Beyond the Walled Garden: New Possibilities with Learning Platforms

While the history of educational technology has tended to embed a 'walled garden' approach that attempts to capture learning content and tools within a monolithic system, current and future institutional needs seek to move beyond this garden. No longer do schools assume the need for one system for all of their needs, but will the ed tech ecosystem support this more open approach? While significant changes take time, there appears to be a new world of learning platforms that can provide end users - faculty and students - a more seamless experience in taking advantage of multiple tools. We finally seem to be moving beyond the walled garden and into an ed tech ecosystem that can support innovators, early adopters and the majority of instructors with a multitude of software platforms and tools targeted at varied educational needs. During this talk we will explore this long-term trend, several of the drivers enabling the change, and the implications for current and future educators.