In the latest addition to CoSN’s Driving K-12 Innovation series, the organization today published the second of three new reports, titled Driving K-12 Innovation: 2019 Accelerators. The report examines the top five most impactful technology megatrends driving the needs and skills that are expected of K-12 students and educators.
Selected by an international advisory board of more than 100 distinguished edtech experts, the top accelerators are: Learners as Creators; Data-Driven Practices; Personalization; Design Thinking; and Building the Capacity of Human Leaders.
“Innovation is advancing quickly, and that means school technology leaders need to stay on top of the trends powering digital transformations,” said Keith Krueger, CEO of CoSN. “This new report will help educators spur conversations and make effective use of these accelerators to shape learning settings.”
Advisory Board members used a scale of 1-5 (1 = slowest and least intense accelerator and 5 = fastest and most intense accelerator) to rank the 2019 Accelerators.
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Rank
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Accelerator
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Score (out of 5)
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5
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Building the Capacity of Human Leaders
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3.29
|
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4
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Design Thinking
|
3.53
|
|
3
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Personalization
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3.76
|
|
2
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Data-Driven Practices
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3.83
|
|
1
|
Learners as Creators
|
4.08
|
Megatrends are major disruptive shifts in the status quo that redefine the future of education and accelerate the pace of technological change. The accelerators identified in the report vary in speed, with some occurring suddenly and others taking place gradually over the course of years. The new report takes a closer look at two of the top five accelerators and provides real-world examples of their impact on learning:
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Learners as Creators — This accelerator underscores the value of creativity in workplaces and communities today and its increased importance in the future. By focusing on learning that utilizes doing and making, rather than simply understanding facts and concepts, educators can ensure that students acquire a skill set to solve real-world problems using invention and innovation moving forward.
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Personalization — This accelerator encompasses the societal shift toward tailor-made student-teacher interactions and away from one-size-fits-all education. While this model is not groundbreaking, and educators have long recognized differing student needs, it has become a focus on a global scale in recent years. Using technology in education can amplify personalized learning spaces and pinpoint students’ immediate needs on a more granular level.
Driving K-12 Innovation is the successor to the K-12 edition of the NMC Horizon Report series — a forward-looking edition co-founded and co-led by CoSN that ran from 2007–2017. CoSN released the first report Driving K-12 Innovation: 2019 Hurdles in January. The last report on “tech enablers” is expected this summer, along with a toolkit.
CONTACT
For CoSN: Michael Kaplun, The Fratelli Group, 202-822-9491, mkaplun@fratelli.com
The Driving K-12 Innovation project is made possible through the following sponsorship support: ClassLink and Google (Gold sponsors), Amazon Web Services, Dell EMC and Kajeet (Silver sponsors) and ENA (Bronze sponsor).
For more information on the series and to read the reports, visit: cosn.org/k12innovation.
About CoSN
CoSN (the Consortium for School Networking) is the premier professional association for school system technology leaders. CoSN provides thought leadership resources, community best practices and advocacy tools to help leaders succeed in the digital transformation. CoSN represents over 13 million students in school districts nationwide and continues to grow as a powerful and influential voice in K-12 education. cosn.org
