There is no denying that technology has impacted every sector
There is no denying that technology has impacted every sector, including education, hospitality, and daily living. It is a crucial component of everything we do. Google was established fifteen years ago, and it totally altered the information-gathering environment. At the moment, there is at least one computer for every five students in every American classroom. The value of technology in schooling has also been recognized by other developing nations. In order to keep up with the technological tidal wave, nations like Kenya have introduced laptops to all public institutions starting in the first grade. Right now, there are countless schools offering courses in application building and creation. The need to integrate technology into learning is seen as a necessary action to ensure the country is in the front line of development. Asian countries such as China and Japan are seen as competition; who comes up with better and more innovative machines before the other. The only way is up for this industry, with the government investing up to 3 billion dollars a year for schools to improve their computer skills. The recent years have seen the development of applications that can supplement traditional textbooks, reducing the load on students and making learning fun. Major platforms such as Google have provided not only videos, but full-on lessons online, applications such as Skype which make distance learning possible and in real-time. Future trends in Education must impact the learning ecosystem (Saveri, 2013). This paper seeks to highlight the projected trends in technology in relation to education.
Key words: technology, education, future, applications.
Future Trends in Education
Imagine stepping into a classroom in 2020. A global shortage of skilled talent will lead to development of career-focused learning. Virtual learning and augmented reality will change our old definitions of classrooms and make them obsolete. The education sector will evolve, requiring a new definition of what education means, who delivers it and how they do it. Funding education will shift to pedagogical approaches. Personalized, dynamic and unbundled education will be the new normal. There are various developing aspects of technology that are bound to play a major role in the education sector; which are looked into below.
Digitalized classrooms
Technology will be able to pervade almost every aspect of the classroom. Enhancements such as desk-sized screens; which will replace traditional books enabling students to manipulate images or type notes with their onscreen keyboards. With the transition from blackboard to whiteboard, it is only natural that the next in line will likely be a giant touch screen LCD screen which allows more interaction. It will be attached to a computer capable of generating infinite combinations of images and information. It will also be capable of detecting multiple touch inputs from many students. Another example is tablets that can track eye movement and hence attention and how students absorb information in class. This is achieved using biometric technology which is currently only being used in schools to track truancy and book borrowing. Other enhancements for a digital classroom include performance dashboard and object-embedded intelligence which are all projected to be part of the future classroom.
Science activities and experiments will be performed better and safer with virtual laboratories. They may not provide the same feel as real experiments but they'll provide more practice opportunities to students at a lower cost to the school. Virtual laboratories will be equipped with technology such as 3D printing; which will allow students to take their ideas and turn them into actual prototypes and test them. MakerBot will crowdfund efforts to put 3D printer in every U.S. school (Moscaritolo, 2013). Further developments on robotics are also foreseen in the education sector, with projections of robot assistants who will make work easier for teachers.
Another projected feature of the digitalized classroom is Augmented Reality (AR). Instead of a child just looking at an image of the circulatory system, they can point the AR device at a classmate and visualize the heart beating, and other organs functioning. This is a more immersive and realistic way of learning for students, allowing them to enjoy learning.
An organization called KinectEDucation currently provides an online platform for teachers and students to use Microsoft Kinect for learning in game-based learning. This is basically the motion sensing technology that enables students to manipulate graphs, learn sign language and even learn music. Educators have chosen to teach children how to design games which helps them develop skills such as systematic thinking, problem solving, storytelling, and many more. Clearly, the future holds a lot of potential in game-based learning with more concepts coming up each day which will allow learning to be more fun and actually keep up with the changing times.
Conclusion
The importance of technology in the education sector cannot be downplayed. To move forward globally in terms of development and improvement of the quality of education, the integration of technology is needed. Students need to be exposed to technology and basic computer skills from a young age to ensure maximum understanding which will enable them to be productive in the future. Hopefully these projected trends will achieve just that.
References
.Mark Cotteleer, Jonathan Holdowsky, and Monika Mahto, The 3D opportunity primer, Deloitte University Press, March 6, 2014, http://dupress.com/articles/the-3d-opportunity-primer-the-basics-of-additive-manufacturing/?top=10.
Patricia Buckley, The solution revolution in education, Deloitte University Press, November 18, 2013, http://dupress.com/articles/the-solution-revolution-in-education/.
Tiffany Fishman and Linsey Sledge, The future of higher education, Deloitte University Press, April 2014, http://dupress.com/articles/reimagining-higher-education/.
William D. Eggers and John Hagel III, Brawn from brains: Talent, policy, and the future of American competitiveness, Deloitte University Press, September 27, 2012,
