In an interview conducted by Lisa Yeaton – Specialist, Content Marketing for Extreme Networks, Bob Nilsson, director of content and vertical solutions marketing presented his views on EdTech trends for this year. Among educators and IT managers, the biggest issue for 2019 is whether EdTech will deliver on the promise of improving educational outcomes and extending quality education to students of all backgrounds more efficiently and at lower cost than traditional styles of teaching. While many EdTech enhancements, such as digital text books and the increased use of video have had demonstrable results; other emerging styles, such as adaptive learning have shown some progress, but are yet to deliver definitive results.
Download the US 2019 Budget Summary and Background Information
According to the Campus Computing 2018 National Survey, IT budgets will continue to face reductions: “Fully two-thirds (68 percent) of the fall 2018 survey participants report that campus IT funding has not recovered from the recurring budget cuts that began for most institutions with the “Great Recession” in fall 2008.”
Luckily, technology advances like Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) mean expensive equipment can now be simulated or virtualized. Network infrastructure is getting faster, more tuneable to efficiently deliver bandwidth when and where it is needed. Migration to the cloud, outsourcing, and network infrastructure-as-a-service (NIaaS) are also providing new means to restructure the school budgets.
Bob Nilsson currently serves in a consulting capacity for Turner and Halcrow and has served as a consultant for SOM, Skanska, Greece for Technology Development, Thornton-Tomasetti and Gensler. Nilsson served in the U.S. Marine Corps for four plus years, where he became Captain and did tours in Europe, the Caribbean and Vietnam. He is the President and Founder of 100 Entrepreneurs Foundation where he serves as Board of Directors and also a Board Member of the SemperMax Fund, a Trustee and Governor and was a Trustee for the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and Member of the Marine Executive Association, among other prestigious organization involvement.
