Gartner's forecasts
for the future of
education
How to Stay at the Forefront of Gartner’s Latest Hype Cycle
When the pandemic hit, many schools
went into ‘react’ mode, throwing numerous
digital tools at their various remote learning
challenges. Now, there’s enough healthy
distance to take a more objective look at which
ones actually support the diverse demands of
tomorrow’s classroom.
The average school district uses 1,403 tools per month, according to
LearnPlatform’s EdTech Top 40 Mid-Year Report.
Google products took up eight out of the top 10 spots in LearnPlatform’s
ranking of 8,000+ edtech tools.
A Gartner report on the Top Trends Impacting Education put it this way:
“The focus for [education] CIOs is turning to leveraging all the digital
investments made to date, identifying which remain to be made, and to
creating an agile, composable digital learning organisation.”
These five themes represent a roadmap for how to do just that.
How to Stay at the Forefront of Gartner’s Latest Hype Cycle
Trend 1: Creating Flexible Digital Learning Environments
A Digital Learning Environment (DLE) is the summation of technological resources and tools educators use to tailor their instruction
and enhance learning. Gartner takes this a step further, sharing that DLEs relate, “to learning technology ecosystems created to
support fully online, hybrid and physical teaching practices.”
The big focus here is on providing learning continuity in the face of disruptive health, geopolitical, or environmental events.
In their breakdown of what constitutes a good DLE, Gartner recommends focusing on the following areas to holistically enhance
learning outcomes:
•
•
•
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High-performing digital learning tools and strong curriculum design.
Up-to-date devices that support numerous content types and AI-based adaptive learning tools.
Teacher training and tech-focused professional development opportunities.
Thoughtful classroom design that accommodates different student abilities, a variety of individual and group work spaces, and
increased technology needs (like additional outlets, robust internet connections, etc.)
Not sure where you stand? Experts say now’s the time to audit your current digital and physical infrastructure. As the Digital
Learning Environment becomes the new normal, unmet needs from increased and shifting demands have the potential to throw
learning into a lurch.
How to Stay at the Forefront of Gartner’s Latest Hype Cycle
Trend 2:
Addressing Learning Loss with
Learning Insights + Analytics
Virtual on-demand training organisation, Strigo, defines learning insights as:
information based on data collected throughout the educational process.
Used well, these insights can lead to a greater understanding of learning (and
teaching) activities and optimised instruction. Teachers can use hard
numbers to see which lessons or types of content drove the most student
engagement and/or led to the highest performance outcomes.
“By 2025, 80% of all primary-secondary education organisations will
be leveraging some type of analytics applications designed
specifically for [them] to speed insight.” - Gartner
Part of what makes these analytic tools so timely is their ability to more
accurately assess the collective learning loss of the past two years. By
pinpointing where an individual or entire classroom of students may be
struggling, educators gain access to actionable insights they can use to close
the gaps.
Exams and pop quizzes no longer cut it. To really drill down, schools need
digital assessments that gauge student progress in real time. Always-on learning
management systems that collect and analyze data can also show identifiable
patterns that more clearly mark where a student may be struggling with
comprehension.
Paired with advanced tech like adaptive learning systems, Gartner says schools
can layer and leverage edtech to do things like, “create assessments of a
particular curriculum provider’s content, target key prerequisite skills and
recommend a personalised remediation plan for each student.”
How to Stay at the Forefront of Gartner’s Latest Hype Cycle
Trend 3:
Mitigating Ransomware
Attacks on Schools
Sophos’ State of Ransomware in Education 2022 report found that
60% of the global education sector had been hit by ransomware in
the past year. Gartner anticipates that these institutions will remain a
prime target for ransomware attacks through at least 2025.
Definition:
“Ransomware is malware that employs encryption to hold a victim’s
information at ransom. A ransom is then demanded to provide access.
Ransomware is often designed to spread across a network and target
database and file servers, and can thus quickly paralys an entire
organisation .” - Gartner
A primary reason schools are such easy targets are the lack of
safeguards. Historically, educational institutions have lacked the
resources (financial, technological, and know how) to stage a proper
defence against cyber incidents. With those threats on the rise,
administrators and decision makers must rethink their cybersecurity
investments so they can quickly identify and respond to attacks.
On average, it costs education institutions $2.73 million to remediate
the impact of a ransomware attack.
How to Stay at the Forefront of Gartner’s Latest Hype Cycle
With the least number of security employees of any
industry, protecting sensitive student data can be
a big challenge. At minimum, Gartner encourages
schools to take these 10 steps to fortify their security:
1
Create a comprehensive incident response plan (IRP) that includes a
ransomware playbook.
2
Security any and all endpoints that connect to the school’s network, including
student and staff devices (personal or school-issued), printers, and servers.
3
Have a plan to monitor all endpoints and quarantine them in the event of a
potential attack.
4
Protect endpoints using a variety of security management tools like: antivirus,
web filtering tools, least privilege access control, application control, and VPN
tools.
5
Consider segmenting student and faculty/employee networks to reduce risk.
6
Make a plan to ensure applications, operating systems, and antivirus stay
uniformly updated.
7
Teach students and faculty to use multifactor authentication (MFA) for all
accounts.
8
Educate the entire school about using good password hygiene.
9
Ensure the school’s network stays monitored at all times to address unusual
activity or increased traffic patterns.
10
Set up web routing parameters to only access safe, known care-and-control
domains.
How to Stay at the Forefront of Gartner’s Latest Hype Cycle
Trend 4: Unburdening Teachers + IT staff
As we’ve touched on, many schools lack the internal IT experience needed to keep up with pre- and post-pandemic digitisation needs.
Those that do can overutilise the help they’ve got, a phenomenon that often leads to turnover. Unsurprisingly, it’s leading to increased
reliance on third party IT providers.
By the end of 2024, 80% of K-12/primary-secondary organisations will be forced to increase
their use of third party support as a result of IT staff challenges.
Teachers are also reevaluating their roles, with many leaving the profession entirely and even more considering making a switch.
Unmanageable workloads, staff shortages, and headaches caused by hybrid and virtual school stressors are all cited as areas of concern.
Coupled with personal obligations like family and mental health challenges, it’s a recipe for resignation.
“According to a survey by RAND Corporation, nearly one in four teachers said that they were likely to leave their jobs by the end of the
2020-2021 school year. High levels of teacher retirement and challenges in recruiting new teachers have also been noted.” - Gartner
As schools rely more on digital tools to support hybrid and remote learning environments, it’s increased the need for tech-savvy staff – on both
sides of the admin office. But as burnt out IT professionals and educators give their notices, it forces those left to pick up the slack. Doing more
with less has become the motto as everyone takes on additional responsibility. That leaves CIOs with the chore of finding even more digital
tools to automate and manage their workloads, as well as retention resources to support their well-being.
To slow the churn, Gartner says schools may also consider:
• Devoting more resources to professional development
• Mapping out clear paths for career growth
• Developing tailored retention plans for key staff
• Reviewing and improving wages and benefits
• Designing flexible working options
• Automating as much of the work day and hiring process as possible
• Investing in on-campus childcare facilities
•
Providing free and comprehensive mental health support
How to Stay at the Forefront of Gartner’s Latest Hype Cycle
Trend 5: Personalising Lessons with
Adaptive Learning
The concept of adaptive learning has been around for decades. It refers to a type of learning
where students are given customised resources and activities to address their unique learning
needs.
In addition to providing students 1:1 support and validation (without overutilising their
instructor), these AI-based tools can automatically tailor lessons that play to student’s strengths
and bolster them in academic areas where they may be less strong.
“Using technology as an interactive teaching tool, adaptive learning platforms and
content deliver learning resources customised to meet the needs of an individual
student…adaptive learning dynamically adjusts the way instructional content is
presented to students based on their responses or preferences.”
- Gartner
Like learning insights and analytics edtech, these tools are at the forefront of addressing the
massive learning loss which has occurred over the past three years.
The Global Partnership for Education reports learning losses from missed inperson schooling amounting to 2 trillion hours of lost learning.
While getting back some of that lost time is essential, it needs to be approached correctly. Before
implementing adaptive learning tools, be sure you have a plan for safely storing and protecting the
student data these AI-enhanced technologies rely on. Review your data collection policies and
procedures, as well as your privacy policy so students and parents understand what you’re
collecting and why it’s important.
Whether you’re still modernising your classrooms or want to more closely evaluate the digitisation
that’s already taken place, these Gartner-identified education trends can be seen as a guidepost for
staying resilient, even if you can’t fully see what’s ahead.