Five educational trends for the next decade — Ioana Literat; Marina Gorbis

Excerpt from Ioana’s article (emphasis DSC):

Speaking of the future of learning, Ms. Gorbis identified five key themes that she envisions as vital trends in the development of education over the next decade:

  1. Micro-learning:
    The availability of knowledge accessible in the real world and at any time creates the conditions for learning that is easy, lightweight, and done in context when a person really wants or needs to learn.
  2. Rich ecology of content and resources:
    We are seeing the democratization of content, with high quality resources being produced by individuals and groups outside of any institutional framework.
  3. Community as a driver:
    Learning is (and has always been) about participating in a conversation, with people that matter to us. Increasingly, schools will need to be asking the question: how can we create social settings that encourage the right kinds of conversations?
  4. Teachers as social designers:
    With content cheap and available everywhere, the role of the teacher as the orchestrator of learning communities comes to the fore.
  5. Non-grade rewards:
    We have known for some time that grades replace intrinsic rewards with extrinsic, taking pleasure and self-direction out of learning. Ideas for different models of reward are coming from unexpected places, such as gaming, where the concept of leveling up produces a new and engaging dynamic.