Trends in the Ed Tech World - My Take...

There's a lot of chatter about ideas surrounding the Ed Tech Community regarding trends...where are we going & what catchy idea will be the next big deal. There are a few concepts that I think should be added to the list, or further defined, as I think they play an important role when we think of these trends in Ed Tech and our role of nurturing digitally literate citizens. 

So...here's my take:

Curation & Reflection & Peer Review - This is where Digital Portfolios or ePortfolios comes into play. I have Students create a slide or post about each completed tech project. These posts then become a time for them to reflect about the activity itself and talk about it in length; what was the activity, what did they find to be their strengths & what were some take-aways for areas of improvement.  I also like the notion of Peer Review and have Students couple-up and review each other's portfolios with constructive comments, suggestions, questions and (my personal favorite) connections.  This helps them 'own the project', become better listeners and become constructive evaluators. Nice combination.

Robotics is another amazing area that I really love exploring with Students. Include the "build" component and you've got a winner of an activity.  I posted a few weeks ago about the Meccanoid Robot that I put together.  Building that Robot was one of the more exciting activities I've done in quite awhile.  It gave me a  true 'connection' that I would not have gotten had I just grabbed a robot out of the box and put batteries in it and away we go. I was able to see how things fit and work together. Cool experience!

Maker Movement has become quite something these days. I'd like to see more of a 'reuse' feature in the program rather than the acquisition of new toys. I think sometimes we get carried away with the "latest and greatest", that it loses it's appeal for me. "Making" something from used parts is really a challenge in itself.  One big plus for me, I like seeing the 'thinking-process' in action....very meaningful part of the experience.

VR / AR - yet another huge concept. Very exciting experiences as well as an attractive venue for learning.

And, Digital Citizenship!  I read recently that nearly 300k statuses are updated ever minute on Facebook and over 2.5 million searches are done in Google at that same rate!  That just screams our need to keep the conversation about Digital Citizenship going with Students. Add in an accountability component for their online presence and the care of equipment!  I don't see this element going away anytime soon.

We've got a lot of work to do to create Digitally Literate Students and these trends inspire ways to move them in the right direction!