A Look Back (and Forward) at Ed-Tech Trends in L&D

This year starts a new decade (or ends one, but let’s not restart that argument). It is a great time to look ahead and see where learning and development might take us (or where we might take learning and development). 

Before looking forward, looking back offers some caution. Audrey Watters has an article on the 100 Worst Ed-Tech Debacles of the Decade. It is an encompassing list. You may remember “badges,” Apple’s iTextbooks, One Laptop per Child, and “the Year of the MOOC.” Looking over the past decade shows how many ideas seemed so promising, only to fail; it hints that the new hopes for education often promoted at the start of a decade may deserve to face a fair amount of skepticism.

If the last decade suggests that the latest and greatest trends aren’t always a valuable guide to what the future hold, what does? If we can’t look at new technology and say this technology is the future of training – if we can’t look at a trend and say this trend will fundamentally reshape the way that we reach and connect to our learners – what can we do?