I work for an FE/HE College and the pattern of our use really does mirror that of the research (NMC Horizon Report) summarises. The table above summarises my experiences to date
The top four areas of development are seen to be adopted in the next year or less. All of these I am using in my own delivery and the college have used for roughly the same amount of time.
The middle four areas of development are seen to be adopted in two to three years. Half of which I have applied and half of which still require development.
The bottom four areas of development are seen to be adopted in four to five years. One of which I and the college have applied to our delivery but the other three are far away from planning let alone integration.
The main barrier and issue that stops the application of these technologies for me personally is a financial one. There simply is no budget and any investment I make in my delivery results in bills to my own personal account but this is something I wish to do to keep up to date and offer high quality teaching. An example of this is the use of Mural.ly that requires a monthly charge once a certain number of resources have been made.
This barrier is one of the main reasons why developments such as ‘Augmented Reality’ or ‘Telepresence’ are still a way off. The investment to develop these resources is too high in this sector and until they become more mainstream and affordable the likelihood of use is low.
Certainly in government funded education, the technology with the greatest chance of success in use, are those that are free or easy to access. Early adopters in the industry will then use these and this in turn will drive strategy higher in the Senior Management Team to support this use. I feel that in this current climate educators need to ‘sell’ and ‘showcase’ to those in a position to allocate budget. This can be done but needs to demonstrate both an improvement in quality in terms of teaching provision and cost savings that will ultimately be achieved by reducing face to face contact time.
Additionally, drivers such as Ofsted reports are having an impact on the sectors views of technology. A recent inspection to my college highlighted the need to reduce ‘unnecessary contact time and travel to college campus’. The Inspectors challenged directly why students were attending the campus when the delivery could be achieved by using the cloud learning tool of moodle.
Looking at the ‘significant challenges’ of the report and as highlighted above the main issue is currently economic pressures. Other challenges were highlighted of which the main ones that I can relate to are:
‘Most academics aren’t using new and compelling technology’ – this is definitely an issue in my experience. The students want to use this technology but in many cases their proficiency in technology use is far superior of the educator. Many also have concerns that there job security will be diminished. As a teaching profession we need to highlight that teaching is not disappearing but evolving (I.e. Connectivism) and that we need to adapt to the changing environment and the way technology has changed how we interact within the environment.
If approached from a positive perspective technology will allow us to offer a greater learning experience and a dynamic, innovative, open landscape where we all learn from each other. In many ways I believe that even for my own professionalism and area of ‘expertise’, I am not an expert but am a student too and that I am learning all the time in this changing world.
In terms of the three technologies I would like to see my organisation integrate into our delivery, they are:
Collective Intelligence - as an organisation we gather a huge amount of data and information that is never utilised or analysed for the purpose of ideas and events for the future. Through encouragment peer learning could be far greater utilised. It doesn't require a huge budget so would be realistic to apply.
Augmented reality -the fact it develops interactivity is very encouraging as is the potential for discovery learning
Game based learning - I can see the huge potential of this technology through creating 'goal orientated' environments. It could also offer huge scope for developing team building skills. It would probably be best utilised initially for general subjects that could be of interest to all learners (such as Information, Advice and Guidance) that is additional to the subject specific course. Role play is seen as a a highly engaging learning process and this technology would allow for this to be applied with a teaching perspective.
References:
Johnson, L. and Adams, S., (2011). Technology Outlook for UK Tertiary Education 2011-2016: An NMC Horizon Report Regional Analysis. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.
Significant New Technologies- 04/03/14
Activity 13
Technology
How long used for educational purposes
by my organisation
by me
Cloud computing
5 years (moodle)
3 years (Moodle)
Mobile/cell phone
1year
2 years
Open content
3 years
3 years
Tablet computing
1 year
1 year
Game-based learning
Not as yet
1 year
Learning analytics
1 year
1 year
New scholarship
Not as yet
Not as yet
Semantic applications
Not as yet
Not as yet
Augmented reality
Not as yet
Not as yet
Collective intelligence
Not as yet
Not as yet
Smart objects
1 year
1 year
Telepresence
Not as yet
Not as yet
I work for an FE/HE College and the pattern of our use really does mirror that of the research (NMC Horizon Report) summarises. The table above summarises my experiences to date
The top four areas of development are seen to be adopted in the next year or less. All of these I am using in my own delivery and the college have used for roughly the same amount of time.
The middle four areas of development are seen to be adopted in two to three years. Half of which I have applied and half of which still require development.
The bottom four areas of development are seen to be adopted in four to five years. One of which I and the college have applied to our delivery but the other three are far away from planning let alone integration.
The main barrier and issue that stops the application of these technologies for me personally is a financial one. There simply is no budget and any investment I make in my delivery results in bills to my own personal account but this is something I wish to do to keep up to date and offer high quality teaching. An example of this is the use of Mural.ly that requires a monthly charge once a certain number of resources have been made.
This barrier is one of the main reasons why developments such as ‘Augmented Reality’ or ‘Telepresence’ are still a way off. The investment to develop these resources is too high in this sector and until they become more mainstream and affordable the likelihood of use is low.
Certainly in government funded education, the technology with the greatest chance of success in use, are those that are free or easy to access. Early adopters in the industry will then use these and this in turn will drive strategy higher in the Senior Management Team to support this use. I feel that in this current climate educators need to ‘sell’ and ‘showcase’ to those in a position to allocate budget. This can be done but needs to demonstrate both an improvement in quality in terms of teaching provision and cost savings that will ultimately be achieved by reducing face to face contact time.
Additionally, drivers such as Ofsted reports are having an impact on the sectors views of technology. A recent inspection to my college highlighted the need to reduce ‘unnecessary contact time and travel to college campus’. The Inspectors challenged directly why students were attending the campus when the delivery could be achieved by using the cloud learning tool of moodle.
Looking at the ‘significant challenges’ of the report and as highlighted above the main issue is currently economic pressures. Other challenges were highlighted of which the main ones that I can relate to are:
If approached from a positive perspective technology will allow us to offer a greater learning experience and a dynamic, innovative, open landscape where we all learn from each other. In many ways I believe that even for my own professionalism and area of ‘expertise’, I am not an expert but am a student too and that I am learning all the time in this changing world.
In terms of the three technologies I would like to see my organisation integrate into our delivery, they are:
Collective Intelligence - as an organisation we gather a huge amount of data and information that is never utilised or analysed for the purpose of ideas and events for the future. Through encouragment peer learning could be far greater utilised. It doesn't require a huge budget so would be realistic to apply.
Augmented reality -the fact it develops interactivity is very encouraging as is the potential for discovery learning
Game based learning - I can see the huge potential of this technology through creating 'goal orientated' environments. It could also offer huge scope for developing team building skills. It would probably be best utilised initially for general subjects that could be of interest to all learners (such as Information, Advice and Guidance) that is additional to the subject specific course. Role play is seen as a a highly engaging learning process and this technology would allow for this to be applied with a teaching perspective.
References:
Johnson, L. and Adams, S., (2011). Technology Outlook for UK Tertiary Education 2011-2016: An NMC Horizon Report Regional Analysis. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.