Six Big Tech Trends in Education to Follow

Duncan, Laura

Schwartz, Katrina. (2013, June 5).  Six big tech trends to follow in education.  [Web log comment].
Retrieved from http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/06/six-big-trends-in-education-to-follow/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+kqed%2FnHAK+%28MindShift%29

This article summarizes the NMC Horizon Report of 2013, K-12 edition.  Schwartz explains the big take-aways follows:  First, due to the ever-increasing presence of the internet in students' lives, there are more opportunities for blended and online learning classroom models.  Further, print and digital textbooks are suffering as open-source content becomes better-known and utilized.  The increase of the internet's presence has also decreased teacher isolation and increased collaboration and discussion thanks to social media.
Second, these changes are making some educators feel uncomfortable, as they struggle to keep up with technology's evolution and broadening role in education.  Some teachers are resistant to adapting and professional development has had trouble keeping up with the vast changes.
Next, the report predicts that in the next year, the demand for cloud-based computing in schools will increase and mobile learning may move to foreground, as the market for educational apps continues to grow exponentially.
Learning analytics (using real-time data from digital learning platforms to inform teaching approaches) will also increase, according to the report.  More high-quality open content will also become readily available over the next few years. Lastly, the report predicts that 3-d printing will eventually become part of the educational movement, as these printing devices become less expensive.

In all, this article was fascinating and useful.  Technology's integration into the classroom is moving at an increasingly rapid speed, and it's essential that we prepare and inform ourselves so that we can stay ahead of the curve in our work and keep our school libraries on top of the trends.  This is a great article for a brief summary of what's to come.