3 Trends That Are Changing The Education World in 2019

As 2018 comes to a conclusion, many are looking back on the news stories and trends from the past. However, today I am asking everyone to look forward and think less about where we have been and focus on where we are going. 

Education is a mammoth industry, directly or indirectly touching just about every single person. If you are reading this, it is because you feel some connection to the education world. In order to serve our students properly, we must not be afraid to progress and take chances to improve the way things are done. 

Below I highlight three emerging trends that we expect to see breakout even more in 2019.

Feel free to share your thoughts, comments, or trends in the comments below to get the discussion going.

Voice-Assistant Technology in the Classroom

We’ve seen the ads everywhere this holiday season. The battle between Google Voice and Alexa is heating up. A recent study indicated that voice assistant technology is booming in the home, on pace to grow 1000%.

But these devices hardly stop at the home. The ability to leverage voice-assistant technology is emerging, and on the cusp of exploding in education. Saint Louis University became the first US university to put an Alexa device in every single dorm room and on campus apartment.

Don’t think for a second that these companies have not recognized the enormous potential in the classroom too. Expect more exciting announcements in the New Year as actions are developed to open up voice-assistant technology to students and teachers.

If you think voice assistant technology is big now, wait until it explodes in the classroom.??????

There are three main reasons why having a voice-assistant in the classroom helps:

1. Children can express themselves verbally earlier than they can through writing. This gives younger children the opportunity to use the actions on voice-assistant devices before they can even write or type. 
2. Second Language Learners can communicate through voice (either translated or in the second language vs. text). This opens up a whole suite of tools to enable multilingual support for ELL students in their other courses.
3. Free up teacher time. By having voice-assistant technology in your class, teachers now have a virtual TA with every student. Google’s Pixelbooks now have a Google Assistant button on every keyboard. With Google’s profound penetration in K-12, expect to see them further emerge as a leader in the space.

Virtual Collaborative Learning Environments

For years, collaborative learning spaces have been trending upwards. Research supports the human need to interact and validate their thoughts. Coincidently, we are also moving towards virtual learning environments, thus the need for collaborative learning communities will keep growing, but it will do so in a virtual setting.

Virtual communities is nothing new. We have had social networks for the 20+ years and with instant messaging, these groups have become more and more popular. Where it hasn't exploded yet in a formal manner is in K-12 education.

Collaboration leads to deeper understanding of concepts and more profound discussions.

Having spent most of 2018 visiting classrooms and meeting with students, teachers and administrators, it became increasingly evident that they all were seeking the same resource; the ability to offer virtual collaborative learning communities to enable conversation and collaboration to take place outside the 4 walls of the classroom.

The ability to create virtual collaborative learning environments enables learning around the clock, without the need for the formal structure of the classroom. Many students are already doing this in an informal way through iMessage or WhatsApp groups, however by pulling a the teacher or a tutor into the mix, you now have a unique ability for transparency and deeper learning/discussions.

Expect to see a boost in these types of resources over the next year, whether through existing LMS’ or new apps, they are in demand and coming!

Personalized Professional Development

For years the education community has talked about personalized learning. Tailoring each student’s education to their specific needs. While there is still a long way to go before this is a reality, the focus has always been on the student. Until now. Just as every student has their unique learning styles, strengths, weaknesses, interests, so do teachers. 

It would be hypocritical of the education community to ignore the fact that teachers too need a personalized learning experience - enter the era of Personalized PD.

Earlier this year, I came across the an article that highlights how teachers can plan their PD. It inspired me to start thinking more critically about how professional development is approached. Not only is each teacher unique, but their school and district has its unique culture and characteristics as well.

Personalized PD takes a number of shapes and sizes (just like personalized learning), but ultimately it gives the power to the learner, in the case, the classroom teacher. Some districts are covering the costs for their teachers to take online courses, while others are selecting vendors that come and work one-on-one with teachers to make sure that the districts’ investment sees the best ROI. 

At GradeSlam, our Student Success team now builds a personalized PD plan for each partner before going on site and working collaboratively (and one-on-one) with teachers to help make sure they get the individualized attention they need to be the best teachers possible. 

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Philip Cutler is the Founder & CEO of GradeSlam. He is an angel investor as well as the Chairman of Laurus Lifestyles and City Councillor in Westmount, QC.