CLASSROOM TECHNOLOGY TOOLS
& TRENDS
In today’s mobile-centric, always connected school environments,
keeping up with new technology trends can have a major impact on your continued
ability to offer your students the education they want and need.
Schools now recognize the influence wireless and mobile
technologies are having on their students as well as how it's shaping new ways
of thinking and teaching. More colleges and universities are starting to get on
board with utilizing newer learning methods for higher education that are
targeted to how students want to learn and what are most effective for them to
succeed not only in the classroom but after they graduate.
In order to modernize their campuses for today's
digital-native students, many schools are continuing to increase investments in
technology related to learning. In fact, funding for educational technology
jumped 55% in 2014 and will only increase year-over-year, according to CB Insights.
In addition, Global Industry
Analysts (GIA) puts the global e-learning market at $107
billion by the end of 2015, driven by technological advancements and demand for
additional skills influenced by wireless and mobile.
But what exactly are the educational technology trends
that have been making the biggest waves lately? To help you continue to offer
the latest opportunities to your students here's a list of the top 7 classroom
technology trends in the current education environment.
- ·
Flipped
Learning
- · Remote Learning
- · Gamification
- · Mind Mapping
- · Digital Textbooks
- · Big Data
- · Social Media
INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARD
An interactive whiteboard (IWB) also commonly known as
Interactive board or Smart Whiteboards is a large interactive display
in the form factor of a whiteboard.
It can either be a standalone touchscreen computer used
independently to perform tasks and operations, or a connectable apparatus used
as a touchpad to
control computers from a projector. They are used in a variety of settings,
including classrooms at all levels of education,
in corporate board
rooms and work groups, in training rooms for professional sports
coaching, in broadcasting studios,
and others.
The first interactive whiteboards were designed and manufactured for use
in the office. They were developed by PARC around
1990. This board was used in small group meetings and round-tables.
The interactive whiteboard industry was expected to reach sales of US$1 billion worldwide by
2008; one of every seven classrooms in the world was expected to feature an
interactive whiteboard by 2011 according to market research by Futuresource
Consulting. In 2004, 26% of British primary
classrooms had interactive whiteboards. The Becta Harnessing Technology Schools
Survey 2007 indicated that 98% of secondary and 100% of primary schools had
IWBs. By 2008, the average numbers of interactive
whiteboards rose in both primary schools (18 compared with just over six in
2005, and eight in the 2007 survey) and secondary schools (38, compared with 18
in 2005 and 22 in 2007).
AUGMENTED REALITY
Augmented reality (AR) is an interactive experience of a
real-world environment where the objects that reside in the real-world are
enhanced by computer-generated perceptual information, sometimes across
multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory and olfactory.
The overlaid sensory information can be constructive (i.e. additive to the
natural environment), or destructive (i.e. masking of the natural environment).
This experience is seamlessly interwoven with the physical world such that it
is perceived as an immersive aspect of the real
environment. In this way, augmented reality alters one's ongoing
perception of a real-world environment, whereas virtual
reality completely replaces the user's real-world environment
with a simulated one. Augmented reality is related to two largely synonymous
terms: mixed reality and computer-mediated reality.
The primary value of augmented reality is the
manner in which components of the digital world blend into a person's
perception of the real world, not as a simple display of data, but through the
integration of immersive sensations, which are perceived as natural parts of an
environment. The earliest functional AR systems that provided immersive mixed
reality experiences for users were invented in the early 1990s, starting with
the Virtual Fixtures system developed at the
U.S. Air Force's Armstrong Laboratory in 1992. Commercial
augmented reality experiences were first introduced in entertainment and gaming
businesses. Subsequently, augmented reality applications have spanned
commercial industries such as education, communications, medicine, and
entertainment. In education, content may be accessed by scanning or viewing an image
with a mobile device or by using markerless AR techniques. An example relevant
to the construction industry is an AR helmet for construction workers which
displays information about construction sites.
Augmented reality is used to enhance natural
environments or situations and offer perceptually enriched experiences. With
the help of advanced AR technologies (e.g. adding computer
vision and object recognition) the information about the
surrounding real world of the user becomes interactive and
digitally manipulated. Information about the environment and its objects is
overlaid on the real world. This information can be virtual or real, e.g.
seeing other real sensed or measured information such as electromagnetic radio
waves overlaid in exact alignment with where they actually are in space. Augmented
reality also has a lot of potential in the gathering and sharing of tacit
knowledge. Augmentation techniques are typically performed in real time and in
semantic contexts with environmental elements. Immersive perceptual information
is sometimes combined with supplemental information like scores over a live
video feed of a sporting event. This combines the benefits of both augmented
reality technology and heads up
display technology (HUD).
VIRTUAL REALITY
Virtual reality (VR)
is an experience taking place within simulated and immersive environments that can be
similar to or completely different from the real world. Applications of virtual reality can
include entertainment (i.e. gaming) and educational purposes (i.e. medical or
military training). Other, distinct types of VR style technology include augmented
reality and mixed reality.
Currently standard virtual reality systems use either virtual reality headsets or
multi-projected environments to generate realistic images, sounds and other
sensations that simulate a user's physical presence in a virtual environment. A
person using virtual reality equipment is able to look around the artificial
world, move around in it, and interact with virtual features or items. The effect
is commonly created by VR headsets consisting of a head-mounted display with a small
screen in front of the eyes, but can also be created through specially designed
rooms with multiple large screens. Virtual reality typically incorporates auditory and video
feedback, but may also allow other types of sensory and force
feedback through haptic technology.
MAKERSPACE
A makerspace is a collaborative
work space inside a school, library or separate public/private facility for
making, learning, exploring and sharing that uses high tech to no tech tools.
These spaces are open to kids, adults, and entrepreneurs and have a variety
of maker equipment including 3D printers, laser cutters, cnc machines,
soldering irons and even sewing machines. A makerspace however doesn’t
need to include all of these machines or even any of them to be considered a
makerspace. If you have cardboard, legos and art supplies you’re in
business. If you are interested in finding out more about laser cutters though,
you could always take a look at someone like Boss Laser.
BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE (BYOD)
Bring your own device (BYOD)—also called bring your own technology (BYOT), bring your own phone (BYOP),
and bring your own personal
computer (BYOPC)—refers
to the policy of permitting employees to bring personally owned devices
(laptops, tablets, and smart phones) to their workplace, and to use those
devices to access privileged company information and applications. The
phenomenon is commonly referred to as IT consumerization.
BYOD is making significant inroads in the business world, with about 75%
of employees in high-growth markets such as Brazil and Russia and 44% in
developed markets already using their own technology at work. Surveys have
indicated that businesses are unable to stop employees from bringing
personal devices into the workplace. Research is divided on benefits. One
survey shows around 95% of employees stating they use at least one personal
device for work.
CLOUD COMPUTING
Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system
resources, especially data storage and computing
power, without direct active management by the user. The term is
generally used to describe data centers available to many users over the Internet.
Large clouds, predominant today, often have functions distributed over multiple
locations from central servers. If the connection to the user is relatively
close, it may be designated an edge server.
Clouds may be limited to a single organization
(enterprise clouds), be available to many organizations (public cloud), or a
combination of both (hybrid cloud). Cloud computing relies on
sharing of resources to achieve coherence and economies of scale.
Advocates
of public and hybrid clouds note that cloud computing allows companies to avoid
or minimize up-front IT
infrastructure costs. Proponents also claim that cloud
computing allows enterprises to get their applications up and running faster,
with improved manageability and less maintenance, and that it enables IT teams
to more rapidly adjust resources to meet fluctuating and unpredictable demand. Cloud
providers typically use a "pay-as-you-go" model, which can lead to
unexpected operating expenses if administrators are
not familiarized with cloud-pricing models.
The availability of high-capacity networks, low-cost computers and
storage devices as well as the widespread adoption of hardware virtualization, service-oriented architecture, and autonomic and utility
computing has led to growth in cloud computing.
CODING AS NEW LITERACY
The idea of teaching coding to children is not new.
Back in the late 1960s, my mentor at MIT, Seymour Papert, developed the first
programming language for children, called LOGO. Although computers were big,
expensive machines that occupied full rooms, Seymour anticipated that the
technology would get smaller and the thinking bigger. That is to say, children
could learn how to think in new ways by programming these devices. At the time,
this was a novel idea. Today, few people would disagree with this statement.
In the recent years, coding has made a comeback.
However, according to the nonprofit Code.org, when compared with other countries,
the United States lags behind. This is troublesome given the demands of the new
automated economy. The workforce needs coders. Thus, initiatives are on the
rise to engage students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
While I applaud the push for STEM, I find it problematic.
MOOC - MASSIVE OPEN ONLINE COURSES
A massive open online course (MOOC) is an online course aimed
at unlimited participation and open access via the web. In addition to traditional
course materials, such as filmed lectures, readings, and problem sets,
many MOOCs provide interactive courses with user forums to
support community interactions among students, professors, and teaching assistants (TAs), as well as
immediate feedback to quick quizzes and assignments. MOOCs are a recent and
widely researched development in distance education, first introduced in 2006 and emerged as a
popular mode of learning in 2012.
Early MOOCs often emphasized open-access features, such as open
licensing of content, structure and learning goals, to promote
the reuse and remixing of resources. Some later MOOCs use closed licenses for
their course materials while maintaining free access for students.
OER - OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
Open educational resources (OER) are freely accessible, openly
licensed text, media, and other digital assets that are useful
for teaching, learning, and assessing as well as for research purposes. There
is no universal usage of open file
formats in OER.
The term OER describes publicly accessible
materials and resources for any user to use, re-mix, improve and redistribute
under some licenses.
THANK YOU
