NMC Horizon Report

Significant changes in education are afoot. Technology is changing rapidly and schools are trying to keep up. Many people are now using a cloud-based network. At this point, I know that iCloud exists, but to what extent and how to use it, I have no idea. It makes sense for all information we want to be saved, to be saved so that it can be accessible anywhere. Anywhere and everywhere are a big focus of this drive of technology. People want immediate gratification in their academic and social media learning. I stand in the middle on this topic because I can see larger implications of society affected outside of the learning and technology worlds. Another dynamic of this trend is the advantage of collaboration. In my teaching classes I have found discussion and collaboration on topics of debate, lesson plans, or reading to be extremely helpful. The old saying is true, “Two heads are better than one.” Having at least one other person to bounce ideas off enables more dynamics of a situation to be evaluated. Across the campus as a whole, I often hear peers complaining about “group projects.” Working with someone else on a project is a pain, because trying to get together with someone is always difficult and inconvenient. This is true especially in elementary school when your parents have to drive and pick you up. In light of the previous discussion off the effective means of collaboration, if used appropriately, the ability to collaboration is a skill to be cultured in students. This approach is correlated to challenge based and active learning. I see a lot of benefit in using technology students already have (like smartphones) to connect students to one another and students to real life problem solving. Much of student learning is through Internet perusing that is pulled from sites that are more informal than textbooks. Libraries and university collections are being challenged at large to remain innovative and part of a student’s foundational learning.