Changes in the technology and education landscape

Changes in the technology and education landscape

Looming changes to education and technology are also profound and will challenge governments, sectors, school leaders and teachers. Whether governments stimulate this or not, according to stakeholders, an education revolution is taking place. The question is whether schools are sufficiently equipped to respond to existing and emerging challenges. If recent developments in technology and technology consumption demonstrate anything, it is that change will remain a constant rather than something that needs to be conquered once. Stakeholders have consistently cautioned that not everything can be anticipated and planned for. The emergence of new technologies such as the proliferation of tablets such as iPads – a device not even conceived when the DER was announced – and changes to the way that digital content is consumed are examples. To provide effective, timely responses to these issues capability must be built into all levels of the education sector.

The purpose of this section is to identify what is changing and why. Woven throughout the discussion are implications for schools related to digital education that will be considered in the concluding section of this report. The issues raised are not intended to be exhaustive but to provide a snapshot of the myriad of considerations for future policy design and implementation. Figure 4 -8 depicts the major changes impacting on digital education, as described in research and by stakeholders.

Figure 4‑8: What’s changing in technology and education?

It is important to recognise that these changes are not discrete: many of them converge to create new challenges and opportunities. As an example, changes in technology have the potential to influence new pedagogical approaches, not just provide a vehicle to deliver evolving pedagogy in different ways. The conclusion of this chapter articulates the growing interdependence of trends as they relate to digital education. To illustrate:

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  Device proliferation, particularly among learners, is increasing expectations that learners will be mobile (anywhere, anytime learning). This includes the prospect of moving beyond support for 1:1 access to one-to-many access to devices.
  
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  Students’ demand for anywhere, anytime learning is driving investment in a range of technologies, including compression technology, ‘thin client’ applications such as virtual desktops, and cloud-based services.
  
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  Advances in compression technology and cloud-based services are creating the potential for improved and accessible media-rich content such as captured video to be effectively collected and delivered as part of the education process.
  
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  Demand for captured video is putting new strain on school-based infrastructure such as networks, video applications, data storage and access to educational content on demand.
  
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  As a whole, these are all leading to greater personalisation of learning, opportunities to exploit real-time formative assessment and feedback, new mechanisms and channels to deliver blended learning, and opportunities to deliver new pedagogical approaches including concepts such as the flipped classroom.
  
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  As a result of all of these changes, there is a growing interest in BYOD by the administrators of systems, sectors and schools, who want to ensure that devices can be refreshed regularly and in an economically sustainable manner.
  

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