Random Thoughts

6 Trends for the next 20 Years

Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr
connected
By CLUC

Kevin Kelly co-founder of Wired magazine took the stage recently at a Web 2.0 event in San Francisco. In his keynote he discussed the 6 Trends he believes will affect our connected word. He broke these 6 trends down into 6 verbs (actions).

What are your thoughts on these? What do these mean for schools and our students?

  • Screening — Kelly notes that whereas there used to be just the television screen and then the computer screen, now screens are everywhere. And increasingly, everything will be a screen — all surface. There will be a “one screen for all,” Kelly says.
  • Interacting — Right now, interaction is limited mainly to our fingertips, Kelly says. But the iPad is changing that — it’s about using more of your body now. And going forward, things like gestures, voice, cameras, and other things in our technology will transform the way we interact with everything. And yes, he brought up Minority Report.
  • Sharing — While most people think of this right now as the top level social ideas, “we’ve just begun this process,” Kelly notes. The self-tracking of everything we do is now coming into play, he notes. This includes location, realtime pictures and videos, etc.
  • Flowing — “We’re now into a new metaphor for the web,” Kelly says noting that we started with the desktop on computers, then pages for the web. Now the realtime stream connected to the web is the thing.
  • Accessing — We’re moving to a world where it’s about accessing information and media and not owning it. We see this now with the rise of Netflix, but soon that will fully hit the music space too.
  • Generating — “The Internet is the world’s largest copy machine,” Kelly says. Going forward, there will be an importance placed on things that cannot be easily copied. A key to this is an easy way to pay and content that is hard to copy. Immediacy is a key — if you want something right now versus when it can be copied. Personalization is another key, he says.

Via TechChunch

I started blogging in 2005 and found it such a powerful way to reflect and share my thinking about technology, this generation, and how we prepare students for their future not our past.

16 Comments

  1. I can’t argue with any of these. They do seem to be trending. I think a need that a lot of these trends point to is the need for an effective curating process. As people generate, share, interact, and the information flows past us in streams, we need a reliable sorting mechanism to help us make sense of it all.

    I’m not sure that crowdsourcing is always an effective method of curating information. I’ve seen really bad ideas catch on like wildfire in the Twittersphere and really good ideas get no traction. Bud the Teacher had a recent post called Still Nothing New Under The Sun http://budtheteacher.com/blog/2011/03/21/still-nothing-new-under-the-sun-we-pretend-otherwise/ where he talks about great ideas that are decades old, but still haven’t been thoroughly considered/implemented. If we haven’t been able to even process the information that has already been shared, how will we adequately process the mass as it continues to grow?

    Thanks for sharing these trends. Definite food for thought.

  2. I am a student at the University of South Alabama majoring in Elementary Education. I agree with this blog post. The internet and social media online are advancing at such a high rate of speed that in 20+ years from now, it might be that students can do all of their learning at home, rather than go to school. That or every classroom will have computers at the desks and chalk-boards will be replaced by smartboards and such. Technology is amazing and advancing at such high speeds that it is sometimes hard to keep up with it all.

  3. I think that you are correct because everything will definitely one day be all based on technology and screens. I think that this idea is revolutionary that we may never have to look any further than the internet and screens for our information. It’s amazing that these trends will become a reality in the next few years. I think that these are going to change the way we think and what we do for many, many years.

    Sincerely, Dylan

  4. SuperSecretSpy123 Reply

    I think that all of these are great! I agree with you 100%. The internet is advancing so much now. I think that it is great that people and websites like Google are advancing and trying to make new things even as we speak. Thank you for sharing these trends from the internet with us. The internet can give us so much information nowadays and I can’t believe that it is still evolving and making new apps! I think that all of these ideas are amazing and very useful.

  5. Alexis Jones Reply

    I think that you are correct and someday everything will be all technology. The internate is getting much more stronger and taking over alot of things in this world. Its cool that all of the technolgy someday will become technology. I agree with what you are saying and it is very true.
    sincerly,ajones16

  6. sirwilliamkimball Reply

    I must say that I agree with this. Everyday we are coming closing to this new technologic age were everything will be on and connected to the internet. Sharing stuff on the internet will be simple because all of our devises would be connected to the internet. Like you said about netflix, i think thats right becasue they first started with movies now you can get video games like a Netflix movie. Who knows whats going to come next.

    -Thanks, Sirwilliamkimball

  7. Alexis Jones Reply

    6 trends for the next 20 years
    I think that you are correct about in the next 20 years everything will be all technology. The internate is getting much stronger and taking over a lot of things in this world. It’s cool that all of the things in this world will someday become technology. I agree with what you are saying that in 20 years things will be all of technology. I also agree that the computer is the world’s most sold machine, the reason why I think that is because everyone is using it now in days when a long time ago it would just be typewriters or writing it yourself. So I totally agree with you that in the next 20 years everything will be technology.
    Sincerely, ajones16

  8. Justin Rutberg Reply

    I agree with all of those trends, they all seem important to me. Although I’m not sure what the world will be like in twenty years, I am pretty sure that the world will eventually develop with time into an all computer/technological world, and those trends are going to be big in the future, well at least bigger than they are now. I think sharing is one of the biggest trends. I take pictures and film videos all the time, and there is many ways to share it, probably more ways then I know. I’m all about taking videos. I like to share them on facebook, and put them on YouTube, and I started learning about Tumblr, which is just a place pretty much for sharing pictures and videos.
    Thanks for posting this.

  9. Dear Mr. Utecht,
    I have to agree with you the technology is changing very fast. It’s will be so amazing that all classrooms will have a computers for every student. Now all our devices will be connected to the computer like you said with netflex. At this rate we’ll have so much new technology. This will work out great for schools, homes, and education.

  10. bschott0205 Reply

    I agree with all of Kelly’s “trends”. The one about interacting is amazing. Having the ability to say something, or gesture and have technology interact with it is just breath taking. Just think you could talk to it and get a response. Like you said it’s the iPad that’s starting it all so it’s not like you have to be on some huge monitor it’s this little like 9×10 screen. That would change the technology world in a huge way!

  11. 6 trends for the next 20 years
    I agree with you on all of those different trends. My favorite one would probably be interacting because instead of just using your finger tips you can actually talk to a computer or iPad. I think they have already created something where you can just talk and then it will type what you are saying for you! I hope that they create different ways to interact with technology that we can all have and use. Technology is changing fast; I believe our world will be completely changed in 20 years. Technology will take over but is this a good thing, or a bad thing? Thanks for posting this it has really got me thinking about the future.

  12. I completely agree with Kelly’s thoughts. Those are great points, I mean, those trends are all going to last. Although some people say these are short “trends”, these have been getting bigger and bigger ever sense the internet kicked off. And with the accessing point, Kelly had an awesome idea. That’s what it’s all about. We are definitely all trying to access everything and anything we can, which makes the web a bigger and better place. We can no read the watch the news, listen to a book, and do so much more. The web is a truly amazing place, and I believe these trends will last.

  13. I think that you are correct about, screening, interacting, sharing, flowing, accessing, and generating. Because everything will definitely one day be all based on technology and screens. I think that this idea is revolutionary that we may never have to look any further than the internet and screens for our information. It’s amazing that these trends like sharing where you will be able to interact with other people and upload videos. Will become a reality in the next few years. I think that these are going to change the way we think and what we do for many, many years.

    Sincerely, Dylan

  14. I think that all of these trends for the future are really good! I agree with you 100% The people of today are interacting more digitally nowadays and I think that there is a great use for the iPod, iPhone, computers, etc. Most people don’t like to talk to people over the phone and so things so these new things that people have now are good like Gmail, yahoo mail, and other online mailing sites. The internet is advancing so much now. I think that it is great that people and websites like Google are advancing and trying to make new things even as we speak. Thank you for sharing these trends from the internet with us. The internet can give us so much information nowadays and I can’t believe that it is still evolving and making new apps! I think that all of these ideas are amazing and very useful.
    Sincerely,
    SuperSecretSpy123

  15. Nick Valenzi Reply

    I think that he is right with the trends he chose to be around for the next 20 years. He is very correct when he says everything has a screen now. I also believe that everything you use usually has a screen. TVs, Computers, ETC.

    He also makes a good point talking about how everything is becoming shared online. Like, photos, video, ETC.

    I agree with you 100%, I know myself that the internet is growing more popular, and becoming a lot more powerful than it was way back when. There are great websites now like Google, YouTube, and others, which help us communicate and get around the internet world, a lot quicker, and better. It’s no doubt in my mind, that one day, everything will be a form of technology.

  16. Nick Valenzi Reply

    I think that you are right with the trends you chose, like screening, interacting, sharing, flowing, accessing, and generating. You are very correct when you say everything has a screen now, because everything does! Screens are everywhere, like in cities, and even in cars now, for DVD players. You also make a good point talking about how everything is becoming shared online. Like, photos, video, ETC. I can now interact with my cousin that lives in Canada, and other family that lives all around the U.S. through video, and messaging.
    I agree with you 100%, I know myself that the internet is growing more popular, and becoming a lot more powerful than it was way back when. There are great websites now like Google, YouTube, and others, which help us communicate and get around the internet world, a lot quicker, and better. It’s no doubt in my mind, that one day, everything will be a form of technology.

Reply To Alexis Jones Cancel Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.