Last year I invited companies to reflect on what might be coming up in education technology during the year 2018, and what the challenges might be. I received quite a good response, which I compiled into a useful resource on my website at Ed Tech Predictions 2018 -- https://www.ictineducation.org/edtech2018#/introduction/ . Astonishingly (well, to me at least) nearly a year later, it's still one of the most-visited areas of my website, with hundreds of unique visits a month.
I thought I'd repeat the exercise for 2019, and my intention is that as well as publishing the responses on the ICT & Computing in Education website I should like to compile them into a free ebook, if there is a big enough response. (Otherwise, I'll publish the responses as individual interviews, so respondents’ time won't have been wasted.)
I think it's always interesting to see what people think the developments and concerns will be, and I've timed it to coincide with Bett in order to maximise publicity for any companies that respond.
I should also state that I won’t venture any judgements on the responses. Most people get it wrong when it comes to predictions. Here is a well-known quotation to back up this statement:
"Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future."
Attributed to various people.
Also, Bill Gates said, in his book Business @ the Speed of Thought, that people tend to overestimate the rate of change in the short term, but underestimate it over the long term (or something like that). I think he was spot on.
Anyway, if you think the predictions survey might be of interest, please do take part, and I'd be grateful if you could let your colleagues, clients, suppliers or readers know about it if appropriate.
The survey is here: Ed Tech Predictions 2019 survey: https://goo.gl/forms/goQRQsMaQoUrvIs22
and the deadline is 14 December 2018, to give me time to collate them all.
Thanks in advance!
This article is a slightly modified one from the latest issue of the Digital Education ezine. For more details, including how to subscribe, please visit Digital Education.