teaching Archives • Outliers Academy

Technology

Future Shock & The Classroom in 2040

By Terence Gillespie February 16, 2019

by Michell Zappa

“Education lies at a peculiar crossroad in society. On one hand it has the responsibility of anticipating real-life skills by preparing us for an increasingly complex world – but education methodologies can only be formalized after practices have been defined. This dichotomy is particularly aggravated when it comes to technology, where fast-paced innovation and perpetual change is the only constant.

This visualization attempts to organize a series of emerging technologies that are likely to influence education in the upcoming decades. Despite its inherently speculative nature, the driving trends behind the technologies can already be observed, meaning it’s a matter of time before these scenarios start panning out in learning environments around the world.”

Envisioning The 6 Domains of Future Technology In Education

6 Domains Of Education Technology

1. Digitized Classrooms: Rather than considering IT a standalone tool or skill, digitization tends to disperse throughout every facet of the classroom.
Examples: tablets, electronic screens, interactive whiteboards, data projectors,

2. Tangible Computing: Embedding computation to the physical via intelligent objects, the internet of things, and connectivity with a profound impact on learning mechanisms.

Examples: reactive materials, reactive furniture, 3D printers, digitally intermediated field trips

3. Gamification: Billed as an evolution in grading mechanisms, gamification brings instant feedback to acquired knowledge through achievements and points systems.

Examples: student-developed apps, educational games, educational programming tools, achievement badges, self-paced learning

4. Virtual/Physical Studios: Bridging the online-offline gap, these future technologies offer a potential future where embodiment is secondary to information access.

Examples: eyewear/HUDs, retinal screens, holography, neuroinformatics, immersive virtual reality

5. Disintermediation: Undoing the traditional teacher-student model, these technologies offer a scenario where AI handles personalization while teachers focus on teaching

Examples: telepresence, algo-generated lessons, mobile learning platforms, task-assignment algorithms, S2S teaching platforms, assessment algorithms, student-designed learning mechanics

6. Opening of Information: Dissemination of information outside the physical silos of schools and classrooms, offering feedback and assessment to students anywhere.

Examples: portable academic histories, flipped classrooms, inter-school teaching platforms, digitization of books, open courseware, education app stores, online school communities, video lessons, formal communication backchannels

Image attribution flickr user radarcommunication; Envisioning The Future Of Technology In Education

Education

27 Ways To Enhance Learning Retention

By Terence Gillespie February 8, 2019

The more of the five (or more) senses brought into the learning process, the more likely you are to retain what you’ve learned. This infographic from Mia MacMeekin shows 27 ways to enhance learning retention.

27 Ways To Enhance Retention In Your Students

Education

The Power of Leadership- 6 Great TED Talks for Teachers

By Guest Post January 23, 2019

Leadership comes with hard work but successful leadership entails more than just laboriousness, it calls for special traits that only a select few possess. Whether these traits are skills that can be developed or are a matter of biological endowment is something which still needs scientific back-up. Generally speaking, successful leaders do have something in common. They share a set of common characteristics such as : confidence, focus, trust, far-sightedness, accountability, enthusiasm, persistence, communication, determination, love of their work, and patience. Also, successful leaders are a joy to be around. They listen empathically and are a source of inspiration and zeal to the people around them.

The TED list below features some really wonderful talks on how to be a leader and how to inspire others to action.

Read the Full Article

Children

The Consequences of 200 Years of Unthoughtful Consumption

By Guest Post January 22, 2019

I’ve just discovered Dangerously Irrelevant and was impressed to read Scott Mcleod ask: When will we take seriously the challenge of preparing our graduates for our new information landscape? And what are we going to do about all of our graduates?

Our new information landscape is digital bits in the ether instead of ink dots on paper. There is no foreseeable future in which we go back to analog. One of schools’ primary tasks is to help students master the dominant information landscape of their time. Schools are knowledge institutions preparing students to do knowledge work. So let’s be clear about what our new information landscape looks like:

In a followup article, Scott comments:

We spent the last 200+ years (at least) pushing consumption models of learning on most of our students. We asked them to be passive recipients of whatever information came from the teacher or textbook. We gave them few opportunities to question the reliability or validity of the information that we spoon-fed them. We trusted that someone else did the filtering for us and them beforehand. And in many cases, we actually punished kids who dared to ask questions or present alternative viewpoints.

So we shouldn’t be surprised that we now have an information / media literacy problem with our adults. We shouldn’t be surprised that most of our citizens have trouble determining the validity and reliability of digital and online information sources. We shouldn’t be surprised that we are easy prey for those who spread misinformation, deception, and outright lies.

Read the whole article, “Unthoughtful Consumption” on Dangerously Irrelevant.