2012 was a big year for technology in education, and as promised, I’ll be diving into 5 of the top tech trends in education that are sure to take 2013 by storm! One of the biggest trends I hear teachers and administrators talking about is the Flipped Classroom. While this isn’t a new concept, it certainly became much more prominent trend over the last couple years.
A high school biology teacher in Los Gatos, California is using the power of video to implement a Flipped Classroom and transform his students’ learning environment. As Renee Patton points out in her blog post, it’s not all about the technology, but when implemented with sound pedagogy the technology can have a profound impact on student engagement and learning. Read More »
After a well deserved break and perhaps a bit of indulgence over the holidays, we are now back to the books and looking ahead at what 2013 has in store for education.
With a landmark year for education technology behind us, now is the time to harness the momentum and drive innovation forward in 2013. So as we slither into the year of the snake, here are four high impact trends worth watching:
Transition to hybrid learning: With online courses on the rise, educators will experiment how to best integrate them with traditional teaching methods. This year schools and universities will hone in on the most effective formats for learning in the digital age.
OK, we all see a lot of college-ranking lists -- everything from top technical schools to top party schools -- but most recently with the explosion of technology in higher education a new list has debuted, named the Most Connected Colleges. The listing, launched by U.S News & World Reports, is the first-ever ranking to honor schools that have successfully applied technology to improve the connections between students and educators.
We were excited to see Maine’s Bowdoin College rated right at the top of the list! Among many tech initiatives, Bowdoin College engaged Cisco to help extend a reliable and secure wireless network throughout its campus with indoor and outdoor access.
The partnership, dubbed 4-VA, includes members from George Mason University, James Madison University, University of Virginia and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. The 4-VA’s goals are admirable and ambitious: To make higher education more affordable, expand the number of degrees awarded in the state and strengthen member institutions--individually and collectively.
Almost a year after inception, the consortium has made serious headway on its mission to revolutionize Virginia’s higher education system through collaboration technologies. This is a great video on the program:
How’d they do it’? The crux of its success was the ability to leverage resources across all four campuses. With Cisco TelePresence, members can easily share instructional and academic resources via high-definition, real-time video that creates a life-like setting. Read More »
As a member of the Cisco Public Sector team, and being married to an educator, I have been engaged in a few (sometimes heated) debates on students, teachers and staff bringing their own devices to school. Many teachers have seen impressive results from utilizing students’ own devices in the education process, and with school budget cuts, most teachers do not have any other mobile option, so it’s safe to say that BYOD is taking a strong hold in education.
As a result, schools find themselves addressing unique issues of scalability, security, manageability and budget when it comes to developing and implementing BYOD policies. How will they accommodate in real time the explosion of new devices and applications that students and staff want to use on the network? How will they regulate who uses what device from which location in what manner? How will they support BYOD within a restricted budget?
I recently read an interesting post by Amy Blanchard on this topic. You should check out her recent post on the Cisco Mobility blog, she includes reference to an interesting case study -- definitely worth the read!
By the way, what is your position on BYOD in schools? Love to hear your interesting stories and insights!
