The New Transformational Trend: People

The following graphic prompts us to peek into the future. Certainly, we all look to technology as a primary driver of change, yet the trends below are about people and not technology. This is not to say that we can't look at how the trends below work in, with and around social media networks, but what is easy to discern is that people of varying agency and ideology are driving these transformative trends, not digital tools alone. Indeed, the focus on "People" is a trend for transformation.

Created by Brian Solis Flickr: b_d_solis

So, let's cross-walk this concept (of the importance of people over technology alone) over to education and look at the digital tools being proposed as solutions to our "crisis." Teachers still scaffold remediation after classrooms have been "flipped"; teachers still accommodate, manage, and leverage iBooks after New iPads have been integrated; and teachers still formatively assess, elicit growth, provide support, and respond to varying learning styles after mobile phones have been successfully accepted into schools.

So, how does this realization change our conversations? How does this realization (of the both constraining and enabling influence of people on digital tools) change how we look for solutions? Are are concepts such as the "flipped classroom" fads that distract us from the real work, which is to develop people?