There is a long history of people getting their predictions about the future of technology, including the future of technology in education, wrong.
Famously, after the Second World War IBM’s President said, ‘I think there is a world market for about five computers.’
Just ten years ago, in the words of Wired magazine, Sebastian Thrun declared that ‘In 50 years … there will be only ten institutions in the world delivering higher education’. This seems unlikely given we have more, rather than fewer, universities since Thrun spoke and given the work many institutions have been doing to deepen their local roots.
I sometimes think some of the predictions you hear are reminiscent of the record company executive who rejected The Beatles because ‘Groups of guitars were on the way out.’
