“In five years, most of Facebook will be video.”
“Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself”
For hundreds of years pedagogy has formed the core to teaching and learning.
Learning outcomes and academic results have become the focus for educators and the community around them - a narrow view that is having less and less to do with today's modern needs in education. While striving for educational greatness is not necessarily a bad thing, the single-mindedness desire to top league tables and churn out the best grades is failing our children. Schools need to be adaptable to new styles of education, otherwise the only losers will be those who are receiving an education.
Schools tend to focus on buying technology, without considering the human impact.
Schools talk a lot about ‘educating the whole child’, and ‘giving them opportunities beyond the curriculum’ to thrive in what they are good at - but are we missing the point?
The Reality
Following on from last week's industry-specific predictions, we take a look at 6 predictions for schools in 2017.
So, let's get started...
[1] VR
2017 is a big year for virtual reality (VR). We've already had exciting hardware releases with Playstation VR and Samsung Gear.
Facebook is betting big on VR, with Zuckerberg believing VR will be the future of the platform.
Schools are going to play a big part with VR too - in both education and marketing.
Children in schools are going to grow up and enter a world that has heavily adopted VR - just as computers were. Google are already pledging to bring VR to 1 million pupils in the UK.
We'll start to see more schools using VR inside classrooms. We'll also see schools offering VR tours of the school, and to watch concerts, sports fixtures etc.
There's no more immersive way of a experiencing a school, without physically visiting it, than through VR.
If you're reading this, you made it through 2016. Congratulations.
Welcome to our inaugural social and digital predictions. In this first part, we'll look at trends we're witnessing within the tech/social industry. In the next part, we'll look at school-specific predictions.
Firstly, let's revisit 2016... Gulp.
Our 2016 predictions - how did we do?
- More Twitter characters [CORRECT]
- Moving further away from television [CORRECT]
- Periscope inside Twitter, and the real launch of live streaming [CORRECT]
- 360° videos and 360°live streaming [CORRECT]
- One-click purchasing on social media [INCORRECT]
- Snapchat to be sold [INCORRECT]
- Battle for news [CORRECT]
- Vertical video [CORRECT]
- Messaging apps = The new OS [CORRECT]
To read more about last year's predictions, and an analysis of each, take a look at our recap of 2016.
What does 2017 have in store for us?
[1] (More) Live Streaming
We called it last year, and it’s becoming clearer that live video on social platforms is the trend for 2017. We’ll start to see live-streaming move way beyond just early-adopters and into the hands of the mainstream users.
How many Facebook ads have you ever seen on TV, billboards, etc.? None, unless you remember the awkward TV advert back in 2012, when Facebook said ‘Chairs are like Facebook’. Yes, that really happened.
Yet, we’re constantly seeing the new Facebook Live adverts. Why? Well, Facebook know how important it is to win the live-streaming battle.
[1] More Twitter characters [CORRECT]
We predicted that pictures, and links will not be included in the 140 character limit.
In May 2016, Twitter announced you would be allowed to express more, within 140 characters. Then in September, Twitter rolled out a feature that meant photos, videos, GIFs, polls, and Quote Tweets no longer count towards the 140 characters.
The Advent period does not need to be all about chocolate you know (though it can't hurt to have some chocolate every day ). Instead, we can have lots of fun online while delivering a really strong and engaging marketing campaign.
Yes, the #SocialAdvent Challenge is back for 2016!
Every day we are going to be setting a different challenge. So, for 25 days you will have something new to share on Twitter. The idea is that you will be able to share things that your communities will be interested in. It also helps you get into a rhythm of tweeting (and will hopefully inspire you too!).
To take part, and be in for a chance to win infamy, post your Tweets using #SocialAdvent. You will be able to follow along and find inspiring content from other schools. We will be monitoring #SocialAdvent every day and picking our favourite Tweets for each badge.
Make sure you check back here each day to see all the winners and the challenge of the day.
Day 1
Each year, schools all around the world share their inspiring #SchoolStories throughout December. Each day there's a new challenge to tackle and share with your community. We call it #SocialAdvent.
Will you be taking part? Last year, schools taking part reached over 2 million people.
The #SocialAdvent Challenge 2016
December has been a firm favourite at @intSchools HQ for the past three years, following the great fun we've had running our #SocialAdvent challenge. This year we are looking to make the challenge our greatest one yet, with a record number of participants across a global audience.
To make it extra special, our creative elves have been hard at work - coming up and designing a bigger, better and refreshed #SocialAdvent challenge to spread festive marketing cheer this December.
So, without further ado we have this year's #SocialAdvent to share out now!
It has reached that odd part of November where Christmas enthusiasts really start gearing up for Christmas, and Christmas traditionalists gawp at all the festivities coming down the chimney a month too early.
Regardless of your stance on when Christmas should start, planning in an effective seasonal marketing campaign is an incredible way to get lots of engagement. Of course, having enough content to do this can be difficult to arrange. This is why, for the past three years, we have run our #SocialAdvent challenge.
“Somewhere along the way, when we were building social media products, we forgot the reason we like to communicate with our friends is because it’s fun”