acher and administration and which are handed out as and when the lesson demands. Beyond that we are seeing a reluctance to provide students with expensive tablets which they then use continually in and outside the classroom – mainly because of the expense and technical support issues. BYOD also raises a number of issues that are making teachers and administrators reluctant to adopt it – lack of standardisation, the need for device management software to be installed on pupils’ private devices which raises ethical issues. We are also seeing a backlash against phones in school full stop – as demonstrated in France last year. Their banning of phones in schools has widespread support as concerns about children’s exposure to screen time is fuelled by the media and some experts in the field of Neuroscience.
In summary – for de-centralised education systems the next three to five years will see:
1. A continuing move towards self-aware students and teachers who understand their own approach to learning, and who will plan and develop their own personalised curricula.
2. A move from large all-encompassing teaching systems towards Playlist Learning, whereby students and teachers will build their own set of personalised tools from curated libraries of apps
3. Technology ceasing to be centre stage in teaching and learning and becoming part of a blended learning approach combining experiential, social interaction and technology.
4. Student devices in the classroom will continue to be a contentious issue. However, there is a need for simple and robust devices that can be used and when the lesson demands. Outside the classroom personal devices will have an increasingly important role to play in playlist and self-aware learning.
5. Assessment will move away from examinations, tests and certificates towards portfolios and peer validated competence playlists (the model that’s used by LinkedIn).
Disruptors
There are a number of disruptors that will strongly influence education and education technology over the next few years.
Neuroscience
Modern neuroscience is still very young but is having a significant impact on educational thinking, mainly because of the wow factor. While it is giving us new insights into the learning process, w