Like other authors in this issue I was asked to write this article and predict the future of special education technology over the next five to ten years. This is not the first time I have attempted this task. I did a similar paper in 1997, and as I wrote back then, it is presumptuous to believe that any future can be predicted, especially one that involves technology (Hasselbring, 1997). In preparing this manuscript, I found that reviewing my 1997 attempt at prognostication was enlightening but humbling. After reading this paper, you might also enjoy seeing how well I did on my last attempt at predicting the future.

Over the years my thinking on futuristic issues has been shaped by many things: (a) movies, such as The Terminator and Blade Runner; (b) books, such as The Age of Spiritual Machines by Ray Kurzweil (1999) and Being Digital by Nicholas Negroponte (1995); and numerous articles in which the authors have predicted a variety of technological futures. However, my thinking on the future has been most affected by an article that I read in MacWorld in the mid 1980s. The article was by Alan Kay, then chief scientist at Apple Computer, who was speculating on possible technologies we might encounter in the coming years. Kay argued that it really is not possible to predict the future, rather that the only way to truly predict the future is to invent it. Those words have stuck with me and have shaped my thinking about the future of special education technology.

In reality, we cannot predict the future of special education technology, but we can invent it. Further, I believe that we can be better inventors of the future by looking at past and current trends in a variety of fields. By examining these trends, and by looking at what has worked in the past as well as at what technologies are on the horizon, we will be better able to build a successful future.

I will not attempt to discuss the broad range of technologies found in special education. Instead, I will focus on three trends and technologies that are clearly visible today and that I feel will have a significant impact on the lives of students with high-incidence disabilities and on the future of special education.

1. The development of computing devices that will exponentially increase in speed and capacity while decreasing in size and cost.

2. The delivery of information and instructional materials anytime and anyplace as a result of advances in broadband and wireless technology.

The development of instructional materials and practices that are based on science-of-learning principles.