The NMC Horizon Report: 2017 Higher Ed Edition, produced by the New Media Consortium in
partnership with the Educause Learning Initiative, examines what’s on the
horizon for technology in postsecondary education. This year’s topics were chosen
by a panel of nearly 80 experts from 22 countries engaging in a three-month
virtual discussion.
One
new topic for 2017 is finding technological solutions to advance digital access
and equity for students from all backgrounds to enable them to succeed and
complete their education. Artificial intelligence in the classroom and next-generation
learning-management systems are tech developments that are also new to this
edition of the report.
Already
identified as a trend in previous reports, use of virtual reality, while still
a developing technology, will continue grow in higher ed. “The most effective
incarnations of this trend,” the report said, “incorporate emerging
technologies that enable students to learn in ways they would not be able to on
a strictly physical campus.”
Overall
adoption of both existing and upcoming technologies, however, will require a level
of digital literacy that is still lacking. As a preview for the report states, “Digital
fluency is more than just understanding how to use technology.” In short,
students need to develop not only technical proficiency but also cognitive
skills in order to use technologies to absorb, evaluate, create, and
communicate information.
One
of the challenges cited in the report as “most wicked” will be rethinking
educators’ roles amid a move toward more student-centered learning. That shift
will require instructors to retool their approach to act more as “guides and
facilitators.”
This
year’s Horizon Report also looks back to track topics addressed in previous
reports, listing blended learning as the most pervasive trend across the last
six years.
