Originally published by Betsy (Elizabeth) Corcoran on LinkedIn: The Most Powerful--And Surprising--Trend in Edtech

Last month, my team at EdSurge published the first in a four part series on “the state of edtech.” As part of our research, we surveyed more than 150 people and closely interviewed 90 more. That work helped us identify eight trends.

Now a month later, I’ve spotted the glimmer of another trend--one that bolsters my hope in the future of education.

But much like the old-fashioned art of developing a film, you have to see the negative before the trend emerges. Here’s the context:

Five years ago just before I started EdSurge with a trio of colleagues, I attended an education technology conference in Washington, DC. In many ways, it was a terrific gathering: leaders in government, education, philanthropy and business came together. A fresh, motivated corps of entrepreneurs with fledgling companies was also present. A clutch of investors, most representing mission-driven organizations or just themselves also attended.

As the two-day meeting wrapped up, I asked the entrepreneurs what they thought of the event. “Great,” enthused one. “Super crowd!” shared another.

Then I asked the educators about their impressions. I got baleful stars in return. “I feel out of place here,” growled one. Another described at length how he felt disenfranchised from the event—and how the language and the conversation seemed to be taking place in a foreign language.

I was stunned. In more than 20 years of covering technology and attending hundred of conferences, I could not remember a time when the “builders” and the “users” of technology seemed so far apart. It wasn’t a good sign: Genuinely useful tools only emerge through rich interactions between builders and users.

As we began writing EdSurge’s newsletters and stories, we sought find ways to bridge that painful divide. And so when we last year began working on our “Trends” initiative, we figured that another way to help each group “see” one another’s perspective was to use the metaphor of “eyeglasses.” We framed the topics from the perspective of different groups, aiming to clarify the perspectives of each.

In the beginning of the project, we give readers an opportunity to identify themselves and to weigh in—to rank the trends that they feel are most important to them among the eight that we identify.

Now, a month and tens of thousands of readers later, here’s what we’re hearing: That whether readers describe themselves as a “teacher,” “administrator,” “entrepreneur,” “investor,” or “other,” they have all settled on one trend that is most important: “Innovation in learning models.”