Key Trends:
- The abundance of resources and relationships made easily accessible via the Internet is increasingly challenging us to revisit our roles as educators.
- As IT support becomes more and more decentralized, the technologies we use are increasingly based not on school servers, but in the cloud.
- Technology continues to profoundly affect the way we work, collaborate, communicate, and succeed.
- People expect to be able to work, learn, and study whenever and wherever they want to.
- The perceived value of innovation and creativity is increasing.
Critical Challenges:
- Digital media literacy continues its rise in importance as a key skill in every discipline and profession.
- Economic pressures and new models of education are presenting unprecedented competition to traditional models of schools.
- The demand for personalized learning is not adequately supported by current technology or practices.
- A key challenge is the fundamental structure of the K-12 education establishment — aka “the system.”
- Many activities related to learning and education take place outside the walls of the classroom and thus are not part of our learning metrics.
Technologies to Watch:
- Near-term Horizon
- Cloud computing
- Mobiles
- Second Adoption Horizon
- Game-based learning
- Open content
- Far-term Horizon
- Learning analytics
- Personal learning environments (PLEs)
What could these trends, critical challenges, and suggested technologies mean for special education? Stay tuned, as I am working on a post in which I will share my thoughts.
Share this
Do you know somebody else who would find this post interesting or useful? Please forward it to them. Did somebody forward this post to you? Visit Teaching All Students and subscribe to receive posts for free. If you need a tutorial please visit this post: RSS Readers.
