The Horizon Report: 2014 Higher Education Editions seeks to answer several questions and as such examined emerging technologies for the potential impact on and use in teaching, learning and creative inquiry within the environment of higher education. They also seek answers to the many local factors which affect the practice of education, the issues that transcend regional boundaries and questions common to higher education. This report focused on 18 topics identified by the expert panels which are likely to impact technology planning and decision making: six key trends, 6 significant challenges and six important developments in educational technology. The topics selected in the report were based on a modified Delphi process.
The six trends
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Educators are using social media as professional communities of practice, as learning communities and as a platform to share interesting stories about topics that are being studied in class by students. These prospects make social media exciting for higher education as it provides for more interaction with features such as posting of images, videos or a text response in a conversation and where anyone in the social network can engage with the content, (Johnson, Becker, Estrada, & Freeman, 2014).
Education paradigms are shifting to include more online learning, blended and hybrid learning as well as collaborative learning. With online learning students are offered different opportunities compared with physical campuses. This method of learning opens up the opportunities for increased collaboration while giving students an avenue to develop stronger digital skills. Online learning has increased the potential for collaboration because it integrates various means by which students can access outside of the classroom to meet and exchange ideas about a subject or project. This trend also identifies the quality of communication and interaction and how they are becoming key discriminators among hybrid learning environments. These emerging digital tools make it easier for students to ask each other questions and provide answers to these questions.
The mid-range trends are rise of data-driven learning and assessment and a shift
Furthermore, social networking would motivate student collaboration on a variety of projects and assignments. According to Tarantino, McDonough, and Hua, “Learners need to develop skills to share knowledge and to learn with others, both in face-to-face situations and through technology including social media.”. That means students must learn to collaborate with one another to complete work, which will help in the future with co-workers. If two students each had to work on a half of their projects, social media would help them to get that work complete by allowing them to remind each other. Professional writers also state that “Social media serves as a tool to
This video also highlighted various factors that distract students from positive interactions within the classroom community. Although most of those statistics probably have not changed much, I feel that students are currently given more opportunities to collaborate through online classroom environments. Students are given multiple opportunities starting in
Social media has become a huge part of our lives and the younger generation is becoming more involved with this new technology. However, the use of social media has been a great debate in classroom settings. School districts have been conflicted with the two options: to teach along and incorporate social media into the classroom or to restrict the use of social media during school hours.
LEARNING: I seek to engage in lifelong learning by acquiring new knowledge about media technology, such as social media. I cultivate in my students a passion for truth by encouraging critical thinking in their work, and teach them practical and transferrable skills that they can use in all areas of their lives. I ask them to use their imagination to find research topics from their daily media consumption and their social networking practices. I facilitate their pursuit of co-op learning experiences by reviewing their resumes and learning objectives, and following their on-site
A method to consider is the integration of a hybrid-style environment where technology is integrated into an existing course or parts of an existing course may be moved online. Arguably the hybrid course is an excellent choice for improved student learning with effect use of pedagogy (Brunner, 2006, p. 230). There is evidence showing that face-to-face and online classroom formats can help students build a sense of community. The benefits of both formats can be present in the hybrid course (Brunner, 2006, p. 231). Incorporating student to student or student to instructor discussions can be a vital part of an active learning environment. However, the conventional face-to-face synchronous discussion style has its limitations. A select few
Social media also allowed students to work with new technologies. Because of this students are becoming more familiar with computers and other electronic devices. (Dunn)
Are we becoming less human with the passing of each day? Have we become too dependent on technology, specifically social media? In this day and age, people have different views on social media. They question its true purpose and its effect on society as a whole. With that said, although there are many thoughts concerning the topic/trend of social media something that is undoubtedly true is that social media plays an active role in the lives of the majority of people. Whether in a positive or negative way, social media influences the lives of all people. However this paper focuses on the effect of social media on college students. It addresses both the positive and negative effects of social media on those in college; focusing on a student’s academic efficiency, social interactive skills, and overall productivity.
Jon Russell once said, “Social Media presents a huge opportunity for schools, universities and other educational organizations to reach out and connect with students and prospective students”. With no doubt, social media has influenced the way students are educated today. For those of you who do not know the exact definition of social media, the social media means ways of sharing information, opinions, images, videos using the Internet, especially social networking sites. Because of the Internet, people started finding ways to socialize through social websites and exchange information. Popular social network on the Internet such as YouTube became a sensation for me ever since I became a student in college. Today social media can be used for educational purposes. The ways social media is changing education has affected how the students express themselves, behave, and interact with each other.
Many students agree that social networking is an essential tool in education today. Feedback has become a vital tool amongst students and teachers in networking whether it’s Facebook, Myspace, or Twitter (Carey, n.d.). In a recent study, it stated that 59% of students who belong to “social networking sites” admitted that when there on the Internet they explore topics to communicate about such as college preparation and occupations. Another study shows that 50% of students use social networking to improve on their studies and teachers have found that this has helped students become more successful in their reading and writing vocabulary (“Social,”
Social media are the most ordinarily used media to connect with the world because of its many advantages and benefits. Many students are already involved in social networks and using it their daily activities including educational purposes. Social media have changed the ways of learning and providing pieces of information on education. It has been used in education nowadays more than ever and showing beneficial results out of that. Uses of social media are increasing continuously in education and both students and educators are becoming dependent on it. The reason behind this is, it is simple to access, effortless to use and easy availability. Among many of the advantages of social media in education, applying it for communication purposes, sharing class materials, files etc. for classroom projects as well as uses of QR codes are some of the leading ones.
In tertiary institutions, students may have limited classroom contact hours but they need to rapidly increase their knowledge and skills. They might not be able to meet and consult their lecturers as much as they want or even have limited time to engage in group discussion especially for the working adults. Therefore, blended learning offers solution to this issue by allowing both educators and learners to interact in virtual environment without having to be at the same place, at the same time for the interaction to take place. This notion is supported by Sethy (2008) who stated that educators have considered the needs for social interaction and collaboration by adding human interaction to online learning which later helps in the learning
The use of technology within the education sector has seen significant advancements in past years, yet there are still many improvements that could be made in this area into the
The higher up education in the United States has always excelled as one of the best around the world. Many of the learning methods that are used nowadays in colleges and universities are a lot similar to the ones used in past generation. A variant that nowadays affects not only education but also our lives in general is the technology that we have at our disposal. Technology is the next step of education so much so that many higher up educational system are trying to implement technology Despite budget woes, the report shows many colleges are moving forward with plans for new technology in several areas (Kaya, 2010). For many there is still no clear way of seeing the benefits of implementing more technology in the classroom, technology remains a disruptive innovation—and an expensive one (The economist, 2008).
The digital era has created a revolutionary structure to higher education using the internet. Technology has changed the way students can interact with their instructors and classroom instruction through portals that institutions have created on their specific websites for degree and non-degree seeking students. The benefits of online courses range from different avenues to create an educational environment that provides more options to classroom instructions. Online higher education is an exceptional alternative to traditional classroom learning due to the convenience, peer interaction, cost, and self-pacing aspects of the institution.
Another strength of the distance learning is the collaboration between the instructor and students. According to Hofmann (2002), some tools or programs such as bulletin boards, chat rooms, electronic mail, and white boards all encourage students to communicate with their instructor and each other. Online communication brings students’ broad and interesting opinions into the class bulletin without any hesitation or anxiety. Those who have high anxiety about face-to-face talk or communication in front