In the education industry, people in the community have seen technological changes over the last decade.
Change is something that is constant and what’s interesting about technological changes is that, it develops at an even more rapid pace. That perhaps is one of the vital reasons contributing to the big advancements in the learning space and how it has led to changes in the way teachers and students interact and how schools operate.
As we approach to the end of another year, what people in the community would be inquisitive to know is what all technological moves will take the landscape forward in the coming year. Without any ado, let’s dive in to give a glance on the promising technological trends which are expected to collectively change the way students learn and teachers teach in the coming year.
1. Computational Thinking, coding & Robotics Will Grow
With an increasing popularity of the maker movement and robotics, such is giving rise to coding, coding programs and programming. In fact, all these topics are interconnected as most of the maker activities are run through coding.
Once observed carefully, one can clearly see that there has been indeed a rise in the range of coding activities and programs which keep a focus to include activities for students of all ages, even the youngest learners. Going a little beyond, there is a growing realization that by integrating coding across subject areas can help to stimulate computational thinking. Thus, coding will move towards becoming the new literacy.
2. Gamification to Continue Penetrating the Learning Process
Applying game like principles to a system in order to drive its interaction level and appeal to those using it is what one understands about the concept of gamification in education. Such has also led to white boards and tablets becoming standards in the classroom in recent time.
One of the reasons, why gamification is finding a ground in the learning space apart from the fact that it increases the interactivity level of students with content is that it provides both context and outcome to a student’s understanding and knowledge. It also helps to improve retention and comprehension rates.
3. Device Mesh to Witness Further Growth
Device mesh is an ongoing result of today’s technology. Put simply, the term implies the growing ways in which one accesses application and how information as well as how one communicates with one another across the internet on both personal and organizational level.
With more students using multiple devices between home and school, Teachers are looking up for programs which allow device mesh. The key focus area will be towards learning how to use tools that work across platforms and with the help of cloud technology. Administrators will focus on careful management of data accessibility and put security as a key component to these new phenomena. School administrators will also focus on creating rules and procedures that assist to run class smoothly.
4. Personalized Learning will continue to Spread
The best part of Personalized learning is that it includes both face to face teaching as well as technology assisted instruction and collaboration to address each student’s learning style and interests for deeper learning. Teachers tailor their instruction based on the assessment of each student’s needs and preferences.
With advancement in technology, it will help in moving authentic personalized learning to the next level. It will also re-energize students by offering them opportunities to select what they learn and also how they wish to learn it.
5. Augmented & Virtual Reality to become Commonplace
Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) has already made a comfortable space in instructional area. Tolls such as Google expedition is a virtual reality teaching tool which allows students to swim with sharks, visit outer space and walk through a museum and more without leaving the classroom. Currently the tool has close to 500 expeditions available and in the future the number is expected to double with development works ongoing.
6 Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
AI isn’t new and in the last one year, it has received a lot of buzz. AI is being used to improve education and therefore this piece of technology will continue to augment the work of the educators.
Machine Learning is a subset of AI and with Machine Learning; computers are programmed to learn to do something they are not programmed to perform. The penetration of Machine Learning will grow and this will eventually help improve education. As AI educational solutions continue to mature, hopes are that – AI can help fill need gaps in learning and teaching and allow schools and teachers to do more than ever before. Software for K12 analytics and higher education are fast becoming accessible. Such applications are developed to provide actionable answers which can be applied directly to the classroom. It is also playing a significant role in improving assessments and evaluations by removing biases.
Analytics technology will help educators to predict students’ future learning behavior as well discover and improve domain models.
To conclude, we have seen the education sector coming a long way say from an increased focus on augmented reality and other visual technologies to make learning more real and alive. Thus, we’ve reached a point where education technology is no more a luxury in the education space but the integration of it is the very norm to abide by in order to deliver holistic education to the students.
