2015 has some exciting ideas for the implementation of educational technology in the classroom.
1- I see Augmented Reality apps gaining ground in the classrooms of seasoned EdTech teachers. The scope of integrating and overlaying 3D images, voice overs, videos and more to a static 2D image makes a regular presentation or class exhibition more exciting for the parents to watch and the students to prepare.
2- the updated iTunes U app in the iPad makes it incredibly easy to create, curate and update online courses for the school. I think more and more teachers and eventually schools will take a serious interest to push their content online in order to hook their students and share the curriculum through a more engaging platform that resonates with them. Using this app, from text based content now teachers will easily be able to push apps, images, videos, textbooks etc. The flipped classroom will also become easier to organise with this app. So I definitely think it will gain ground this year and will continue it’s foray in the classrooms in the coming years.
3- From my numerous interactions with students and teachers from across the country, I find an increasing inclination to explore and eventually embrace digital tools to aid and further the learning process. For the adventurous teachers and schools, I think creative media and productivity tools and apps along with digital literacy will become regular tools to transfer and express the curriculum content of different subjects, and for the ones who are more tentative, I think digital whiteboards with interactive multimedia, text, images, handwriting etc will complement the lecture based format of teaching.
4- I see more and more teachers and students excited about working on projects that integrate the use of technology rather than technology subject and lessons that are divorced from the rest of the curriculum.
Teaching technology in today’s age is a journey of continual learning for the teachers and the students, with students occasionally teaching their teachers a few tricks they missed out on in the computer or the mobile device. We are living in an exciting time of technological innovation that is so readily accessible and easy to implement in the classroom. As a teacher I have two options, embrace the medium that has bedazzled my students and learn to ride the wave to adapt it’s use in the classroom or reject it altogether. I chose to embrace it. What’s your choice ?
