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Horizon Report 2010; K-12 edition"
From the link to the Technology and Learning magazine (www.techlearning.com/) I found a link to the 2010 Horizon Report (K-12 edition) published by the Horizon Project of the New Media Consortium (http://www.nmc.org/horizon). Since 2002 the Horizon Project has published annual reports which profile six emerging technologies that will have a significant impact on K-12 education in the next 1-5 years. Each year, the NMC chooses two technologies in each of three timeframes - less than one year to adoption; two to three years; and four to five years - and they provide an overview of the technologies, current uses, and other possible applications.
From the 2010 report I have chosen three of the technologies; Collaborative Environments, Game-based Learning, and Mobiles.
1) Collaborative Environments are defined by the NMC as "complete, off-the-shelf packages or collections of do-it-yourself tools, depending on the level of comfort of the teachers and support personnel and the needs of the students using the systems" (Horizon Report 2010, p. 13). Collaborative environments can include wikis, Google Docs, or group and class blogs.
The creation of a class blog would be the most likely means by which I would incorporate this technology into my teaching. Learning how to create a blog (like I have had to do for this assignment) is a practical way of using the technology, and also an excellent means of sharing information and knowledge - and feedback - with my classmates. In teaching business courses that include case analyses, a group could use a blog to brainstorm ideas for SWOT analysis and possible solutions / recommendations for the business case.
Collaborative environments allow students to work from anywhere, thus enabling participation from shut-ins, disabled students, or students who may be sick or infirm. Students can work across geographic or cultural boundaries and tap into perspectives from people with different experiences and expertise. Students using collaborative environments also develop teamwork skills and work creatively in an efficient manner.
Possible drawbacks may include reluctance to share ideas and information due to lack of trust, or perhaps fear of the "unknown". Also, when corresponding across countries or cultures, language and cultural differences may impose barriers.
Two interesting examples of the use of Collaborative Environments are:
a) Kites Around the World (http://globalkites.wikispaces.com/, an international project for students to exchange ideas and information about kite design, how to build different kites, videos of themselves flying their kites, and collaborate on creating descriptions of how kites are made and flown in their country;
b) Solar Navigations Wiki (http://solar6voyages.wikispaces.com/ A site launched by Duke University Libraries as a mentoring program for Durham Public Schools to help them implement and use technology in the classroom, using a wiki to facilitate student collaboration between classes to create jointly-authored reports on the solar system.
2) Game-based Learning
As the father of a 13-year-old, I was intrigued by Game-based Learning because of the prevalence of video games and gaming technology in our home. Game-based Learning can range from "simple paper-and-pencil games like word searches all the way up to complex, massively multiplayer online (MMO) and role-playing games" (Horizon Report 2010, p. 17). Educational games can be broadly grouped into three categories: games that are not digital; games that are digital, but that are not collaborative; and collaborative digital games. Digital games can include those designed for gaming consoles, such as the Nintendo Wii, and on-line games such as World of Warcraft.
MMO games designed for learning, entertainment, or training, such as World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, and others, bring many players together to work on activities that require collaborative problem-solving (the popular television show The Big Bang Theory regularly features its main characters engaged in different types of these games). Subject mastery is generally emphasized over complex problem-solving. These skill-building games and small group games that foster discussion and teambuilding are not difficult to fit into the curriculum; and kids will often willingly play them much longer than they would otherwise study the material in question (Horizon Report 2010, p. 18). The Report refers to research that shows that "young people continue to play games as adults...the average age of a video gamer in the United States in 2009 was 35 years", and second, "a game-player today is as likely to have children as to be a child" (Horizon Report, p. 17).
Game-based Learning lends itself well to business education. On-line games can be developed (and may already exist) where individuals or groups of students can challenge each other in simulations or business analyses. Business case competitions at CNA have already incorporated a "virtual" team from the Distributed Learning campus. I would use the case competition example in my own teaching - have a "virtual" team or teams analyze a case and present their recommendations to a panel of business executives, and be graded on the results.
There are several benefits to using Game-based Learning in the classroom. Early studies of consumer games helped to identify the aspects of games that make them especially engaging and appealing to players of various ages and of both genders, such as the feeling of working toward a goal; the possibility of attaining spectacular successes; the ability to problem-solve, collaborate with others, and socialize; and an interesting story line. Also, games may be a natural way to reach young people today, and a great deal more is now known about how to develop good games both for entertainment and for education (Horizon Report, p. 17).
Possible challenges may include lack of understanding of the rules of the game; hesitance or inability to cooperate with the other team members; and frustration with the lack of results or success.
Also of note:
a) Media Literacy. The World of Warcraft (WoW) in School Project (http://wowinschool.pbworks.) engages at-risk students at Suffern Middle School in New York and Cape Fear Middle School in North Carolina in an afterschool program that teaches skills in communication, digital literacy, online safety, mathematics, and leadership through game play.
b) World Languages. Students at Keysborough Primary School in Victoria, Australia, used the 3D-world authoring tool Kahootz to produce a series of treasure hunt games demonstrating their understanding of giving and asking for directions in French. Students wrote their own dialogues in French and recorded them in their own voices.
3) Mobiles
We all have one; as the Horizon Report notes, the mobile market has more than 4 billion subscribers; more than two-thirds of them live in developing countries. Increasingly, "the Internet is accessed from mobile devices using a cellular network that extends significantly beyond even the electric grid. Mobiles represent an untapped resource for reaching students and for bridging the gap between the learning that happens in school and the learning that happens out in the world" (Horizon Report, p. 22).
Examples of Mobiles include cell phones, smart phones, tablets and the iPad. Mobiles are "increasingly the gateway not only for common tools and communications, but also for information of all kinds, training materials, income generating work, and more" (Horizon Report 2010, p. 22). People all over world use their cell phones for a variety of information needs, as they are often far cheaper, more accessible and easier to use than their desktop or laptop. The cell phone provides more than enough functionality to serve as the primary computing device.
I have very limited (no) ability to use mobile technology; my cell phone provides more than enough challenge for me. However, there are examples of teachers who use Twitter (for example) to ask for student feedback or input on an in-class reading assignment. Some teachers even use social networking for quizzes. Some will send a group of students on a field trip, and then text or post the assignment instructions on a social networking site or to the students' cell phone.
The advantages of this technology are numerous. Availability and accessibility are almost unlimited in today's environment. Mobiles are the technology of today's generations - the Horizon Report notes that "The age at which students in the developed world acquire their first mobile device is dropping, and by secondary school, nearly every student has one" (Horizon Report 2010, p.23). Storage capacity is tremendous, and the tools can capture massive amounts of visuals and data.
The challenges are policies (school, board) that deny access and use of the technology and tools within the school. Accessibility may still be an issue in some limited spots. Affordability is also a challenge for many individuals. And knowledge of how to use the applications - perhaps more applicable to "age-challenged" persons - may still be limited.
Of particular interest, I found the following examples:
a) Poll Anywhere (http://www.pollanywhere.com), turns mobiles into personal response systems, enabling teachers to quiz students, assess their understanding before, during, and after a lesson, and reveal patterns of thinking in the classroom.
b) Geography. At Clementi Town Secondary School in Singapore, mobiles support student field studies in geography. Upon arrival at the field site, instructions appear on the mobiles, and students work collaboratively to carry out experiments, take notes, analyze and synthesize data, and submit their results.
c) International Children’s Digital Library (ICDL) http://en.childrenslibrary.org/ The mission of the ICDL Foundation is to support the world’s children in becoming effective members of the global community by making the best in children’s literature available online free of charge. They have two iPhone apps for reading and creating books which are available for free in the iTunes App Store.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts!
Rod French
