2013 Horizon.K12: The Interim Results Login or Create New Account Member Spotlights RIT Launches Nation’s First Minor in Free and Open Source Software and Free Culture Submit Your Projects: NMC Horizon Report > 2014 K-12 Edition iTUNES U Ideas that Matter and More High Quality, Free EdTech Content Sparking innovation, learning and creativity. > NMC News > NMC Blogs > NMC Member Spotlights > NMC Member News > NMC Most Engaging 2013 Horizon.K12: The Interim Results Posted April 3, 2013 by Samantha Becker The NMC is pleased to announce the interim results of the 2013 Horizon.K12 Project, as presented at the 2013 CoSN Conference in San Diego. This Short List will inform the decisions of the advisory board as they embark on the final round of rankings, in which the list of technologies, trends, and challenges will be cut in half for the final report. Near-Term Horizon: One Year or Less * BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) * Cloud Computing * Mobile Learning * Online Learning Top 10 Trends (alphabetical order) Top 10 Challenges (alphabetical order)
The dirty little secret of online learning: Students are bored and dropping out Online education has been around for a long time. But massive open online courses are finally making it respectable. Maybe even cool. Let’s not forget, though, that they are still experiments. And despite being “massively overhyped” (even in the eyes of their most dyed-in-the-wool supporters), they are not actually having a massive impact on students yet. So let’s review what we’ve learned so far. Hundreds of courses are now available from dozens of the world’s best universities and professors. So far, though, online courses are not building a massively better-skilled workforce. Sure, a few free, open, online courses have generated eye-popping registration numbers, upwards of 200,000 in some cases. Not So Massive After All So why are all these students falling asleep, virtually, in their digital classes? Another big issue, especially for non-traditional students, is that learning has to fit in between life and work. Let’s start with mobile first.
Collaboration: The Legacy Dipping my toes... For the first three months of 2013, I took part in my first MOOC, 'Designing a New Learning Environment' offered by Stanford University via an initiative called Venture Lab. I signed up because it ties in with my Octopus's Garden Project and also because I wanted to experience this Flat Classroom-global-type of learning for myself. The course required us to watch weekly lectures and complete readings; for assessment we had to submit five individual assignments, one final team assignment and five peer assessments of other final projects. Leading & Contributing I became team leader late on in the project as the original one, the one who set up the actual topic, went quiet and dropped off the radar. I learned a lot about the nature of learning via this first MOOC; I do believe collaboration is key and yet I feel, I could have done better if I was by myself perhaps... The inability to use the tools I suggested and the absolute reluctance to even try baffled me. Dive in!
Empower Digital Citzenship In my post "What is human? What is humanity?" I explored the future possibilities of technology with particular reference to education. My thinking summised that the "the future will never be without teachers" but rather our roles will change; technology will allow teaching and learning to be "more effective"and will allow educators to become "enablers and supporters" rather than "lecturers and controllers". As outlined by the Flat Classroom book, there are five areas of awareness to use as a lens for viewing digital citizenship choices: Technical AwarenessIndividual AwarenessSocial AwarenessCultural AwarenessGlobal Awareness My Quadblog assignment post, "Digital Citizenship: Individual Awareness" focuses, obviously, on Individual Awareness, about how individuals understand online behaviour and how they chooses to behave online. Starting with a paper blog community in the school, learners practise commenting and posting to an audience.
Free Learning! For learning-junkies - like me - Coursera allows you to search for, enrol and take part in interesting and varied courses, offered by legitimate universities - for free! I have written before about taking control of our own learning; whilst I am lucky enough to be in a school that values Professional Learning highly, that funds PL and devotes one afternoon session a week to helping staff learn, not everyone is so lucky. However, as explored in Kristen Swanson's book, 'Professional Learning in a Digital Age', the advent of technology and the Internet, means our learning can be 'user-generated' - we take control. Organisations such as Venture Lab and Coursera make this even easier. This year online, for free, I have taken part in the following online courses:- Designing a New Learning Environment (via Stanford University, through Venture Lab)E-Learning and Digital Cultures (via The University of Edinburgh)
Free Learning! For learning-junkies - like me - Coursera allows you to search for, enrol and take part in interesting and varied courses, offered by legitimate universities - for free! I have written before about taking control of our own learning; whilst I am lucky enough to be in a school that values Professional Learning highly, that funds PL and devotes one afternoon session a week to helping staff learn, not everyone is so lucky. However, as explored in Kristen Swanson's book, 'Professional Learning in a Digital Age', the advent of technology and the Internet, means our learning can be 'user-generated' - we take control. Organisations such as Venture Lab and Coursera make this even easier. This year online, for free, I have taken part in the following online courses:- Designing a New Learning Environment (via Stanford University, through Venture Lab)E-Learning and Digital Cultures (via The University of Edinburgh)
'The Art of Asking' Is not the world very odd and strange place? How while you are thinking about something, often quite random, you all of a sudden come across many other things that are all linked to the initial thing you were thinking about... an unusual word, or new acronym or concept, for example. I recently wrote a blog post called, 'A drop in the ocean The post discusses my desire and hope to find other, similar 'drops' to join together, collaborate and cultivate a cloud; to learn and strive to find the best methods and burst forth, raining down our knowledge of learning, in the hope of encompassing and inspiring more drops... and so letting the cycle begin again. "I love the rain drop analogy that you employ. This supportive comment cheered me up AND lead me serendipitously to Amanda Palmer, Neil Gaiman and all that jazz (thank you for your lovely comment btw, you know who you are). The sharabale connectable content in the Internet takes us back to relationships that allow us to really connect.
Almost there... The time has come! For the past few months, Grade 7 and Grade 8 have eaten, slept and dreamt about this moment - the final presentation for the Senior Leadership Team happens ON FRIDAY! I have been really impressed with the engagement and dedication of the learners who have been working during their breaks to get together and rehearse and edit their presentation, ready for the deadline. In preparation and to ensure the presentation can be the best possible showcase for all their hard work, learners presented their final ideas to five volunteers made up of teachers, parents and the head of primary, who kindly gave up their free time to support and help us. This afternoon, our 'soundboard' came along to watch the final presentation and give some critical feedback via a Google Form developed from our co-constructed rubric. All Octopus's Garden Project presenters were really nervous as they have worked really hard and it was the first time they had showed anyone else their work.
AfL: Golden Rules Assessment for Learning: My Golden Rules Evaluation and assessment are not the same. My husband worked with a colleague who 'assessed' final exam art-work based on the standard of the class. Since then, I have continued to think carefully about the purpose of assessment and how we assess with particular focus on Assessment for Learning (AfL). Comment OR grade. The advice of my Principal is to choose one or the other - feedback or grade - but not both. The feedback is part of the journey, the grade is the destination. Summative before formative. I believe we should, as Dylan Wiliam asserts, embed formative assessment into our everyday practice. I try carefully to distinguish between the two; formative assessments, with detailed feedback; summative assessments with a mark/grade based on specific criteria, with no feedback. Criteria should be transparent. All formative and summative assessments should be based on appropriate and specific criteria or rubrics. Assessment is a dialogue.