A Report About What's on the Horizon
- Charles Shewell
- Jul 19, 2022
- 2 min read
A Look at the Horizon Report K-12
The Horizon Report, K-12 edition, examines emerging technologies and trends that have a potential impact on and use in education. There were a variety of trends, challenges, and developments that were profiled that will have significant impact on education within the next five years. I would like to discuss one topic from each category as I have gained high interest in the trending topic of the redesign of learning spaces, the challenge of improving digital literacy, and the development of artificial intelligence. Here I will discuss why I believe we need to learn more about these topics and relate them to personal experience.
Flipping the Classroom
Because conventional teaching models are continually evolving through the emergence of educational technologies, educators are looking for new approaches for teaching that can reach all students. I believe this is important because with technology teachers are able to reach students in a variety of ways and designing a classroom that supports collaboration and self directed learning can be more beneficial for students that now have access to information at their fingertips. “Today, student centric pedagogies are being embraced to better prepare learners for the future workforce, and new approaches to classroom design are supporting this shift,” (Freeman, Becker, Cummins, Davis, Giesinger, 2017). With all of my upper level classes I practice different modes of blended learning and models such as a flipped classroom, where I find students become more engaged and are more responsible for their learning as it has become more individualized.
Building Digital Citizens
As I have progressed through my degree over this summer I have found myself gaining more and more interest in improving digital literacy. I have begun to build a passion for using technology to build responsible digital citizens. I plan to practice this in my courses so that students can develop their understanding for technology use with social media to properly assess content as well as provide my students opportunities to produce their own educational content that can be shared. “Schools are challenged to provide students with opportunities to
produce their own content, which allows learners to experience firsthand how knowledge is constructed and disseminated,” (Freeman, Becker, Cummins, Davis, Giesinger, 2017).
Intelligence in the Classroom
One of the modules I cover in my Arts & Entertainment Technologies course is virtual reality, where we create spaces and then use Google Cardboard eyewear that allows students to visit the spaces they created. Through some research I have also found different companies that use virtual reality and artificial intelligence for training purposes. This is something that I am fascinated with and find that the capabilities for this use will be tremendous for teaching. ”AI applications have the potential to positively impact teaching and learning by enhancing students’ metacognition, providing insights into effective pedagogies, and relieving instructors of tedious tasks,” (Freeman, Becker, Cummins, Davis, Giesinger, 2017). AI and VR applications have the ability to engage students like never before, enhancing the impact learning can have on a student. While I am interested in AI technology for machine learning and data analytics, I find that integrating AI in the classroom to personalize learning for the student so that they are more engaged and also helping to create a more universal design for learning.
Resources
Works Cited
Freeman, A., Adams Becker, S., Cummins, M., Davis, A., and Hall Giesinger, C. (2017). NMC/CoSN Horizon Report: 2017 K–12 Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.
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