6 TECHNOLOGIES
set to change the education world
ew Media Consortium, an international consortium of learning-focused organizations dedicated to the exploration and use of new media and new technologies, released a report that identifies six new technologies that can expand the tools available to educators without increasing costs – and all of them have the
potential to change
the way educators, students and institutions work.
1
THE CONTINUING RISE OF CLOUD COMPUTING:
Cloud Computing only recently started to have an impact on education. According to the report, cloud computing removes the restrictive licensing, high costs and high maintenance associated with traditional software. Schools and universities thus have a quick and easy access to ready-made teaching and learning applications directly over the internet, vastly increasing the variety of digital tools available in education.
EXTENDING THE CURRICULUM WITH MOBILES:
Mobile devices already give students the ability to study where and when they want. More educational programs will be developed and refined such as electronic book readers, annotation tools and applications for creation and composition, further increasing students anytime/anywhere access to the curriculum.
3
GAME-BASED LEARNING:
Game based learning has made great strides in secondary education, but it still suffers from a scarcity of decent educational games. Educational developers are struggling to keep up with the technology used in consumer games, but as more schools look to incorporate games in the classroom the educational developers will begin to catch up.
4
OPEN DIGITAL CONTENT FREE FOR ALL:
Open textbooks offer numerous benefits, including reduced costs and quick adaption to new information, like Free High School Science Texts written by volunteer experts for disadvantaged schools in South Africa. Educators will soon be able to pick and choose books online, from new content on an almost daily basis.
5
PERSONAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS:
Often delivered through learning platforms, Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) give students control over the pace, style and direction of how they learn. Students using PLEs will be able to develop their own ‘resource libraries’, incorporating materials that suit their learning style.
6
INDIVIDUAL TEACHING WITH LEARNING ANALYTICS:
The power to monitor and respond to students’ academic performance offers great advantages to educators and learners. Until now, learning analytics has focused on identifying at-risk students who can then be coached to avoid dropping out of a course. But the technology has the potential to help educators determine the most effective pedagogical approaches for specific learning styles and differentiate instruction to suit individual learners.
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inMagazine/January, 2012 3
NARENDRA NAUKUDKAR
SEPTEMBER, 2013 5
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2
CRACK THE ICEBERG (Page 8)
Solutions
1 a) 2 c) 3 b) 4 b) 5 a) 6 c) 7 d)