Giving Compass' Take:

• Jean Dimeo discusses trends, challenges, and developments within technology that will impact learning and higher education within the next few years.

• How can funders use this report to address challenges in education?

• Read about how technology is shaping the future of education. 

Educause released a report today that provides six key trends, six significant challenges and six new developments in educational technology that are likely to impact teaching and learning in the next five years. The 2018 NMC Horizon Report says two specific trends — advancing cultures of innovation and an increase in cross-institution collaboration — will be long-term priorities for colleges and universities.

In the near term, the report says that analytics and new learning spaces are gaining importance as institutions look for ways to measure and boost student learning and success.

However, campuses face challenges in advancing digital equity and adapting traditional organizational models to "advance the future of the workplace." The report identifies political and economic pressures as those that "create a wicked challenge" — one that is difficult to define and even more challenging to solve. Similarly, rethinking instructors' roles with the expansion of technologies is another challenge.

The use of big data and cloud computing and the expansive (and sometimes unpredictable) inroads made by online learning are among the most important changes in higher education brought about by technology, according to a recent review of trends by Educause as it celebrated its 20-year anniversary.

While higher ed has embraced data and computing technologies, it continues to be slow to adapt more advanced technologies like AI, augmented and virtual realities and adoptive learning that are more complicated to understand and integrate. However, colleges and universities need to find ways to adapt to the constant change that technology brings in order to attract students and top-notch instructors, streamline operations and cut costs.

Read the full article about technology in education by Jean Dimeo at Education Dive.