MindShare Learning Report

Re the Top Ten Predictions for 2014: http://email.mindsharelearning.ca/t/j-2F424F1476324DAA My criticism of the predictions in this email report is that they’re premised on a one-dimensional boosterism of technology in the classroom, so the predictions are not useful for venturers or educators. This perspective defines most or all of the ten predictions, but I’ll focus on one prediction here as an illustration. Prediction #3 notes “To Tweet or NOT to Tweet is No Longer the Question! The Power of the Crowd. Students and teachers will engage in greater social learning, crowdsourced problem solving and professional learning. The future about interconnected learning communities.” The problem is that this prediction seems to assume that classroom learning was never social before social media. But a typical English class (I’ll mention English, since the prediction references Hamlet) has always been highly social, with students close reading, sharing ideas and insights and coming to a collective understanding of a text (I remember my technology-free high school IB English classroom, less than 15 years ago, as one of the best social experiences of my life). Predicting that Twitter will become ubiquitous in the classroom, and implying that it could and should only be so, and that this is necessary to make learning in the classroom “social,” is I think based on a very faulty understanding of the social life of classrooms. You have to ask yourself: did the people writing these predictions ever attend high school? My sense is that the predictions in this document illustrate a fairly shallow approach to understanding the use of ed. tech. in the classroom. Their premise is that a classroom before the introduction of Internet technology was some kind of dead silent, non-social, unwelcoming place, when the opposite might often be true—silent classrooms filled with students each staring at their own devices.

Mindshare Learning is a Canadian-Based company that offers EdTech strategy consulting to learning and technology providers. The goal of the company is counsel software publishers, distributors and educational hardware providers, whose market consist of K12, post secondary and lifelong learning markets, in their sales and marketing techniques. The company creates a variety of mindshare reports and predictions based off of research and surveys completed by teachers across Canada. These reports are created to be useful and valuable to existing and emerging technology producers, hardware manufacturers and digital learning service providers. However, I feel these reports are not only useful to venturers but also to learning technology specialists and educators. I would recommend that educators and learning technology specialists should glance at these reports to check-in to see if your school/class/district is up to date with the current technology trends in Canadian Schools. As an educator, the report I found most interesting was the Top 10 EdTech Predictions of 2014. Having recently met with the Tech Ed Specialist in my district, I can honestly say that most of the predictions were bang-on with the actual technology trends occurring in the district with which I work. After reading the 2014 trends, I couldn't resist reading the Top 10 EdTech Predictions for 2015. The scary thought is how rapidly technology evolves. New technology quickly replaces the old, rendering it obsolete.

Mindshare Learning Report offers some hopeful predictions for 2014. I think they are on the right track, but I think they are a bit ambitious to say these things will happen in the next year. They do offer some great inspiration and goals that school should consider tackling in the near future. The infographics and podcasts offered in the Top Ten reports are a great quick read and it's nice that they come out monthly. Some of the other predictions can seem too ambitious and maybe that is because they are trying to predict too large of a time period. Especially in tech, trends ebb and flow often and new unheard of trends can come up from what seems like out of no where. This monthly publication can help keep track of these more frequent particular changes.

The MindShare Learning Report is in its 7th year of publication. It includes some quick reference infographics, a Top 10 predictions list for 2014 and news highlights for the EdTech industry. The Canadian EdTech Teacher Survey infographic provides a snapshot of key trends in EdTech. The implication is that there is a clear desire to grow the technology available in the classroom, but that funding often presents a problem. This is echoed through another infographic - the EdTech Tips for Schools Buyer's Guide. This presents key questions a teacher should be able to answer before investing / sourcing funding for EdTech. Although MindShare's mission is to "provide strategic marketing solutions to learning & technology solution providers in the K-12, HED and lifelong learning markets, to support new market expansion and revenue growth", the infographics seem to focus on the K-12 EdTech market. They are good quick reference guides for teachers, but their applicability to HED and lifelong learning markets is less clear. Using their infographic research, MindShare came up with a Top 10 predictions list for 2014. This list includes many of the items seen in our Emerging Markets forum last week. This list is brief, but provides a solid overview of trends to watch. One of its strengths is its decidedly Canadian focus. If teaching in Canada, I believe this to be a valuable quick reference tool. The list is short and to the point, but will get teachers thinking about current EdTech trends. I believe this to be most appropriate as a resource for K-12 teachers who are interested in developing their use of technology in the classroom.