The Xplanation

One of our goals at Xplanation is to share our general research for product planning and design with others in the education, educational technology, and content publishing communities. We are committed to sharing our research and insights both as an obligation as a community member as well as an effective manner for participating in the dialogue in this dynamic and rapidly changing arena.

We certainly believe that sharing our research ideas and conclusions publicly helps establish clear product philosophy for Xplana. Even more important, however, is the fact that the research observations we share via The Xplanation represent a case of “putting our money where our mouth is.” The conclusions we share via our blog are the same conclusions that define our product roadmap and business decisions around the industry. This does not necessarily mean our research is more accurate than the work of others, but it does signify an additional layer of personal and corporate reflection that goes into our work. In a very real sense, our research conclusions lead to specific investment and product features. Last year, for example, we tagged more than 4000 articles and generated numerous statistical summaries and reports related to our trends. These helped guide our sponsoring company — Xplana-MBS Direct — in its development of the new social learning platform, Xplana.com.

With that in mind, here are our Education and Technology Trends for 2011. This year, we are presenting the trends in terms of “movements” or “transitions” that we feel will shape culture, technology, and education over the coming year. These trends represent the broad categories and the, beneath these, we list specific topics we are tracking within each. We will use these trends guidelines for our daily, weekly, and monthly research over the next year.

Education and Technology Trends — 2011

Delivery –> Discovery (content) — Our traditional education models, from architecture and business to pedagogy and content design, have been predicated on the notion of “delivery.” That is, information is packaged into closed and finite container models and delivered to targeted age/learning/discipline groups. This delivery model assumes a great deal of homogeneity with regards to learning, and necessitates that all learners in a group receive instruction within similar time frames and utilizing similar learning styles. Over the next year, we will see important strides made in shifting our educational models away from delivery and towards “discovery.” This will champion development in the areas of search, personal and adaptive learning, OER, digital textbooks, and metadata.

Key Topics

• Search
• Adaptive Learning
• Digital Textbooks
• Content Curation
• Content Metadata
• Assessment
• LMS Platforms

Narrowcasting –> Nanocasting (distribution) — One of the most significant trends in media and publishing is the explosion of channels related to content and its access. The 80’s marked the transition from broadcasting to narrowcasting in media with the advent of cable TV. In the new digital age, we are moving rapidly towards the intense personalization of content, to a model where every user represents his or her own custom distribution channel. We have already moved from “one size fits all” to “a unique size for every person.” In education, this means a proliferation of mobile learning apps, custom content solutions, and the explosion of new technologies focused on personalized learning paths. Who and where each individual student is, along with their local needs, will increasingly drive the business.

Key Topics

• Mobile Technologies
• Apps
• Tablets
• Smartphones
• E-commerce
• Location-Based Services
• Social Learning
• Content Distribution Platforms

Content –> Services (business models) — For the past forty years, educational content providers have built an empire based on siloed content with an emphasis on content ownership and controlled distribution. And this model flourished within a stable and slowly evolving Higher Education system. New technologies, new education business models, and cost pressures, however, are dictating aggressive changes in the realm of educational content. In a world where much of the content is static or duplicated across content providers, we are beginning to witness a devaluation of content and general and a rise int he value of services. The coming year will see further developments in this trend and we will witness intensified competition in the area of content services among publishers.

Key Topics

• Content Disaggregation
• Content Subscription and Licensing
• Copyright and DRM
• Content Sharing
• Content Feeds
• Content Standards and Metadata
• Custom Publishing
• Institutions as Content Providers
• Copyright and Piracy
• OER

Message –> User (experience) — In the digital age, the user is increasingly a content producer and an active participant within the media environment. Far from the age where users passively received media messages, we now live in a time when users help form (or become) the messages. In other words, the user is the new medium. This means radical revisions to product and content design, and to the dual roles of instruction and learning in the educational enterprise. It also means a new slate of content production tools and improved e-commerce models that allow users to bypass the traditional paths of publishing and promotion.

Key Topics

• Design for Collaboration and Interaction
• Content Production Tools
• Gesture-Based Computing
• Personal Networks
• Self-Publishing
• Privacy
• Web Video

Cloud –> Universe (technology) — Cloud computing is ubiquitous and its impact will continue to grow, particularly in the areas of social networking, communication, and productivity tools (Google Docs etc.). Over the next year, however, we will watch as the cloud expands and frees users not only from the tether of their local hard drives, but also from other boundaries that have separated them from content and other users. The cloud will continue to have local implications but it will be the primary facilitator for globalization in education.

• Cloud Computing
• Social Networking
• VoIP and Skype
• New Communication Forms
• Google Apps
• Online Gaming
• Networked Learning