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.
According to Cisco’s most recent Visual Networking Index (VNI) report, video now accounts for more than 50% of all consumer Internet traffic. By 2013, 91 percent of global Internet traffic is forecast to be video. Through my work with government and education leaders from around the globe, I believe that video technologies are now viewed as a fundamental catalyst for driving education transformation in schools and universities worldwide. Which is why I am proud to introduce a new infographic based on Cisco’s newest thought leadership research: “ Preparing Today’s Students for Tomorrow’s Challenges: The Impact of Video in the Education.”
The infographic provides a visual summary of the research report on the impact of video in education, how to strategically adopt video technologies into teaching and learning, and how to best guide students in the development of 21st century skills to prepare them for their role as global citizens. I truly believe it’s a perfect moment for educators everywhere to re-assess their use of video and to make the key decisions about how best to incorporate it into their students’ learning experience.
How will you transform your classrooms with video technologies?
In a video address at the June ISTE conference, U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, announced that August will be Connected Educator Month. To kick off this event The Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology (OET) will convene Connected Educator Month in conjunction with the American Institutes for Research (AIR), a nonpartisan nonprofit organization. Connected Educator month is part of the Office of Educational Technology’s Connected Educators initiative, which is supporting informal, online, social and professional learning for educators by conducting research, hosting communities, and working with the field.
Do you want to help transform the way we learn? In the video below, Darren Cambridge of the American Institutes of Research explains how you can participate and help transform education.
You should also check out the Connected Learning Exchange (CLX) Community Open House on Monday, Aug 20, 2012, from Noon – 3 pm, EST to learn more!
For a shining example of public education in the United States, watch the talk that Dr. Mark Edwards, Superintendent of Mooresville Graded School District in North Carolina, gave at the recent ISTE Conference in San Diego. Yes, Mooresville is a Cisco customer, and yes, how they have used technology to improve student outcomes is big part of their success story (Dr. Edwards has the metrics to prove it). But the real key to their effectiveness as a high-performing public school is the holistic approach they take to educating “every child, every day”, their “can do” attitude, and “culture of caring” that Mark and his team have created at Mooresville.
Watch the video of Dr. Edward’s ISTE presentation — it runs just under an hour and is well worth your time.
Most exciting to me is that so much of Mooresville’s approach is replicable. Dr. Edwards is writing a book and I hope every educator, and prospective educator in the country buys a copy.
