2019 EdTech Trends10 Thought-Leaders Weigh In

From data-driven decision making and asynchronous professional development to AR/VR experiences and podcasting, 2018 was a year of growth for EdTech. People are beginning to have deeper conversations about the “why” behind technology integration, instead of just the “how.” And not a second too soon, since today’s students are continuously becoming more fluent in technology. As educators, we’re charged with meeting them where they are.

So this time, we asked a bunch of EdTech influencers two questions:

1. What was your favorite EdTech trend from 2018? And Why?

2. Which EdTech trend do you think people will be talking about at the end of 2019?

Their answers are the basis of this eBook. Here’s an opportunity to try out that new trend you’ve been hearing about, or better yet, get ahead of the game for the year to come.

A Word From the Editors

EdTech in 2018 My favorite conversations this year have focused on student agency and autonomy. Technology combined with blended learning models allow for a fundamental shift in control from teacher to learner. Students can and should be driving the learning in classrooms. The increasing ubiquity of devices and access to the internet make it possible for learners to connect with information and resources, collaborate across space and time, create digital products, and publish their work for an authentic audience. It is time for students, not teachers, to do the lion’s share of the work in classrooms. We must strive to place students at the center of learning using technology.

EdTech in 2019In 2019, I expect personalized professional learning to be a hot topic. Educators are grappling with what personalization looks like in their classrooms, but it’s equally important for teachers to access personalized learning opportunities. Educators, like students, have access to limitless information and resources. The challenge for school districts will be rethinking their traditional one-size-fits-all approach to professional development. Instead of crowding all teachers into a room for a day of training that may not meet most of their needs, school leaders must encourage, recognize, and value informal teacher-driven learning. Educators should be setting personalized goals, accessing resources to continue learning, and working with a coach to improve their skills. A personalized approach to professional learning is crucial if teachers are going to keep pace with a rapidly changing learning landscape.

Educator, Trainer, Coach, Speaker & Author

CatlinTucker.com; Pepperdine University

Catlin Tucker

EdTech in 2018 In 2018, I was pretty excited about the maker movement and how 3D printing, laser cutters, and coding foster creativity through technology. While none of this is especially new, the fact that EdTech was being associated with creativity was important and has brought that more to the forefront of our collective attention.

EdTech in 2019I see proximity notifications as becoming more useful and talked about in 2019. Beacon technology is not new but it’s becoming more secure and can be used in different ways to push out content and information based on the location of the individual.

Innovation Coordinator, Parkway School District and President Of The Board Of Directors

ISTE

Bill Bass

EdTech in 2018 I am excited about the advancements in access to coding. Making it simple for all students, especially girls, to learn a valuable skill in a fun and exciting way.

EdTech in 2019I hope our conversations shift away from technology in isolation to more highly effective instructional strategies and pedagogical practices that push deeper learning forward. We have to look beyond the “1000 Tools You Need Right Now in 60 Mins” to more digging into what the research actually says about technology integration. And moreover how we can leverage what actually works and make learning more meaningful through EdTech.

CEO/Digital Learning Evangelist

Web20Classroom

Steven W. Anderson

EdTech in 2018 My favorite EdTech trend in 2018 was the emergence of new and better tools for students to create their own augmented reality and virtual reality experiences. It’s great to see teachers having students use AR and VR to create learning experiences rather than just consuming what others have made.

EdTech in 2019I like to think that we’ll be talking about more opportunities for students to design and build augmented reality and virtual reality applications.

President

Byrne Instructional Media, LLC

Richard Byrne

EdTech in 2018 In a time when our focus needs to be on helping students develop the skills, literacies, and dispositions to be powerful learners, we need to reframe what we look for in our technologies. Namely, we need tools and devices that expand agency and freedom to learn, not surveil and collect data. That conversation is finally beginning in earnest.

EdTech in 2019Probably VR, AR, AI and other initials. We have a tendency in education to look for the next new thing without focusing the really important old thing: what learning really is. In that light, what do I hope they’ll be talking about? That EdTech is being reframed as LearnTech. Kids and adults use technology in powerful ways outside of classrooms to learn deeply about the things they care about and have a passion for. We need to make technology use inside the four walls look more like that. We need to see technology as an amplifier of learner agency, not just a more productive way to teach.

Co-Founder

Modern Learners

Will Richardson

EdTech in 2018 I loved seeing more conversations around creation in the classroom. Students are so used to viewing videos on YouTube, scrolling through blog posts, and listening to podcasts. Throughout my travels to conferences and school visits this year I was excited to see more discussion around this topic. As educators work to place "tasks before apps" there are many ways to use technology to increase opportunities for students to demonstrate understanding in an authentic manner.

EdTech in 2019I think that augmented reality will reenter the conversation in EdTech. With an increase in options and lower price points, I’m excited to see what will happen with AR this year. There are now tools that make it easier for both students and teachers to create augmented reality experiences. I think we'll also see a shift from simply consuming AR experiences to providing opportunities for students to create with augmented reality and participate in teacher-created AR experiences.

Author, EdTech & Curriculum Consultant

Class Tech Tips, LLC

Dr. Monica Burns

EdTech in 2018 FlipGrid - Video is king and when you can combine video with collaboration then you have the recipe for something special. FlipGrid allows teachers to create activities that encourage students to express themselves in a more authentic way than a worksheet. It also provides a space where students can collaborate beyond the Google Slide deck.

EdTech in 2019Podcasting has taken off as a medium for individuals to inform, entertain, and empower others. There is a growing number of educators who are becoming podcasters, and I can see 2019 being the year where students will be doing podcasting in the classroom. What makes podcasting so great is the ability to produce a podcast on a shoestring budget. If you have an iPhone or an iPad, there are a multitude of free apps available to produce and host a podcast. If students have access to a Chromebook or a PC, there are plenty of free sites students can use to produce a podcast.

Instructional Technologist

Hattiesburg Public School District

Will Deyamport, III, Ed.D.

EdTech in 2018 It seems like more and more EdTech companies are shifting away from the idea that technology in and of itself is valuable, and coming to the understanding that EdTech is only valuable if it supports the needs of students, teachers, and schools. In other words, more companies are understanding that learning should come first, and technology should come second. This year in particular, I’ve seen more EdTech companies beginning to adopt this mindset.

EdTech in 2019I think the issue of student data and privacy will be one of the biggest issues being discussed at the end of next year. While there have been more conversations about this topic, I believe this is something that will eventually need to be central to every single EdTech conversation. While we have begun to address this issue in some circles, I think by and large, student data and privacy is something that is often brought up too late, and too superficially to be beneficial. I think by the end of next year, we will hopefully have provided more space and time to have important and necessary conversations surrounding student data and privacy.

Ph.D. Candidate & Associate Instructor

EdTech Roundup, Indiana University

Mike Karlin

EdTech in 2018 My favorite EdTech trend from 2018 is the very slow movement toward more substantive conversations about what learning technologies should be doing for children and educators. As technology advocates, we have to be able to offer more to teachers, students, and families than ‘oooh, isn’t this cool?’ If you attend any EdTech conference, you will see multiple sessions highlighting ways to be more efficient, tips and tricks on how to use miscellaneous tool features, ‘60 apps in 60 minutes,’ and other short-sighted use cases. EdTech can and should be fun. And of course, EdTech lets us do some nifty things and can help us be more efficient. But all of that doesn’t change the learning-teaching process. If we want deeper learning, greater student agency, more authentic work, and rich technology infusion to happen in our classrooms, we have to design for them. More people need to have more conversations that drive us toward transformational schooling, not yet another app or tool feature.

EdTech in 2019At the end of 2019 I think that people will continue to be talking about student privacy and monetization of student data. As social media and other technology platforms continue to harvest our usage data for marketing and business-to-business resale purposes, we will see more questions asked by parents and policymakers about what limits there are on companies’ behavior. There will be some new laws and policies over the next few years that better protect youth and consumers from the never-ending sale of their private and quasi-private behavior to corporations.

EdTech in 2018 2018 was the year of next-gen learning spaces--double classrooms in old buildings from California’s Central Valley to the west tip of Texas in El Paso and multiage pods in new spaces from Redwood City to Charlottesville. The flexible spaces facilitate project-based learning and competency-based progressions. Students move from project teams to skill groups to activity centers building skills and developing agency and self-management. Flexible seating--a mix of high and low top, hard and soft--gives students choice in how and where they work. Now that everyone is connected, facilitating engaging learning experiences is the new work--and that’s increasingly happening in next-gen learning spaces.

EdTech in 2019A year from now people will be talking about competency frameworks after SNHU and LRNG expand access to out of school learning. Platforms will be scrambling to improve interoperability of mixed assessments and integrate badge systems.

Tom Vander Ark CEO

Getting Smart

Across industries, the best trends tend to differentiate themselves from the pack in order to stick around for the long run. Notice some of the commonalities in the responses from influencers in our field. Have you found a way to introduce coding in your classroom? Do your students have experience with AR/VR technologies? Are you using a learning management system (LMS) for more than a filing cabinet? If so, keep up the innovative work and share your ideas with your network. If not, you’ve got a handful of new ideas to try, right here in this eBook.

Conclusion

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