National Central University hosted a group of 20 experts from around the world for a workshop aimed at envisioning the major factors that could influence the future use of technology for collaborative learning. The event was organized by G1:1, a global network of researchers studying how learning could be enhanced when each student has a personal computing device, which might be a handheld, tablet, or laptop computer. The aim of this particular workshop was to identify major trends and uncertainties that could change the course of future learning.

Several major trends emerged. First, researchers believe that by 2015 all students will have some form of personal learning device. Schools will have difficulty keeping up with the range of personal devices that students bring to class. They will seek to use the devices students favor in appropriate ways, but will also provide the teacher with some standard technology, such as electronic whiteboards. Personal devices will have some standards that allow the teacher and students to share their work, but will also include non-standard features to suit student preferences. Second, researchers believe sensors and agents will increasingly be part of the learning environment. Sensors will detect students¡¦ progress and provide appropriate feedback and help to the student and teacher. Major ethical dilemmas will emerge around the ethics of monitoring student behavior electronically. Third, researchers believe that content for learning will increasingly come from collections in digital libraries and online communities. The current roles of a small set of authors and publishers will be challenged as it becomes possible for many more authors to produce content and for teachers to recommend content to each other through the network.

These trends, however, do not point to a single certain future. After deliberation, the experts decided that two uncertainties will have the most impact on the future. First, the role of the teacher is in flux. On one hand, strong content experts will be needed to select appropriate materials from the many possibilities available on the network, to adapt these to local use, and to participate in creating new, high quality materials. On the other hand, faced with the rapidly changing nature of knowledge, countries may opt for teachers who are experts in students¡¦ social and emotional well-being, relying on technology-based content to make the latest knowledge available to students. Second, the overall goals for education are in flux. On one hand, schools may compete to produce easily recognized measures of success, such as scores on international comparison tests. On the other hand, schools may be certified for their capability to produce students who can innovate and collaborate - qualities that can be enhanced through good teaching, but are not easily measured on comparative tests.

As a tool for future planning for educational leaders, the G1:1 experts began the work of producing a set of scenarios - stories of possible futures - that bring to life three distinct accounts of what collaborative learning will be like in 2015. The G1:1 web site will soon publish these scenarios and they will be further discussed and elaborated at G1:1 events to be held in Europe and Japan later this year.