What's on the horizon for technology in the classroom ...

The technology I currently see in my high school special education world is what you might expect: iPads, mobile phones, augmentative communication devices, email, YouTube, PowerPoint, smart boards, and Chromebooks in a pilot phase.

With technology coming at us fast and furious in every aspect of life, it was interesting to read about the adoption timeline of new technologies into K-12 education globally. The “NMC Horizon Report: 2013 K-12 Edition” is a collaboration between the New Media Consortium, the Consortium for School Networking, and the International Society for Technology in Education. And with the generous support of HP. The NMC Horizon Report identified six technologies that will likely have a large impact over the coming five years.

Click to get the report.

 

Near Term - the Next 12 Months

 

No surprise that the two near-term technologies are cloud computing and mobile learning. Mobile devices are already widespread, and it often makes economic sense to use cloud computing from a technology infrastructure viewpoint. 

Even though these may not be widely or exclusively used today, they are certainly here to stay. The Horizon report states cloud computing improves productivity and expands collaboration in education and is financially advantageous. For example, the state of Oregon is in the process of rolling out Google Apps for Education. This means potentially all students will use Google Chromebooks, Google Apps, Google Drive and Google Web Toolkit. That’s a LOT of Google. But what if you aren’t a Google fan?  Clarksville-Montgomery County School System in Tennessee is launching Microsoft Office 365 for Education, county-wide. For them, it will be a LOT of Microsoft!

Weldon, David (March 2013) THE Journal, Cloud Computing Digital Edition, Microsoft Office 365 or Google Apps for Education: Which Way Do You Go? Retrieved from http://thejournal.com/articles/2013/04/03/microsoft-365-or-google-apps-for-education-which-way-do-you-go.aspx?=THECL#7H7GF6MBHd9RcYzy.99

As David Weldon points out in his article, there are challenges with implementing both. Not necessarily with the technology itself, but with the culture of the organization, gaining teacher buy-in, and long-term training to both teachers and students. 

 

 Two to Five Years

 

The other technologies are open content and learning analytics to come in the next two to three years. Open content makes sense, because it’s free. Although we all know nothing is ever really free, there is a cost somewhere along the way. Learning analytics is to education what “big data” is to business, which means analyzing your spending trends to predict your consumer behavior. If you’re still confused about what this is, you see it every time you get a pop-up ad for an item similar to one you just searched for. I have a vision of kids getting pop-ups for a random math problem or spelling activity they may be struggling with.

Image: tumblr_lt4x0kOJcH1r3sv6ko1_500_thumb.jpg

Finally, in the far-term of four to five years (which doesn’t seem too far away to me) come 3D printing and virtual/remote laboratories. This really surprised me, because I’ve always thought of these technologies anywhere but in a K-12 environment. Perhaps these two technologies of the six will have the largest hands-on impact on how students learn. This does not mean it will benefit the largest number of students, as it lends itself to science, technology and math in upper grades.  

The hot pink shoe? It was printed from a 3D printer! If you're curious about how this work, click on the video below.

     

                                                                                                         Source: i.materialize.com

What impact will all this technology have on the teacher and student in the classroom? It will be fascinating to see and be part of what unfolds.