Due to the rapidity with which technology use in teaching and learning changes, the purpose of this study is to forecast the social technology tools and applications used for that purpose in PK-12 environments. Understanding that implementing new tools and new applications means change in what teachers and learners do and how they do it. Having time to prepare for change may ease the transition for many. Using the forecast from this study, teachers and learners may see that mobile technologies and social applications may be things that warrant their attention for future implementation.

The Delphi Method, a forecasting methodology developed in the mid-1950s, was employed by the researcher to ask a group of experts what kinds of social technologies would be adopted over the next five years, what the likelihood of their adoption would be, and once adopted, how important they would be. After positing these questions in a series of three rounds, the researcher forecasted that WiFi is most likely to be the primary way through which the internet is accessed. The hardware used to access content online is likely to be a member of the tablet technology group, for example iPads, Droid XYBoard, Samsung Galaxy and the like. In addition, these tablets will likely make use of Apps to access and create content, but will also make use of Web browsers and the World Wide Web. The technologies above were also found to be of relative importance five years from now.

Knowing that change is a process that takes time and that people make those changes more comfortably at different rates means that forecasts like this one may provide a foretelling of what kinds of tools and applications are on the rise. This will allow those in the field to seek professional development and to begin thinking about the changes that are ahead.