The next generation of digital teaching and learning environments—featuring scalable, seamless and secure integration of all digital content, learning tools, and assessment products—are transforming the range of choices and speed of deployment that give faculty and students the ability to choose the right tool at the right time.

Leading higher education and K-12 institutions are moving beyond "one size fits all" towards next-generation digital learning environments that support greater personalization of educational experiences by creating a technology foundation that allows for the seamless integration of digital technologies and products, as pointed out in this article—Shaping the Educational Ecosystem. Moving toward next-generation learning environments can be daunting because many institutions lack the resources to invest adequately in instructional technology innovation. The good news is there is a way for institutions of all sizes to accelerate progress via collaboration to create the future of teaching and learning and the required supporting technologies.

What type of collaboration will advance innovation while reducing unnecessary costs?

Education needs to leverage the power of an open ecosystem enabled by community-governed standards that allow an institution to quickly and easily customize their edtech environment, thus creating a teaching and learning environment that enables and supports creativity and customization. Such an environment would reduce investment in repetitive integrations, lower barriers to entry, and focus investment on educational innovation to improve outcomes.

The 1EdTech community of higher education institutions, K-12 districts, government agencies, and edtech suppliers are working together to enable academic transformation by creating an expansive digital ecosystem of interoperable products to advance educational innovation. An ecosystem that no one contributor owns, but all contribute.