5 Education Tech Trends For 2015
Education is being flipped on its head by technology. Teachers see the
promise -- and the pitfalls.
This is an exciting time to be in education technology. The global spend
on edtech in classrooms is on the rise, fueling a market that is projected to
reach $19 billion by 2018, according to a market study
released by Futuresource Consulting earlier this year. As
blended learning environments evolve, administrators and teachers continue to
celebrate the promise of digital learning and experience the pitfalls of
underwhelming edtech tools. Below are five edtech trends and opportunities for
developers of these tools to consider.
Technology for flipped-learning
The rationale behind the flipped class -- a form of blended learning in which students learn content online by watching video lectures, usually at home, and homework is done in class with teachers and students discussing and solving questions -- is to engage learners in and out of the classroom. The dynamic nature of this approach enables teachers to create effective and fun asynchronous and synchronous learning experiences.
The rationale behind the flipped class -- a form of blended learning in which students learn content online by watching video lectures, usually at home, and homework is done in class with teachers and students discussing and solving questions -- is to engage learners in and out of the classroom. The dynamic nature of this approach enables teachers to create effective and fun asynchronous and synchronous learning experiences.
Experts agree that
passive learning with video doesn't boost student achievement. As flipped
learning becomes more prevalent, the distribution tools and video streaming
that are central to this approach must be optimized for interactivity. The
stakes are higher than ever, with next-generation, cloud-based solutions
displacing older learning management systems (LMS). Features such as powerful
analytics that measure student responses and mobile learning capabilities will
become the hallmarks of the best flipped classrooms.
[Check out 8 STEM Websites To Excite Kids
About Tech.]
Device agnostic learning
While videos and websites are basically ubiquitous across all devices, many apps are native, even exclusive, to one device or mobile operating system. The pain points caused by multiple standards, multiple screen sizes, and multiple operating systems are not sustainable.
While videos and websites are basically ubiquitous across all devices, many apps are native, even exclusive, to one device or mobile operating system. The pain points caused by multiple standards, multiple screen sizes, and multiple operating systems are not sustainable.
Teachers and students shouldn't bear the burden of device management.
Their priorities should be centered on learning. The most innovative edtech
creators realize that the future is to develop device agnostic services. As
more and more teachers integrate mobile learning, this flexibility will be a
requirement.
(Source: Wesley Fryer)
Assistive technologies in the classroom
Perhaps one of the greatest challenges for designers of software systems and technology products is to deliver a uniform experience to a large and diverse human population. Creators of edtech stand to benefit from ensuring that their products and services are designed to allow differently-abled students the same access to learning.
Perhaps one of the greatest challenges for designers of software systems and technology products is to deliver a uniform experience to a large and diverse human population. Creators of edtech stand to benefit from ensuring that their products and services are designed to allow differently-abled students the same access to learning.
US federal accessibility standards pertaining to information technology,
known as Section 508, should be a core design and development
requirement, rather than an afterthought. A burgeoning industry continues to go
beyond these baseline compliance standards, leading development of assistive
technologies.
Earlier this month, world-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking made
headlines with his commentary about the role of assistive technologies that
support him. The same Fortune article cited a Gartner report issued in late 2013, estimating that
approximately 15% of the world's population could benefit directly from
assistive technologies -- and the rest of us will also feel a positive impact
from the innovation behind them. It's clear that assistive technologies,
ranging from simple to complex, are playing an increasingly vital role in
reducing barriers to learning for students with a variety of special needs and
challenges.
Mobile learning
Mobile learning apps were everywhere in 2014. This next year, we expect more mobile learning platforms and apps to be available on iOS and Android, along with heightened expectations related to enhanced learning experiences and outcomes. At its best, mobile learning technology can drive collaboration and engage different types of individual learners and various groups of interconnected learners.
Mobile learning apps were everywhere in 2014. This next year, we expect more mobile learning platforms and apps to be available on iOS and Android, along with heightened expectations related to enhanced learning experiences and outcomes. At its best, mobile learning technology can drive collaboration and engage different types of individual learners and various groups of interconnected learners.
My company, WizIQ,
is heavily focused on how such technologies enable sturdier scaffolding for
student learning and broaden the virtual classroom experience. Features such as
live participation, location-aware notification delivery, and ubiquitous access
are paving the way for context-aware adaptive and personalized mobile learning
systems -- functionality that has the potential to fuel lifelong learning in an
unprecedented way.
Personalized blended learning
Customization is king and the array of edtech tools that can meet the needs of students in a personalized, meaningful, and timely manner based on best practices stand to rule. But first, a word of advice to all creators of edtech tools: Technology isn't the driver. Your strong belief in your innovation is secondary to the needs of students, teachers, and administrators.
Customization is king and the array of edtech tools that can meet the needs of students in a personalized, meaningful, and timely manner based on best practices stand to rule. But first, a word of advice to all creators of edtech tools: Technology isn't the driver. Your strong belief in your innovation is secondary to the needs of students, teachers, and administrators.
Recognize that
teachers are tasked with implementing, and often times, identifying, the best
mix of digital learning tools for each student. Different approaches to
learning, such as project-based learning, maker education, game-based learning,
and more, will continue to be explored as part of personalized blended learning
models. Accordingly, such innovations will push edtech vendors to deliver more
than technology or content -- but will require them to demonstrate how their
product or service improves learning outcomes.
Reference:
5 Top Trends in Education Technology 2015
Why the industry is primed for big
things this year
CEO,
Pluralsight@skonnard
Pressure continues to increase on
education budgets around the globe. Yet despite this fact, the education sector
is continuing to increase its investment in technology related to learning. Ed
tech funding jumped 55 percent in 2014 with no signs of slowing down, according
to CB Insights. A
report from Global Industry Analysts (GIA)
predicts that the global e-learning market will reach $107 billion in 2015,
propelled by technological advancements and demand for additional skills.
With that in mind, here are five top trends in ed tech to keep on your
radar screen in 2015 and beyond:
Online corporate learning. The Clayton Christensen
Institute predicts growing momentum for online corporate
learning initiatives. Just how big will it get? Keeping in mind GIA's $107B
estimate for this year, the corporate e-learning market is expected to increase
about 13 percent annually until 2017, according to Roland Berger Strategy
Consultants. This is because an increasing number of companies are
realizing that there's great value in furthering their employees' knowledge in
ways that are flexible, cost-effective, and tailored to each individual's needs.
In contrast to the academic Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) that are
still struggling to find the best path to a reliable revenue stream, businesses
focused on corporate e-learning have found a business model that works--and
works well. Online corporate learning allows employees in every industry and at
any level to experience the power of customized training, 24/7, on any device.
Unlike with classroom-based training, learners can train on their own time
using customized formats. Everyone can move at their own pace, learning what
they need to know and exploring their own interests. Though still a relatively
young industry, corporate e-learning promises to deliver new models of teaching
and a future of exciting breakthroughs.
Skills measurement. In conjunction
with the building momentum in online corporate learning, expect to see
intensified focus in 2015 on identifying better ways to assess skills and
measure individual progress, competency-based learning, and ultimately ROI. The
Clayton Christensen Institute notes that when we provide customizable
education, it becomes important to ensure that modular learning experiences are blended together in
a way that fosters cohesion. To do so requires efficient ways to measure and
track student learning to guarantee smooth interchanges between each learning
experience.
We've got this as a top priority at
Pluralsight via our recent acquisition of Smarterer,
which allows us to measure any skill set with as few as 10 questions in under
two minutes based on an adaptive algorithm. This allows us to give learners an
SAT-like score for any skill, which could provide the foundation for a new
industry standard around skills measurement.Other online education companies
have started experimenting in this area as well, including Udacity's Nanodegrees program
and General Assembly's microcredentials.
Any company that offers MOOCs needs to address better skills assessment if they
want to survive.
Alternative learning styles. Gone are the
days when students have to rely only on text-based--or even
video-based--tutorials. While those are still effective, new types of learning
styles will continue to emerge in 2015, offering online learners more interactive
experiences like writing code directly in the browser, or completing online
challenges as part of the learning process. Pluralsight had this trend in sight
with our latest acquisition of Code School.
Code School offers a unique approach that relies on an alternative
learning style that we believe is more fun, engaging, and effective than just
plain videos. With Code School, users watch a short video, then stop and
practice what they've learned through a series of interactive coding challenges
and assessments--all in the browser--before continuing. As learners progress
through the challenges, they earn points and badges, which guide each
individual's progress and learning. There's also a mobile app so that users can
watch and review videos on-the-go to complement the code challenges and online
learning. This is the type of new, interactive learning style that you can
expect to see much more of in the education segment.
Online competency-based training. While
competency-based training approaches and online learning are nothing new, the
blend of the two is creating a revolutionary approach to education. Michelle R. Weise and
Clayton M. Christensen write that online competency-based education has
"great disruptive potential" because it incorporates not only the
right learning model, but the right technologies, customers, and business
model. Weise and Christensen go on to explain that providers of online
competency-based training "can cost-effectively combine modules of
learning into pathways that are agile and adaptable to the changing labor
market." They do so by breaking down learning not by courses or even
subject matter, but by competencies, thus releasing learning from the
constraints of traditional institutions and methods.
How can providers of these
technologies create a diversity of stackable programs for a wide range of
industries, scale them, and also keep costs down? By fusing modularization with
assessments to effectively measure the competencies. Online competency-based
learning opportunities--such as those offered by the online degree programs at Western Governors University and Southern New Hampshire University--help
students through targeted learning outcomes, customized support, and portable
skill sets that employers care about. Expect this trend to highlight the
important role of employers to create a value network that helps students
connect directly with potential job opportunities.
Flipped-learning tech. Information Week identifies
technology for flipped learning as another key ed-tech trend in 2015. A flipped
class is a form of blended learning where students watch video lectures outside
of class to learn content online, and then do their homework in class with the
guidance of teachers in person. This approach helps to engage students outside
of the classroom as well as in it.
Harman Singh notes
that designers of the online tools and video streaming that are central to this
approach must prioritize optimizing them for interactivity. Look for
next-generation cloud-based, mobile, and app solutions--with powerful analytics
to measure student responses--to replace outdated learning management systems
in 2015. Khan Academy is
currently leading this type of disruption in the K-12 space.
As the education sector continues to
embrace the power and promise of digital learning and the best that ed tech has
to offer, I leave you with one caveat: no matter how exciting the new
technology, the tool itself must always be secondary to the goal that the
student, teacher, or administrator is trying to achieve or the problem they are
trying to solve. As Michael B. Horn and Heather Staker point out in their bookBlended: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools,
the most successful designers of education technology will keep the end in
mind, rather than pushing tech innovations for technology's own sake.
Reference:
The
EdTech Trends To Look Out For In 2015
I write about leadership in
education and careers.
·
·
·
·
For many educators, technology is now a key tool in their
practice, and in some cases even shapes the way they teach. So I thought it
would be useful to round up some of the key trends in educational technology to
look out for in 2015.
PERSONALIZATION
Greater availability of data and the use of classroom technology
have opened up new possibilities for personalized learning, with teachers able
to track the progress of students in individual lessons, find out what they
spent most time on and which parts they found hardest, and tailor their
approach accordingly.
Instant feedback allows teachers to find out how much of the
lessons students have understood. It also means they can provide one-to-one
teaching without publicly singling out students or holding up the rest of the
class.
WEARABLE
TECH
The jury is still out on whether Google Glass will become a useful
classroom tool or end up gathering dust at the back of the cupboard, but
whatever its fate wearable technology looks to have a promising future in schools.
The potential for augmented reality and location-specific
activities is clear, and a reduction in cost would bring it within reach of
schools.
In the short-term, the smart watch seems a better bet than
glasses, with motion and pressure-sensors particularly useful for
activity-based learning. If smart watches take off in the same way as
smartphones, wearable tech could become an entrenched part of a Bring Your Own
Device (BYOD) environment.
Continued from page 1
ONLINE LEARNING
Schools
are only just beginning to tap the potential for online learning. MOOCs are
becoming fairly well-established in higher education but are just dipping their
toe into the high school arena. The next 12 months will see more widespread use
of both traditional ‘courses’ and ad hoc ‘help-outs’.
Alongside
this we will see moves to recognize and measure – and ultimately accredit –
what students are learning online, with a shift from ‘seat time’ to a
competency-based framework.
As
online learning moves more mainstream, we can also expect to see providers
looking to charge for their courses.
BLENDED AND FLIPPED LEARNING
Both
blended and flipped learning seem on the verge of breaking into the mainstream
in 2015. Charter school operator Rocketship Education is pioneering blended
learning – a combination of online and classroom teaching – in the U.S. and
school sponsor Ark announced earlier this year that it is aiming to open a
blended learning school in the U.K. Although this will not happen before 2016,
some of its schools are already experimenting with blended learning.
Flipped
learning, where students typically learn content – perhaps through an
instructional video – in their own time and spend the lesson on project work,
is also gaining traction. This allows teachers to focus in class on areas the
students find difficult, providing a more personalized approach.
The ability to give
different lessons to different groups of students in the same class opens up
new possibilities for differentiation, as well as for mastery teaching, where
students have to show competence in one area before moving onto the next one.
Continued from page 2
SHARING
Thanks to YouTube,
Tumblr, Twitter and a host of other sites, sharing has never been easier.
Learning will increasingly cross boundaries as teachers share their ideas and
tips and students share their work online.
Technology also
provides greater opportunities for collaborative working, both within the class
and between schools. Teachers and students will not just share their work, but
will combine with others and demonstrate the power of collaboration.
AND FINALLY…
While technology is
undoubtedly a useful weapon in any teacher’s armoury, there is a lot of talk
about the latest gizmo and not enough about what helps students learn. Not so
much a trend as an aspiration is that 2015 will see more inquiry into how
technology aids teaching and learning, with less emphasis on the technology and
more on showing how it makes a difference. After all, technology in education
is a means to an end, not an end in itself.
References:
2015’s
Top Education Technology Trends
347
Editor’s
note: This piece was originally written by Katie Lepi and ran on February 28th,
2014. A lot has changed since then, so we’ve had author Kristen Hicks update
this piece with the latest techniques and innovations.
Each
year, the New Media Consortiumand EDUCAUSE release the NMC Horizon Report, which looks at the technology most likely
to shape education in the next five years. The 2015 report highlights a number
of key changes that educators, those at the higher education level in
particular, should be aware of.
6
Important Trends in Education Technology
A number of experts weighed in on the
six technology trends that are making the biggest impact on education. If you read
the report itself, you’ll see not only a description of what the trend is
(which we’ve summarized below), but also a few examples of institutions or
organizations that have already embraced it.
1.
The Need to Develop Cultures of Innovation
The
world is changing and higher education must change with it. Many schools have
recognized this fact and are working to change how things are done in order to
better accommodate new tech and to encourage innovation. Some universities are
borrowing ideas from the business world, and are adopting processes that
resemble an agile startup model, which
makes incorporating change as you go easier.
Likewise, a number of universities
have already embraced the idea that technology itself can and should be treated
as a catalyst for improving how learning works. A fairly widespread example is
the growing adoption of BYOD programs. Why not turn the tools everyone is
already using into a means for making your courses better?
A
culture of innovation not only embraces the new technology and ideas re-shaping
education, but also adapts to the changing ideas about what’s most valuable in
the world outside of higher education. Policies that emphasize the high-level
skills increasingly valued in the business world –creativity,
risk-taking, collaboration, entrepreneurship – help make higher education both
more meaningful to students in the moment, and more valuable to them in the
future.
2.
Increasing Collaboration Between Institutions
The number and importance of
educational consortia is growing. Technology is one of the catalysts of this on
two very different levels:
a.
Tech is expensive, but also increasingly important.
Schools can’t just opt out of using
technology, but with budgetary concerns and complaints about tuition already a
huge issue for educators at all levels, purchasing the tech needed is a
challenge. This is especially so considering that “the tech needed” has a
frustrating tendency to change within a couple of years (or less).
Consortia make it possible for
colleges to band together and demand more affordable and sustainable tech
solutions. One university alone has limited power, but many universities
negotiating as one can make a difference in how tech deals work.
b.
Schools can share data and content.
Technology makes it possible for a
college to make a large number of lesson plans available to anyone who might
benefit from them. It allows colleges to cull the large amounts of data they’ve
each collected to gain greater insights from it all. We’ll address this one
further in #4, but the takeaway here is that tech makes collaboration and
sharing between institutions and their students possible on a large scale that
benefits everyone.
3.
Possibilities of Assessment and Measurement
Tech brings with it an increased
access to data. Colleges can now collect extensive and detailed data on how
students are learning, what teaching methods work the best, and which kinds of
education and career paths lead to the greatest success. Basically, from day
one of a student’s educational experience through their life after graduation,
they’re producing a huge quantity of data that can be put toward improving the
individual experience of students, as well as how higher education works as a
whole.
Data
is playing a key role in adaptive learning,
which empowers students to better understand their progress and take more
control over their learning. Additionally, adaptive learning gives teachers
insights into how students are doing and what they need most. It can also
help drive more informed curriculum decisions designed to help students perform
better. Data-driven learning and assessment is becoming a big and influential
field in the higher education space.
4.
Proliferation of Open Educational Resources
As mentioned earlier, technology
makes it easier than ever for colleges or professors to make resources freely
available to anyone they may benefit. Many educators are happy to jump on the
bandwagon. The number of open educational resources (OER) available to anyone
willing to do some digging to find them is growing.
OER can refer to any type of digital
content, including:
·
Courses
·
Course
materials
·
Textbooks
·
Research
articles
·
Presentations
·
Videos
·
Tests
·
Software
The movement to make more information
free goes beyond just insisting that there be no cost to students. It extends
to encouraging that the resources be free from any ownership and usage rights.
While the cost of higher education
remains one of the most consistently debated topics in the industry, making use
of creative commons resources and open textbooks could be the key to bringing
costs down in at least one area of higher ed. OER repositories and search tools
already exist, but they could still use some work and are likely to improve if
the trend continues in years to come.
5.
Increase in Blended Learning
Online
learning is growing at a rapid pace. As the report points out, one in ten
students weretaking courses exclusively online already by 2012, and even more were
taking at least some of their classes online. The shift to online learning has
been heavily aided by tech improvements in fields like learning analytics,
adaptive learning, and asynchronous and synchronous tools.
But blended learning may be the even bigger innovation to
come of the shift to online learning, as it combine the benefits of the
technology of online learning with the accessibility of working with teachers
face-to-face. Access to more online resources in whatever format students learn
from best, accessible wherever and whenever they want, enables better learning
outside of the classroom. Add to that a greater availability of teachers once
in the classroom and you have a powerful tool that provides students with the
best of both worlds.
The best practices for blended
learning are still being developed, but as more colleges experiment with it and
track what works best, it can only get better.
6.
Redesigning Learning Spaces
If we’re bringing more tech into the
classroom, the classroom must change to accommodate. The traditional model of a
lecturer standing at the front of a classroom, talking to a room full of
students seated in rows, ignores the possibilities of what tech can add to the
equation.
Some colleges are experimenting with
re-designing the classroom space to encourage the integration of technology and
more collaboration between students. A common example of this is a classroom in
which the lecture’s podium is moved to the center and surrounded by round
tables for students that integrate a key piece of technology like an
interactive whiteboard or a computer.
Other
colleges are working to expand the idea to other spaces. Many libraries are being re-designed to enable more access to technology
and comfortable learning spaces within them. Schools are adding more power
outlets and comfortable seating to hallways and atriums so students can do
their studying there.
Learning can happen anywhere, just as
long as students have access to the right tools. A few tweaks to what the
common spaces on college campuses look like can help take that idea further.
Still, while NMC report seeks to
predict the tech trends that will influence education the most in the next five
years, five years is a very long time in the tech world. These trends are all
poised to change how the educational landscape looks, but may be taken over by
newer technologies and the trends and issues they produce. We’re living in an
exciting time for ed tech. The possibilities of new opportunities for schools
and educators will only grow.
Reference:
A New Way to Teach and Learn: 5 Technology Trends in
Education
By JT Ripton
Technology
is teaming up with education, and the partnership is making life easier for
both teachers and students. Thanks to technological trends in education,
students can kiss their 10-pound geometry and history textbooks goodbye and
teachers can plan a semester’s worth of coursework from the comfort of their
own tablets. Here are five of the top technology trends in education for 2014 –
pay attention because there might just be a pop quiz later.
VIDEO
KILLED THE CHALK BOARD
Image
via Flickr by Lee Nachtigal
No
need to worry, teachers! Although video is opening new digital doors in terms
of class work and teaching styles, it’s not taking the place of actual
instructors. Whether teachers want to prerecord
their lectures or
choose from thousands of video lessons online, video in the classroom is really
adding to the teaching and learning process.
Likewise,
video in the classroom makes way for video outside of the classroom in the form
of homework. Instead of handing out textbook style assignments, teachers can
send homework assignments via email or through the school’s learning management
system with a video tutorial attached.
GAMING
IS THE NEW LEARNING
Games
make learning easier, which is exactly why ABC building blocks and color-coded
shape games are so crucial for early development. The very same idea of gaming
as a way to teach extends to higher education. Whether you call it academic
game play or educational entertainment, gaming in the classroom is quickly
becoming a major teaching trend.
Forget
Super Mario Brothers, because classroom gaming uses completely different goal
setting techniques. Instead of fighting a villain or conquering an empire,
students can solve complex math problems or learn about historical moments with
the same high stakes excitement as Mario saving Princess Toadstool. The best
part is, with classroom gaming, students can actually compete against one
another, which makes game learning even more interactive.
BAD
NEWS FOR BACKPACKS: TEXTBOOKS ARE GOING DIGITAL
Backpacks
are going the way of the newspapers because digital textbooks are becoming the
new norm in hallways and classrooms all across the world. With the
proliferation of the almighty eBook, it’s only a matter of time until students
equipped with T-Mobile tablets ditch their textbooks
altogether and put the power of digital learning in the palm of their hands.
Laptops
are still considered the digital domain of eLearning, but tablets are only
getting smaller and more capable, which makes them the next trend in tech learning.
The idea of digital textbooks only scratches the surface of tablet inspired
learning – think tablet-ready homework and web-based coursework on the go.
THE
CLOUD CLASSROOM
The
tech world is buzzing about the cloud’s anywhere capabilities and educators are
catching on by using cloud computing and its many benefits both inside and
outside of the classroom. For teachers, the cloud is great for managing and
accessing student data like test scores and files from anywhere.
As
for students, the cloud represents access to information on coursework, class
schedules, and upcoming school-wide events. Additionally, the cloud brings
parent/teacher conferences to a whole new level. With the cloud, parents can
have the same access to their child’s in-school performance as teachers do,
which bridges the communication gap between parents, students, and teachers.
EDUCATION
ANALYTICS ARE PUTTING REPORT CARDS TO SHAME
With
all-things educational turning digital, it’s no surprise the technology and
science behind web analytics is entering the classroom as well.
Where education analytics and web analytics differ is in the research subject.
Instead of tracking website hits and traffic, analytics for the classroom can
track how assignments, teaching styles, and coursework loads affect individual
students.
Instead
of standardized testing, education analytics can help teachers and instructors
pinpoint specific weaknesses in the learning process of each student. In other
words, it’s SEO: Student Education Optimization and it leads to improved
teaching styles and streamlined learning. Education analytics are possible due
to the technology trends in education that make learning a scalable, traceable,
digital process.
As
technology continues to find its seat in the classroom, more and more educators
are realizing the tech-ed partnership deserves an A+.
Reference:
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