Larry Johnson (born December 17, 1950, in Corpus Christi, Texas) is an American futurist, author, and educator. Currently, Johnson serves as the Founder and CEO of EdFutures.org,[1] an international think tank, and as a Senior Fellow of the Center for Digital Education.[2] From 2001-2016, he served as Chief Executive Officer of the New Media Consortium an international consortium of hundreds of universities, colleges, museums, research centers, and technology companies.[3]
The annual Horizon Report was the most visible component of the Horizon Project, which Johnson founded and led from its inception in 2002 until 2016. The report was one of the leading tools used by senior executives in universities and museums to set priorities for technology planning in those years in more than 160 countries.[4]
He served for nearly 15 years as Chief Executive Officer of the NMC [5] and provided leadership in the areas of strategic planning; program development; fundraising; partnerships with business and industry; the development and management of fiscal and human resources; and policy. Under Johnson's tenure, the New Media Consortium (NMC) grew to be an international not-for-profit consortium of learning-focused organizations dedicated to the exploration and use of new media and new technologies. Its hundreds of member institutions still constitute an elite list of the most highly regarded colleges and universities in the world, as well as leading museums, key research centers, and some of the world's most forward-thinking companies. Under his leadership, the consortium and its members dedicated themselves to exploring and developing potential applications of emerging technologies for learning, research, and creative inquiry. The consortium's Horizon Reports, which Johnson founded and directed for more than a decade, are still regarded worldwide as the most timely and authoritative sources of information on new and emerging technologies available to education anywhere.
Johnson has organized summits and large-scale projects around topics such as Visual literacy,[6] learning objects,[7] educational gaming,[8] the future of scholarship,[9] and the 3D web.[10]
In April 2008, Johnson presented testimony to the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet on the nature and state of virtual worlds.[11][12]
An author of several books, numerous chapters, dozens of articles, and principal investigator for several important national and international studies, he has been recognized for his research by the American Association of Community Colleges[13] and the American Association of University Administrators.[14]
In 2016, Johnson marked 35 years of service in higher education, and currently serves as the Founder and CEO of EdFutures.org,[15] an international think tank, and as a Senior Fellow of the Center for Digital Education. From 2001-2016, he served as CEO of the New Media Consortium.[16] He served previously as president and CEO of Fox Valley Technical College, a community college serving more than 20,000 FTE in Appleton, Wisconsin. His experiential base includes service at both very large and very small institutions and positions at every level and across all the major areas of college and university work.
Between 1993 and 1996, he served as vice president for the League for Innovation in the Community College,[17] working at the national level to take the story of community colleges to governmental, foundation, and corporate leaders across the country. As director of the League's Information Technology Initiative, he coordinated what was at the time the world’s largest higher education technology conference, The International Conference of Information Technology.[18]
He has served on a number of boards, including his current role on the governing board of the Institute for Learning Innovation[19] and the Leadership Advisory Board of the Center for Learning Innovation and Customized Knowledge Solutions in Dubai.[20] Previously he served as an advisor to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), on the NMC Board of Directors,[21] the Adobe Systems Higher Education Advisory Board, the Advanced Defense Learning Initiative National Advisory Board,[22] the virtual International Spaceflight Museum,[23] and the Academic Commons Board of Directors.[24]