2019 Ten Trends

As technology pervades every part of our lives, and as the impact of exponential change affects us all, the impact on our health and wellbeing is significant.

Cultural narratives are increasingly recognised as powerful enablers in connecting our past to the present. They situate us in the context of the places we co-inhabit, and recognise the influences of people, places, time and events in shaping who we are.

Technology is being used to allow a re-discovery and preservation of the connections we have with ‘our place’ - preserving the notion of place as an important part of identity.

Focus on the technological solutions that help connect parents/whānau with learners in a more timely, personalised way with emphasis on the human connection.

What happens when we create more permeable boundaries to our classrooms and schools, and regard them as being more integrally a part of the rest of what happens in the community - no longer a ‘walled garden’?

We’ve explored the notion of the shift in ownership to the learner - but what about the teacher? What are the new roles and responsibilities of teachers as we move to a different, more learner centred and learner driven paradigm in education?

Historically our ability to have our learning recognised has depended on completing large ‘chunks’ of learning that are determined and packaged up by the providers of that learning. Micro-credentialing returns the ownership to the learner, and allows them to map their own pathway through the things of interest to them, and have it recognised in a transferrable way.

The super abundance of data, and the ability of AI to process this is driving a lot of decision making at all levels. But what about the small data that relies on the knowledge and judgements that are made by people on an instance by instance basis?

Recognising the changing nature of work makes it difficult to know what specifically we ought to be preparing people for, and that we must be continually learning and changing to acquire skills and dispositions - the shift is to investing in people and recognising that human capital as essential.

New ways of talking about being successful along with traditional ways of measuring success, personally and as a nation, are often linked with economic outcomes and social status. In a world where these things may no longer hold the value they once did, we need to consider new ways of thinking about success.