Giving Compass' Take:

• Frank Catalano, writing for EdSurge explores what trends in education technology will continue into higher education.

• How can donors support robust edtech programs at the postsecondary level?

• Here are four edtech trends that higher education should be ready for.

One overused catchphrase in education is that learning should be “student-centered.” But what if we took that to its logical conclusion and also made it the goal of our education technology predictions?

We’d need to consider not just what technology products students are exposed to in the classroom, but also across the rest of their lives. Especially if those students are teens, within sight of leaving K-12 and moving into higher education.

Yes, teens. Messy, motivated, tech-drenched 15 year-olds, the high school sophomores of today who will be entering college or the workforce in 2022, a mere three years from now. Not quite enough time for our robot overlords to overtake us, but both distant and soon enough to make us wonder.

What edtech and consumer trends will be significant for when a teen leaves high school? Let’s pick three. Not the only three, but a significant three, for three years from now.

1. Chromebooks, Windows 10, and Apple (uh oh)
The rise of Chromebooks will come as no surprise to anyone who has followed the intense increase in popularity of the inexpensive notebooks in classrooms.

2. Extended reality is better together
If there’s a single tech category in education where the hype is on overdrive, it’s extended reality (XR). XR is really a reality continuum: at one end is “real” reality.

3. Smart speakers are an AI gateway
Perhaps the biggest consumer tech trend that’s virtually invisible inside the K-12 classroom today is smart speakers. But you can anticipate it will have a major impact on teen tech expectations as our very verbal artificial intelligences overwhelm homes and hotels over the next three years—and become a gateway to an entirely new tech product category.

Read the full article about higher ed tech expectations by Frank Catalano at EdSurge