Learners as creators, data-driven practices top CoSN’s 2019 ‘accelerators’ report

Learners as creators, data-driven practices, personalization, design thinking, and building the capacity of human leaders are the Consortium for School Networking’s top five “accelerators” in education for 2019.

The accelerators come from a CoSN research effort that surveyed 100 edtech experts about the top trends driving change in education and published the results in an annual report titled Driving K-12 Innovation: 2019 Accelerators on Tuesday.

“Innovation is advancing quickly, and that means school technology leaders need to stay on top of the trends powering digital transformations,” CoSN CEO Keith Krueger said in a press release. “This new report will help educators spur conversations and make effective use of these accelerators to shape learning settings.”

The report is the second of three reports designed planned for release this year to give K-12 educators an understanding of the technology trends in education. CoSN released its “hurdles” report in January, identifying top challenges impeding successful technology use in classrooms. A third report themed around “tech enablers” is planned for release later this year.

CoSN’s 2019 tech accelerators:

1. Learners as creators

The idea that students don’t have to wait to graduate to change the world is motivating schools to embrace real-world learning experiences that promote student generated ideas and solutions.

2. Data-driven practices

Schools are increasingly leveraging data about the student experience, measuring engagement and skills acquisition to inform decisions about curriculum, hiring, technology investments and more.

3. Personalization

Just as the consumer sector has exploded with new ways to customize user experiences, products and recommendations, schools are finding ways to provide individualized learning pathways and promote student voice, choice and autonomy.

4. Design thinking

Design thinking is a strategy for creatively exploring and ultimately formulating solutions to challenges based on empathy and iterative processes.

5. Building the capacity of human leaders

When leaders take actions to strengthen the professional community of their schools, providing and incentivizing opportunities for leaders and educators to learn and master new skills, it opens the door to innovative practices and approaches that can further student engagement.

The full report can be found here.