The Horizon Reports identify and describe emerging technologies that are likely to have a significant impact on education around the globe. The recently-released K-12 report focuses on technologies that we can expect to become mainstream within the next few years and that have the potential to transform the processes of teaching, learning, and creative inquiry internationally.
It has been interesting to follow the development of the report over the last few months on the Horizon Report’s wiki where lively discussions between experts in both technology and education continue throughout the year. Dealing with a wide range of issues such as the impact of technology on wider society, changes in the future workplace, the abundance of resources and relationships available online, each of these topics is presented collaboratively. The results help to identify not only the opportunities for schools, but also some of the challenges that they need to be discussing and planning for today.
In the near-term (within a year), the report predicts that mobile devices and apps will continue to become more pervasive in the classroom as smartphones and tablets (not only iPads!) become more sophisticated and connectivity becomes increasingly ubiquitous. The report contains plenty of case-studies and links to research for those who wish to learn more.
The second set of predictions deals with the mid-term (two to three years) and describes the wider integration of game-based learning and the personal learning environments – using technology to move towards a more student-centred approach to both formal and informal learning. The Education department at World ORT are particularly interested in the inclusion of serious games as this is going to be more fully explored with a group of our own educators during the next Wingate Seminar entitled “Serious games and gamification of learning” later this year.
Perhaps the most exciting chapter of the report deals with the far-term horizon (four to five years ahead) where we can expect to see an increase in augmented reality – the layering of information over real world objects, settings, and processes – and the mainstream use of natural user interfaces that react to touch, movement, voice, and even facial expressions. Plenty of examples are provided for each of these, although not all from K-12 learning, but it seems that these technologies will be with us sooner than we may think.
Although sometimes criticised as over-optimistic, the message from the Horizon Report is clear that we need to spend more time familiarising ourselves with the opportunities that these developments can offer us. We need to prepare our educators to discover how best these innovations can serve their needs and the needs of their students and to invest time planning for change. Discussions about implementing new ideas will need to reach beyond the ‘tech-evangelists’ and our strategies for change will need to be inclusive and creative if they are to achieve a positive transformation in K-12 education.
Many thanks Daniel, is very interesting and useful!!
It’s perhaps curious for us in Italy to note that IWB is no more mentioned in the report, they are ‘old technology’
I can answer a colpue of your questions. Distance learning (and I think this includes courses through the mail, as well) are courses you can do from your home, where the teacher is a fair distance from where the student is. There are some situations, where, for instance, a whole class might meet in one location, and the teacher is in another, sometimes with another group, and there are video and computer links. People take these classes to fulfill all sorts of requirements and interests, especially when they can’t GET to another location every week or two or three times a week to take a class. For instance, I once took a whole degree where I had to drive, daily, three hours each way to classes, spend all day, then come home, because I didn’t want to relocate altogether. I would MUCH rather have done the whole degree long-distance, but that wasn’t an option at the time. I live in a rural area, and getting advanced courses is often difficult, and all we have here is a community college, so, if I want an advanced class, I have to do something else, and that can be done through distance and online courses. I can’t help you out with any specifics. There are some good online Universities, but I’d be willing to bet there are some scams out there as well. Do your research and make sure you actually can TALK to someone who has taken courses through whatever group you want to send money to good luck!