The World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE), an international, multi-sectoral platform for creative thinking, debate and purposeful action on the future of education through innovation, predicts some education trends for 2013, which include:
1. The Rise of Social Networks for Learning: No surprise there, as teachers are increasingly bound to recognize the value of sites like Youtube, Facebook and Twitter for sharing information, having discussions and hosting online classes.
2. Edu Apps for Mobile Learning: Besides the popular college apps Together Learn, Udemy and Desire2Learn, there are a host of other interactive mobile-based education apps, not just for higher education, but for learning at all ages. India’s own young programmers, Shravan and Sanjay, are also working to develop education apps for kids.
3. Growth of MOOCs: Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) started by universities like MIT, Stanford and Harvard are on the rise, and only seem to be growing despite the debate about whether these courses should be offered for credit or not.
These are only some of the ideas that WISE posits, which will probably keep evolving as the year progresses. One overarching trend, it seems to me, is that Learning for the sake of learning is being valued more and more, while traditional accreditation and degrees seem to be losing their importance, value and perhaps even their relevance. What are your thoughts on other emerging trends for education in the coming year? Comments, ideas and thoughts welcome.
