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At the UNESCO Mobile Learning Week 2014<\/a> I sat on a panel titled Emerging Trends and New Technology<\/i> \u2013 considered in the context of mobile learning. Below are the notes of the key points that I made.<\/p>\n Note: The issue of Emerging Trends and New Technology begs the question: for who? For students in California, or for those in Kolkata? Developed country trends are very different from developing country trends. Most of the points below focus on the latter. Some of the ideas are drawn from the NMC Horizon Report 2013: K-12 Edition<\/a>, for which I was on the advisory board.<\/i><\/p>\n Overlapping of education trends and mobile-enabled opportunities<\/b><\/p>\n The brief for the panel stated:<\/p>\n We keep being told that technology is going to transform centuries-old teaching paradigms, but traditional approaches seem to have real resilience and staying-power. Is this the moment of transformation? Why is this technological innovation different for education than previous moments (for example, the rise of television or the popularity of personal computers)?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I don\u2019t believe that technology is the single driver of education transformation, although it is certainly a key influencing factor. Education is under pressure to change because of a number of factors. Recently, a United Nations task team led by UNESCO produced a think piece on education and skills<\/a> beyond 2015 \u2013 key points listed below. In all of these instances, mobile learning is well suited to supporting these changes.<\/p>\n Lastly, I see that the world outside the education institution is changing at a rapid rate, where technology underpins how people communicate, socialise, play, do business, pay for goods, or even farm. This change exerts a pressure on the static nature of education inside the schools walls. A relevant quote is from a forthcoming Prospects<\/i> Journal edition on mobile learning: \u201cMobile learning is no longer an innovation within institutional learning but a reflection of the world in which institutional learning takes place,\u201d Traxler & Vosloo, 2014.<\/p>\n Mobile learning itself is a trend<\/b><\/p>\n It is on the one-year horizon for the NMC Horizon Report (along with cloud computing). Devices are easy-to-use and pervasive. Device uptake is already huge, and will only grow. A huge amount of mobile apps and services bring education content to mobile devices. App development and programming is being taught in some schools.<\/p>\n Social media bigger than ever, and growing<\/b><\/p>\n The NMC Horizon Report says that \u201cSocial media is changing the way people interact, present ideas and information, and communicate.\u201d Social media has grown beyond anyone\u2019s expectation. This is where (young) people are \u201cliving\u201d online, and they connect via mobile. According to Flurry Analytics, overall app use in 2013 posted 115% year-over-year growth<\/a>. The segment that showed the most dramatic growth in 2013 was Messaging (Social and Photo sharing included), with over 200% growth.<\/p>\n Pearson Labs explain<\/a> that <\/p>\n \u201cover the past two years, there has been an ongoing debate about whether or not social media should be used in school. But now the debate is over \u2013 estimates place the number of teens using social media for learning anywhere between 80 per cent and 98 per cent, and our own discussion<\/a> on this last year showed an enthusiastic teaching community. Now that social media use is prevalent in most schools, the debate shifts, to how to educate children about how to best use social media?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Education response:<\/b><\/p>\n The rise of learning analytics and efficacy<\/b><\/p>\n Better formative assessment, adaptive learning and personalisation via mobile<\/b><\/p>\n New models of education<\/b><\/p>\n For further reading, see the UNESCO report on The Future of Mobile Learning<\/i> (report<\/a> | slides<\/a>).<\/p>\n Steve Vosloo published this post first as Emerging trends in education and mobile learning<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n\n
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