Abstract:

Join Dr. Larry Johnson, founder of the NMC Horizon Project, in an exploration of the road ahead for learning and its surrounding landscape of educational technology. In the spirit of William Gibson, who famously observed that, “the future is already here; it is just unevenly distributed,” the NMC’s future focus is on where things are going — by understanding where they are coming from.

What we see coming for learning shares little in common with the technologies, networks, software, or systems of today’s educational technology. We need technology that is pervasive, open, ubiquitous, always on, always near, always connected. At the same time, virtually every assumption we have about the use of technology in education — our common wisdom — is based on how we have done things in the past— and as successful as we may have been, our own experience is likely the biggest limit on our future success. The future state of any level of education certainly will bear little resemblance to its past. Open learning advocates point to access, quality, and cost as the key determinants of future success.

In this changing landscape, we need institutions willing to break the traditional mold. We need uncommon leaders, uncommon faculties, and uncommon systems and processes for making decisions. Creativity and vision is more important than ever. We need people at every level that are willing to try new ideas, to take risks, and even to fail on the road to getting it right.

Johnson will address these topics in the context of the evolution of the modern university, and detail the significant challenges and shifts in that framework that schools and even universities must understand and embrace. Collectively, these challenges will require a tectonic level shift in the common wisdom, but that won’t be enough. We will need uncommon wisdom.