Technology and the Near Distant Future of Education

Technology is constantly advancing and changing everything around us including education.  In a few years, students will truly be learning all the time, everywhere.  As I read online articles regarding teaching in the future, they made references to flipped classrooms, cloud-based learning, further gamification of education, augmented reality, virtual reality, and holograms.  Imagine being able to take an immersive virtual tour of the Smithsonian Institute and being able to ask your virtual tour guide any question you want and get instant accurate answers?  Technology will give us very rich personalized learning experiences anytime and everywhere so that students can learn more, faster, sooner and all OUTSIDE the classroom.  Students can then come prepared to school to build and create things as well as to solve problems.  Classroom time will be devoted almost entirely to hands-on, collaborative application of learning.  Students can experiment, build with 3-D printers, and invent solutions to real problems.  The classroom of tomorrow will be a high-tech vocational research experimentation laboratory.

As students learn more at younger ages, teachers of today who teach high school may only be qualified to teach middle school tomorrow.  Teachers will have to take tech-heavy continuing education credits in order to keep developing the skills that their students are hoping to master.  The saying “Those who can do; those who can’t teach” will cease to be said as teaching becomes doing.  The future is exciting but demanding for teachers.  Teachers will only survive if they continue to learn.

References

How Technology Will Shape Teaching in the Future. (n.d.). Retrieved June 26, 2017, from

https://www.educationcity.com/blog/how-technology-will-shape-teaching-future

Poh, Michael. (n.d.). 8 Technologies That Will Shape Future Classrooms. Retrieved June 26,

2017, from http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/future-classroom-technologies/

U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Technology. (January 2016)  Future Ready

Learning: Reimagining the Role of Technology in Education. Retrieved June 26,2017 from

https://tech.ed.gov/files/2015/12/NETP16.pdf.

Allowing Students to Use Mobile Devices to Achieve Learning Objectives

What a great time of year!  I am enjoying my summer break after my second year of teaching.  Looking ahead, I am excited about making small changes to my classes next year that I hope will yield positive results.  After two years of math textbooks and lectures to students sitting in perfect rows, I’m ready to start applying what I've learned from the TEACH-NOW teacher certification course. Allow me to tell you about these small changes and the part that mobile devices play in them.  Perhaps these changes will work for your classroom too.

First, I want to flip my classroom a few days each week. (For a brief explanation of the flipped classroom watch The Flipped Classroom Explained.)  At least two days a week, my eighth-grade pre-algebra students will get their math lesson (video) at home on their computer or mobile devices.  They will come to school the next day and collaboratively work to solve word problems related to the math concept they learned the night before.  I hope to gain more time in class to assist students who need it.  I also hope my students will begin to see that their phones and tablets can educate them and not just keep them socially-connected and entertained.

Second, I want students to use their mobile devices in the classroom occasionally as they work problems.  Students can access quizzes online at Quizlet and other sites and work together to solve them.  They can also review videos (while using earphones) as they do their classroom work.  Students zone out at times during my lectures and then ask me to repeat what I just said.  Mobile devices allow you to play a video lecture over and over again without making others listen to the same lecture again.

Third, I want to utilize mobile devices in project-based activities or short assignments.  I look forward to sending students on a geometry scavenger hunt through the school using their camera phones.  Students also may be given a choice to submit a reflection as a document or a video. These changes will be experimental and incremental, but I hope to build on them the following year.

What are some things I need to keep in mind to make these changes work? For in-class mobile activities,  I should plan a prep day when students will bring a mobile device to the classroom (with headphones) to see who does and doesn’t have one.  I should test the wi-fi that day also to see if everyone can connect.  I need a plan to allow students to share devices (if practical) or have spare devices for those who don’t bring one. For the flipped learning, I need to have a workaround for students who do not have internet access.  At this point, I will simply instruct them to read the lesson in the book the night before. By planning ahead, achieving learning objectives by using mobile learning can work smoothly.

References

Bergmann, John. (2016, July 10). The Flipped Classroom Explained.  Retrieved June 26,
       2017, from http://www.jonbergmann.com/the-flipped-classroom-explained/
Daccord, Tom. (2012, September 27). 5 Critical Mistakes Schools Make With iPads 
       (And How To Correct Them). Retrieved June 26, 2017, from 
       http://www.edudemic.com/5-critical-mistakes-schools-ipads-and-correct-them/
Dunn, Jeff. (2013, February 4). The Teacher’s Quick Guide To Digital Scavenger 
       Hunts. Retrieved June 26, 2017, from http://www.edudemic.com/
       the-teachers-quick-guide-to-digital-scavenger-hunts/