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Horizon Report K12 Edition
http://www.nmc.org/publications/2009-horizon-k12-report
The first ever Horizon Report for the K12 sector describes the continuing work of the NMC’s Horizon Project, a research-oriented effort that seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies that will likely have a significant impact on K-12 education.Taken together, our research indicates that each of these six technologies will have a significant impact on schools within the next five years.
- Collaborative Environments, The value placed on collaboration is increasing in the workplace as professionals are expected to work across geographic and cultural boundaries more and more frequently. Many teachers recognize the importance of collaborative work and are finding that online tools to support it provide them and their students with opportunities to work creatively, develop teamwork skills, and tap into the perspectives of people around the world with a wide range of experiences and skills that differ from their own.
- Online Communication Tools. Communication tools are a part of most students’ daily lives outside of school. Instant messaging and online chats via desktop video conferencing are common means for social interaction with family and friends. As technology provides ways for teachers to help shape the constructive use of communication tools in the classroom, a new world of experiences is opening up for students. With most applications costing little or nothing to implement, few other technologies available today have the ability to remove geographic and time limitations from school environments more quickly than online communication tools.
- Mobiles. Commonly carried by most college students, many high school students, and a growing number of younger students, mobiles have been evolving rapidly in recent years. Multi-touch interfaces, GPS capability, and the ability to run third-party applications make today’s mobile device an increasingly flexible tool that is readily adapted to a wide range of tasks for social networking, learning, and productivity. In some places, mobile devices like the iPhone have already begun to supplant portable computers as the Internet-capable device of choice.
- Cloud Computing. The rise of large-scale “data farms” — large groups of networked servers — has made processing power and storage capacity available in abundant quantities. Applications that are developed to run in the cloud and take advantage of the ability to scale up or down along with the number of users and storage demands are changing the way we think about programs and files. Collaborative work, research, social networking, media sharing, virtual computers: all are enabled by applications that live in the cloud.
- Smart Objects. Smart objects combine a unique identifier with sensors and network access to link physical objects with a wealth of virtual information. Some smart objects include it all, combining the ability to sense themselves and their surroundings with the ability to control a computer or access online content; others are merely everyday objects that have been tagged with a special code that connects them to the virtual world. The underlying technologies that support smart objects are not new, but we are now seeing new kinds of sensors, identifiers, and applications with a much more generalizable set of functionalities.
- The Personal Web. Finding and organizing online content related to personal interests and learning objectives can be a difficult task, given the quantity of information on the web and the ease of adding more. Keeping track of one’s own contributions, and those of valued peers and colleagues, adds another layer of complexity. There are a number of technologies that are used to configure and manage the ways in which we view and use the Internet; taken together, this toolset is the personal web: a growing set of free and simple tools and applications that let us create customized, personal web-based environments that explicitly support our social, professional, learning, and other activities.
Key Trends
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In addition to the six technologies named above, the K-12 Horizon Advisory Board also researched, identified, and ranked key trends affecting the practice of teaching, learning, and creative expression in K-12 schools. Through a review of current articles, interviews, papers, and research, the Board captured emerging or continuing trends they considered important, and in the end, nearly 30 such trends were identified. Each was ranked according to how significant an impact they were likely to have on K-12 education in the next five years; the top five are presented below.
- Technology continues to profoundly affect the way we work, collaborate, communicate, and succeed. Information technologies impact how people work, play, learn, socialize, and collaborate. Increasingly, technology skills are also critical to success in almost every arena, and those who are more facile with technology will advance while those without access or skills will not. The digital divide, once seen as a factor of wealth, is now seen as a factor of education: those who have the opportunity to learn technology skills are in a better position to obtain and make use of technology than those who do not. Evolving occupations, multiple careers, and an increasingly mobile workforce contribute to this trend.
- Technology is increasingly a means for empowering students, a method for communication and socializing, and a ubiquitous, transparent part of their lives. Technology is impacting our lives, and the lives of students, in new and expanding ways. Once seen as an isolating influence, technology is now recognized as a primary way to stay in touch and take control of one’s own learning. Multisensory, ubiquitous, and interdisciplinary, technology is integrated into nearly everything we do. It gives students a public voice and a means to reach beyond the classroom for interaction and exploration.
- The web is an increasingly personal experience. We have an unprecedented level of control over online content, not only in terms of the information and activities that we select, but also in the way they are represented to us. Students are very familiar with the idea of “skinning” — customizing the look and feel of — their virtual experiences. They expect and experience personalized content in games and websites that is at odds with what they find in the classroom.
- The way we think of learning environments is changing. Traditionally, a learning environment has been a physical space, but the idea of what constitutes a learning environment is changing. The “spaces” where students learn are becoming more community-driven, interdisciplinary, and supported by technologies that engage virtual communication and collaboration. This changing concept of the learning environment has clear implications for schools, where learning is the key focus of the space.
- The perceived value of innovation and creativity is increasing. Innovation is valued at the highest levels of business and must be embraced in schools if students are to succeed beyond their formal education. The ways we design learning experiences must reflect the growing importance of innovation and creativity as professional skills.
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About Joyce Valenza
Joyce is an Assistant Professor of Teaching at Rutgers University School of Information and Communication, a technology writer, speaker, blogger and learner. Follow her on Twitter: @joycevalenza
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