In The Horizon Report: 2009 K-12 Edition, the New Media Consortium highlights technological trends expected to have a significant impact on education within the next five years.
The Horizon Report is divided into three key parts, summarized below:
Technologies on the Horizon (Pun intended)
Technologies on the Horizon within One Year
1) Collaborative Environments: Because educators recognize the increasing importance of collaboration in the workplace, teachers and students are collaborating with one another in virtual workplaces. Collaborative environments are those in which users can record their thoughts and others can respond to those thoughts at any place and time. Examples of these include wikis and Facebook. These collaborative environments are excellent places for students to critique one another's critical thinking.
2) Online Communication Tools: These tools (including Twitter and instant messaging) provide students with the opportunities to communicate with audiences throughout the world as well as with content-area experts. Examples include Edmodo and YackPack. Online communication tools help students connect with others around the world and practice their public voice.
Online communication tools appears to be the most promising technology addressed in the report. One of the most important things that teachers can do is to make students feel like their work matters. Online communication tools create a real-world audience for students and their work without all of the hassle that teachers had to go through without it. For example, if I wanted students to research a local government policy with which they disagree and prepare a letter to the editor about that policy, I can guarantee that few, if any, of the letters would be published. Now, there are online communities where all students' work can be published. Also, world history students can use Skype to communicate with students in the countries they are studying. This will put in context what the students are learning and increase engagement. These are only a few of the many obvious benefits of online communication tools.
Technologies within the Next Two to Three Years
1) Mobiles: Mobile devices, with their internet access, GPS systems, and other applications are becoming a more important way to provide access to information for users on the go. Educational uses for mobile devices include student responses to questions (without the expense of PRS systems) and research aids.
Although I agree that mobile devices may have some use for students, for several reasons, I think that the costs associated with use of mobile devices may outweigh the benefits. First, as we become a more mobile society, the response-time expectancy decreases. Mobile devices such as Blackberrys and cellular phones may lead to students' calling the teacher minutes before a project and asking a flurry of questions. This blurs the boundary between teacher free time and work time. Second, there are already significant problems with students using cellular phones to cheat on exams. There does not appear to be an obvious way to prevent this. Third, there is the most evident issue of cost. Not every student can afford the mobile device or the applications associated with that device. And, if teachers rely on mobile devices to communicate with students, students who cannot afford mobile devices are left in the dark. Fourth, I must confess that I am not a texting expert, but writing things out on mobile devices is a cumbersome process. I am just not convinced that mobile devices are going to give students that much more than other technologies would.
2) Cloud Computing: The cloud is “the term for networked computers that distribute processing power, applications, and large systems among many machines.” Rather than running on a single computer, cloud-based applications are run on a specific cluster of computers. Examples of technologies supported by the cloud include PageFlakes and Ning. Because users are storing their information on the cloud, they are relying on its continued existence. Through cloud applications such as Slide Rocket, students can publish slide shows and share them with the world.
Technologies within the Next Four to Five Years
1) Smart Objects: “[A] smart object is any physical object that includes a unique identifier that can track information about the object.” Examples of smart objects include Siftables and Poken. Smart objects may be particularly useful in libraries to do things such as linking books with author interviews. Teachers also may use smart objects to measure phenomena such as the weather, and students in class may analyze that data.
2) The Personal Web: The personal web refers to technologies that allow users to reorganize and manage internet data. Undergirding the personal web is the idea that online content can be modified and sorted based on users' personal interests. Although this technology is advanced, the personal web remains on the farthest horizon because of school internet restrictions and the lack of computers regularly available in classrooms. Regardless, the personal web is an excellent way to maintain large resource collections that are easily accessible for students and to obviate the need for index cards with tools like browser widgets. Examples of the personal web include Zotero and Diigo.
Key Trends Affecting Learning in Elementary and Secondary Schools
1) “Technology continues to profoundly affect the way we work, collaborate, communicate, and succeed.” Technology is increasingly becoming a form of communication rather than isolation. Instead of passively reading websites, users are interacting with one another through websites such as Facebook.
2) “Technology is increasingly a means for empowering students, a method for communication and socializing, and a ubiquitous, transparent part of their lives.” Through technology, students are introduced to a “real world” audience for their work.
3) “The web is an increasingly personal experience.” Rather than the one-size-fits-all curriculum students experience in the classroom, students are exposed to personalized content on the internet.
4) “The way we think of learning environments is changing.” The learning environment is not just the classroom; it extends to the community and spans all disciplines.
5) “The perceived value of innovation and creativity is increasing.” This is pretty self-explanatory; businesses want to hire innovative and creative individuals.
Five Key Challenges in Integrating Technology into the Existing Educational Framework
1) “There is a growing need for formal instruction in key new skills, including information literacy, visual literacy, and technological literacy.” We must determine what newer literacy skills are needed to succeed, and then we must teach these to both teachers and students.
2) “Students are different, but educational practice and the material that supports it is changing only slowly.” Curriculum, instruction, assessment, and tools used in the classroom must be adapted to the new, younger generation of students.
3) “Learning that incorporates real life experiences is not occurring enough and is undervalued when it does take place.” Teachers need to increase student engagement by assigning projects that incorporate students' real-life experiences.
4) “There is a growing recognition that new technologies must be adopted and used as an everyday part of classroom activities, but effecting this change is difficult.” Teachers should have more training time and professional development to be prepared to use the appropriate technologies in the appropriate manner in the classroom.
5) “A key challenge is the fundamental structure of the K-12 education establishment.” Schools must adapt to the changing world, but change is easier said than done.
I hope that you enjoyed the summary. Overall, this was an awesome article that taught me about a lot of technologies. I feel so cutting edge now!
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I also identified online communication tools as perhaps the most promising emerging technology in my subject area (Math). The Report pointed out (in its “Five Key Challenges in Integrating Technology into the Existing Educational Framework”) that learning which incorporates real life experiences is not occurring enough, and I intend to make it a priority in my classroom. I like the aspect of connecting my students to experts in the field, and even peers around the world, who have something engaging and valuable to share about the real-world applications of math. I think this has great potential to motivate students and inspire creativity in their thinking about the subject. I also liked the example given of a school using YackPack in an ongoing math project called Math Scene Investigation (MSI), in which students collaborate on solving math problems with a criminal investigation twist.
ReplyDeleteWhile I can certainly see the attraction of cloud-based applications (providing students and teachers with free or low-cost alternatives to expensive, proprietary tools), I would definitely worry about entrusting my work and data to the cloud. Companies come, go, and change pretty quickly, so it seems like the risk of losing valuable work (or simply being disrupted in a major way mid-semester) may be relatively high.
Interestingly enough, the most promising item in the Horizon Report for me is the cloud computing. Perhaps being in high school during the Napster era made me especially cognizant of licensing, but I often think about access to software. As computers have changed during my lifetime, I remember seeing progressively cooler applications available on computers at my educational institution. The idea of not just storage space but valuable applications being available online is very exciting. It removes the barrier of purchasing expensive class-licensed software, but just as importantly it lets the program be used in many places. Instead of being tied to a single computer or lab, things can be managed from wherever one has access to the internet - perhaps even via their mobile.
ReplyDeleteI think that incorporating mobiles and other personal computing devices is going to be one of the toughest things for the K-12 system to handle. Last week I caught a 6th grader showing his phone to a friend. He was very upset to be caught, because even though the phone was off, he had it taken (and had just gotten it back) because it was required to be in his locker and off. Schools are slow to change and often take less creative and more black-and-white approaches to new things, like phones in school. Furthermore, the size and power of the devices makes them very hard to control, so any inclusion comes with a dangerous potential for misuse. How to use their power for good without letting students spend class time cheating and sexting is a pickle of a problem.
I don’t really understand what the personal web is all about. It seems as thought it is just networking to the extreme, in a million different ways. I looked at the site delicious.com. It’s a place where you can share your bookmarked websites with friends. It reminded me of the way Pandora.com allows users to share music stations with friends. I don’t know why I’d want to share a bookmark with a friend. If I want to share a website, I generally just email or post the link. It’s not like that’s hard. However, this could be beneficial for class research projects. Pushing the personal web isn’t a tip top priority in schools, but I think a lot of teachers are already using personalized class websites and blogs anyways. These personalized places on the web are a good way to unite a class or any other community of individuals. Moreover, the report talks about how the personal web is a way to organize and manage. Having a personalized class site seems like an easy way to all your teacher things (assignments, activities, parent contact, demonstrations, and lecture notes) neat and organized.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Greg and Hannah, the idea of incorporating mobiles into the classroom is a bit much. The last things schools need to do is feed hyperactivity to students with ADHD. Students don’t need everything at their fingertips. I understand that mobiles are cool and compact, and they can do just about everything. However, they are also tiny. Not only do they break easily (raise your hand if you own a Crackberry), but they are so small that they can’t really be monitored. How will teachers know if students are doing what they should be doing on their mobile? Morever, mobiles are too small to be used in group work, so every single student would require their own mobile. Last but not least, I personally think it’s a pain to do internet type things on mobiles. I’d rather use a computer with a full keyboard and screen.