Title of Study:  Horizon Report: 2010 K-12 Edition

Author(s): L. Johnson, R. Smith, A. Levine, K. Haywood

Summary:
This annual report identifies six emerging technologies that are likely to have an impact on K-12 teaching and learning in the next one to five years.  Examples are provided for each topic, as well as suggested readings for those who want more detailed information on a specific topic. The report also identifies critical trends and challenges that will affect teaching and learning during this time period.

Sponsoring entity(s): The New Media Consortium and Consortium for School Networking

Date conducted: 2010

Location of the study: This study can be accessed through the New Media Consortium website.

Setting(s) addressed:

• Classroom
• Anywhere, anytime learning

Targeted population(s):

• K-12 education

Primary sources of evidence used in the study or report:

• Ongoing conversation among knowledgeable people in business, industry and education
• Review of published and current research
• Expertise of the New Media Consortium staff and Horizon Project’s Advisory Board

Primary Technology Application(s) Addressed:

• Cloud computing
• Collaborative environments
• Game-based learning
• Mobile technology
• Augmented reality
• Flexible displays

Major education topic(s) addressed:

• Educational technology

Major findings/conclusions:
The six technologies most likely to influence K-12 education in the next 5 years include:

• Cloud computing is transforming computing, communication, collaboration, data storage and access, and will be increasingly integrated into education over the next year.
• Collaborative environments that give students unprecedented opportunities to interact with peers and mentors, and to experience 21st century work patterns will be integrated over the next year.
• Game-based learning ranging from single-player learning to multi-player collaborative games will gain acceptance in the next 2 to 3 years.
• Mobile devices will increasingly blur the division between the learning that happens in school and learning that happens out in the world over the next 2 to 3 years.
• Augmented reality based on GPS, video and pattern recognition technologies will become a portable tool for discovery-based learning, enhancing information available to students and interacting with real-world objects in the next 4 to 5 years.
• Flexible displays embedded in books, desks, walls and other objects will become integrated into K-12 education in the next 4 to 5 years.

Practical implications of the findings:

• Key trends include: the ubiquitous, transparent role of technology in students’ personal lives; the profound effect technology has had on communication and collaboration; increasing value placed on innovation and creativity; increasing interest in alternatives to traditional classroom instruction; and a change in the way we think about learning environments.
• Critical challenges include: the need to improve students’ and teachers’ digital literacy skills; lack of agreement about what school reforms are needed; the slow rate of change in educational practices; the resistance of the structure of the K-12 education establishment to change; and resistance to acknowledging and valuing learning that takes place outside the classroom.

Reviewer Comments:
Taken together, the technologies identified in this report have the capacity to transform education from the “factory model” of previous centuries to a model based on the 21st century workplace.

The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), in collaboration with HP, is preparing a K-12 toolkit to accompany the 2010 Horizon Report.  The toolkit will be released under a Creative Commons license, and will help school and district leaders, board members, policymakers, teacher groups, and others better understand how these new applications of technology will support teaching and learning and how to successfully plan for their implementation.