e-textbooks provide a new approach to a delivery model of the material to the students.<\/p>\n
This article, shouldn\u2019t be shocking, however, I do wonder how much of it is because we are well into the 2012 and approaching 2013 that it doesn\u2019t seem this surprising.\u00a0 It\u2019s important to note this article was written in late 2010.\u00a0 This report provides a general outlook of the education field from a journalist is current in Education Technology.\u00a0 While, I believe this article is more for interest, I would keep Christopher Dawson\u2019s ZDNet RSS feed and Twitter account active to follow up with his latest.<\/p>\n