Education is evolving and changing every year, with new technological innovations emerging, which are helping to shape how we impart wisdom and help children to learn. So what does 2016 hold for the world of education? Let’s take a look at some of the top trends:
Gamification has been a slow-burning trend for the last few years, but 2016 could be the year it really takes off. This trend involves applying game dynamics into non-gaming contexts in order to teach lessons or enable individual learning. Gamification is also great for improving engagement rates, as well as boosting knowledge retention. Could we be seeing an increasing in classroom gaming over the next year?
Big data is proving invaluable for a multitude of industries and sectors – why shouldn’t education be one of them? With the technology at our disposal, schools and classrooms are creating multitudes of data every single day – and we can leverage that data to deliver meaningful and valuable conclusions about pupil performance and the optimisation of future content for school courses. Big data will help teachers to better understand how their pupils learn, as well as helping them offer more detailed and insightful feedback to learners.
With so many children now having access to tablet devices, will they now be encouraged to bring them into the classroom environment to use for certain tasks? BYOD is already a huge workplace trend, and giving older children the opportunity to use their own devices, which they are familiar with, could have a big impact on performance.
Cloud computing has revolutionised how we access data, enabling us to open our files from any device, as long as we have the appropriate login details. Cloud resources could also be invaluable for schools – and it could help negate the old ‘I forgot my homework’ excuse! Children can be given access to a cloud area, to complete a worksheet or answer some questions, which will then be saved from their home computer or tablet. Teachers can then access them for marking purposes, and refer to them easily as they evaluable projected grades and pupil performance.
We’re already seeing devices like Google Glass and Apple Watch hitting the market – and this kind of wearable tech is soon to be the norm. 2016 may be too early for this trend to take off fully, but with things like QR codes and GPS tracking, teachers and pupils can still take advantage of the technology on offer. By adapting learning environments to the user, augmented learning can open up a number of exciting possibilities for teachers and students alike!