Horizon Report 2009 - some interesting findings

I just downloaded and skimmed through the latest Horizon Project Report. (or here) I always like to see which technologies they feel are most likely to have a significant impact in the way we live and learn. Do yourself a favor and download the document and read it. It always puts things into a great perspective.

Here is the part that I found most interesting - the Critical Challenges. I'll list just the key concepts, but you really should go read the entire thing.

1. There is a growing need for formal instruction in key new skills, including information literacy, visual literacy, and technological literacy. Wow, how long have folks been saying this? Kids may be good gamers and texters, but as for being literate, they're NOT there.
   
2. Students are different, but a lot of educational materials is not. And, later in that same paragraph, "Assessment, likewise, has not kept pace with the new modes of working, and must change along with teaching methods, tools, and materials." Can I hear an 'Amen!"?
   
3. Significant shifts are taking place in the ways scholarships and research are conducted, and there is a need for innovation and leadership at all levels of the academy. All levels.
   
4. We are expected, especially in public education, to measure and prove through formal assessment that our students are learning. Then, "Current systems are not capable of managing and interpreting real time information flows..."
   
5. Higher education is facing a growing expectation to make use of and to deliver services, context, and media to mobile devices.

Please go read the full report. Take a look at the trends that it things are just a year or less out. (Mobile computing and cloud computing) Then see what they predict for further out.

No, this won't raise a test score, perhaps, but it WILL give you a sense of what's happening in the world and how it will impact education - or SHOULD.