The New Media Consortium (NMC) just put out the NMC Horizon Report – 2015 Higher Education Edition last week to share what is ahead in technology and learning in post-secondary for the next few years. This report identifies the trends, challenges, and specific technologies we might see in higher ed over the next 1-5 years.
Image c/o Johnson, Adams Becker, Estrada, & Freeman (2015)
Key trends expected to be adopted in educational technology in higher ed (from the report) include:
- Evolution of online learning
- Rethinking learning spaces – what our learning environments and mediums are
- Increasing focus on open educational resources (FINALLY. Hello, OER!)
- Rise of data-driven learning and assessment (the good, the bad & the ugly)
- Agile approaches to change (Really? Where? Sign me up, Higher Ed!)
- growing important of open communities and university consortia (Looking forward to this)
Significant challenges impeding ed tech adoption in the post-secondary education realm include:
- Adequately defining and support digital literacy
- Blending formal and informal learning
- Complex thinking and communication
- Integrating personalized learning
- Competition from new models of education (dare I say MOOCs)
- Relative lack of rewards for teaching (duh!)
Important developments in educational tech for higher ed include:
- Bring your own device (BYOD) – I think it’s because we had to…
- Flipped classroom
- Makerspaces
- Adaptive learning technologies
- The Internet of things
If you work in learning technologies or distance education, much of this report is not “new” – however it gives some insights and examples of what is ahead in the post-secondary landscape. If you working in higher education, I suggest you DOWNLOAD and review your own copy. Not all these trends and predictions are surprising – but it is always good to know what others are working on in the field of #edtech. Happy reading!
Reference
Johnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Estrada, V., & Freeman, A. (2015). NMC horizon report: 2015 higher education edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.
techKNOWtools 
Does anyone ever look through old NMC Horizon Reports and assess how reliable their predictions generally turn out to be? Last time I did this, they seemed to have an exceptionally low success rate.
In my view, one should always be suspicious of nutty evangelists dressed up as futurologists.
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That is a great question, Crispin. I would tend to side with you on this one. Let me know if you do a follow up to this report with how ed tech trends actually play out this year — perhaps I will have to do the same. Stay tuned for my next post – it will be on research and assessment of technology for distance education from the summit I was at last week on this topic.
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