This document summarizes a discussion session hosted by Cengage Learning at TED2011 about the future of education and technology. It explores how technology is changing learning behaviors and preferences of today's students. While technology can improve engagement if used thoughtfully, content remains essential. Looking ahead, educational technologies that are most effective will be personalized, interactive, social, and keep content timely. Challenges include adoption rates, searchability, and ensuring the human element remains.

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Cengage Learning Incubator Session: The future of education and technology
Introduction
Cengage Learning hosted an incubator session at the TED2011 conference, gathering innovators in and
outside the education field in an effort to learn even more about the thoughts, needs and behaviors of
students and instructors. The discussion centered around how technology is changing the current
educational landscape, and how new educational technologies can help pave the way toward improved
learning and lasting success in the future.
Technology and Today’s Students
Today's college students are juggling multiple demands and are also entering school lacking essential
skills, which is significantly impacting their ability to study and focus. In order to fully engage students
and ultimately to help them achieve their optimum learning outcomes despite these challenges, today’s
educational environment needs to match the lifestyle and learning style of today’s students.
Cell phones and smart phones are a staple for today’s students. Laptops are now ubiquitous across
college campuses, even a requirement for acceptance at some institutions. Internet access is
everywhere, and with this increased access, students have become dependent on a constant flow of
information. Staying current and remaining relevant is critical in all that they do – their educational
experience should be no different. In the past, students relied solely on their instructors and their
textbooks for knowledge and answers. Now, with emerging technology, students have access to a
wealth of resources and materials and educators need to find new ways to best utilize technology within
their teaching.
Knowing this, publishers and solutions providers need to find ways to take advantage of the relatively
new access to information in ways that will help students embrace knowledge and more effectively
engage in their education. Technology can facilitate interactions among students, between students and
instructors, and more intimate and hands-on manipulation of course materials. Technology applied in the
wrong ways can distract from learning – but when thoughtfully embraced within a course’s pedagogy –
technology can lead to a boost in learning results.
Technology enables more communication and fosters collaboration both in and outside of the
classroom. Students and instructors are no longer bound by classroom walls and there are new
opportunities for idea sharing across classes, geographies, institutions, cultures, etc. Students can now

2. access virtual classrooms, digital textbooks and a variety of other learning tools online from a multitude
of destinations at any time of day or night. Distance learning is rapidly gaining momentum. Even though
students may not be coming together in a classroom, they are coming together in virtual communities to
learn together and collaborate online. As education morphs from the blackboard and the lecture to the
video and the keyboard educational technologies will help to refine and define new forms of
collaboration, content delivery, and creative experiential learning.
While technology has impacted behaviors and preferences within the learning and teaching
environments, one thing that has not changed is the clear need for a foundation of credible content.
Without reliable content, no technology on its own can improve learning outcomes. Successful
educational technologies will be the ones that are built around this core component, using technologies
to support students in manipulating the materials and engaging with the lessons.
The role of technology in the future of education
To date, many digital solutions have been introduced to the educational environment and all signs
indicate that technology will continue to become more integrated into the classroom. That said digital
has not yet achieved its full potential when it comes to application and effectiveness in the educational
space. There are many advancements that embrace technology and have demonstrated their ability to
increase engagement, and thus, improve outcomes, however, there is much more that can be done in
the future. Since 67% of students would like more technology-based learning tools in the classroom and
86% of students reported that their academic engagement has improved as they have increasingly used
digital tools in their coursework (Instructors and Students: Technology Use, Engagement and Learning
Outcomes. 2010. Cengage Learning and Eduventures) there is a huge demand for new and
sophisticated learning tools. This begs the question, what will these new tools look like? What shape will
they take?
We know that technology can allow instructors to become more creative and experimental in their
teaching techniques. Because technology offers connections and opportunities for collaboration and
interaction, it can help foster experiential and open-ended learning.
More advanced technologies such as interactive e-books are an example of how technology can
successfully be applied to existing materials to enable a deeper learning exchange. Beyond simply a
PDF of a traditional textbook, these e-books feature interactive infographics, videos and voice-overs. A
variety of tools is helpful for visual and kinetic learners and can support a range of preferred learning
styles.
Multimedia will be a key component to educational tools moving forward. The incorporation of video and
audio tracks provides a more immersive learning experience, offering a greater rate of retention for
students. For example, if medical students learning the latest surgical techniques were offered video
instruction on a tablet or PC, in addition to written text, this would undoubtedly enhance the learning
process.
Further, technology can help students reach maximum engagement with learning materials, beyond just
watching a video or listening to an audio track these items can be integrated together. Rather than just
reading a textbook, students can engage in the content itself - be read to with digital audio tools, follow
the transcript, watch a video about the content, respond to questions, create an online presentation

3. about the content and share it with others. This brings the learning process full circle, challenging the
student to interact with the material in a variety of ways to ensure maximum retention of the content.
Technology might help us to not just deliver content, i.e., provide answers to given questions, but to
engage the student on those questions and challenge them in order to drive inquiry by pushing them
toward an experience and a dialogue with the ideas rather than just a written explanation of any given
piece of information. When students drive the content, they are bound to be more interested. Knowing a
student’s strengths and weaknesses as a learner can help them get the right content, in the most
effective and appealing way, thereby ensuring engagement.
Individualized learning should be another key aspect of educational technologies moving forward.
Programs and components that help gain insight into the learning style of a student, and intervene when
necessary, would be an invaluable tool. The development of reader programs or writing monitors
equipped with the ability to detect learning challenges or issues – dyslexia for example – could then
prime or customize options by suggesting an audio track to accompany text, or the other materials that
might aid the student and cater to their learning style or challenge.
It is important to keep in mind that the key to successfully integrating technology into any learning
environment will be to make it seamless and invisible. The technology should disappear against the
content. The less the student notices it as an aspect of the learning, the better.
The challenges of educational technologies
There are many challenges to incorporating technologies into the classroom. A key component, and
often a challenge, to educational technologies is the basic concept of core functionality. Any new
technology must make content easily accessible, be intuitive in its design and functionality, and deliver
content in a clear and unobtrusive way.
A major challenge with new technology in any field is adoption. There is always a small subset of early
adopters who are using new technologies far in advance of the rest of the population. Although
widespread adoption may take time, the educational community should view the lead users as a
predictor of what will happen and see them as “focus groups” for new platforms. The challenge is to
serve those who adopt technologies early, while not leaving behind those who are slower to catch up, or
the “legacy user base.” With time, students of all ages will eventually catch up with the front of the pack.
A major challenge for technology developers and content publishers is ensuring that content is
organized, ranked and searchable – regardless of the digital format of the content. A simple search for
any given topic can return thousands of results. But quantity does not mean quality and the results won’t
necessarily be meaningful, rich, effective or even relevant. The content needs to be curated. Tools that
can rank vet and categorize search results will be another important development.
Timeliness is an important aspect of any educational environment. For any new educational technology
to succeed, it must feature content that is dynamic and up-to-date. Technology allows for that flexibility
and ability to adapt to up-to-the-minute news and current events, and cultural shifts (for example,
materials on Egypt could include information on the recent uprising there – an important event that
dramatically shifts Egypt’s standing – but won’t be found in any textbook or other static learning tool).

4. New technologies should enable learning tools to be “living products” that grow and change with world
events, keeping teachers and students up to date.
Finally, technology should not completely take over the classroom, or any learning process. There is an
important human element to learning that we should not overlook. The human to human connection is
an important one and will always be a crucial component of education.
Social networks and educational technologies
Often times, collective intelligence has greater impact than individual intelligence. Social networking is
an important way that students can take advantage of that. While Facebook and Twitter are currently the
most prominent social networking platforms, and are indeed very sophisticated opt-in publishing
streams, they don’t necessarily speak to the actual utility of social networking as applied to education.
Social networking as it applies to education needs to be less about the recognized brand and more
about the utility of the platform. Social networking in the education realm needs to be highly customized.
Peer to peer exchange can help with many learning challenges such as understanding how to solve a
given problem set. Tools like instant messaging and blogging are an excellent way for peers to interface.
Perhaps tools that help students form learning groups and could, for example, alert one student that
another is viewing the same content, or flagging it with questions, could be quite effective.
Social networking also expands the possibilities for teaching civics to students because social
networking, by its nature, involves discourse, judgment and processing – things that are often hard to
demonstrate in a traditional classroom setting and can take a great deal of time. Social media is a way to
expose students to new ideas and view points and get them thinking in new and challenging ways.
Additionally social networking is simple way to connect students that are interested in the same topics,
bringing them together for exchanges that could render artifacts that will then become resources to
other students.
Conclusions
New educational technologies are already poised to dramatically change the face of learning and
teaching. They will only grow and become more and more refined and effective in the future. While
technologies to date have not fully delivered on their promise or full potential, the industry seems to be
headed in the right direction.
There is a clear need for a perfect blend of authoritative content, a strong foundational pedagogy and
top technology. Students and instructors now demand choice and a more individualized learning
experience that caters to their learning styles and challenges. The user experience must be the priority
when developing new educational technologies. The technology must fit seamlessly into the learning
experience and disappear against the content. Platforms must be user-friendly and flexible to allow for a
constant flow of fresh and updated content.

5. Every school and learning environment is different and schools that foster sharing and seek out
collaboration will likely be more successful at integrating social networking, and other new technologies,
into the learning process. Schools will need to be open to the fact that there is no single approach, no
panacea for delivering content and integrating technologies. The role of technology in education will
only serve to further highlight the variety of learning styles and skills and better serve the individual
learner’s needs.
About Cengage Learning
Cengage Learning is a global, leading provider of innovative teaching, learning and research solutions for
the academic, professional and library markets worldwide. The company's products and services are
designed to foster academic excellence and professional development, increase student engagement,
improve learning outcomes and deliver authoritative information to people whenever and wherever they
need it. Through the company's unique position within both the library and academic markets, Cengage
Learning is providing integrated learning solutions that bridge from the library to the classroom. Cengage
Learning's brands include Brooks/Cole, Course Technology, Delmar, Gale, Heinle, South-Western and
Wadsworth, among others.
Session Attendees
Michael Abary, Sony; Jonathan Hulbert, Cengage Learning; Cindy Cook, Cengage Learning; Matt
Goldman, Blue School; Bruce Heavin, Lynda.com; Nader Qaimari, Cengage Learning; Bill Ritchie,
ThinkFun; Renee Rolleri, Blue School; Logan Smalley, TED-Ed; Chris Vento, Cengage Learning;
Lynda Weinman, Lynda.com; Jeff Young, Chronicle of Higher Education