The technologies featured in the NMC Horizon Project are embedded within a contemporary context that reflects the realities of the time, both in the sphere of education and in the world at large. To assure this perspective, each advisory board researches, identifies, and ranks key trends that are currently affecting the practice of teaching, learning, research, and information management in education, and uses these as a lens for its work in predicting the uptake of emerging technologies in whatever sector is their focus.