EDUCATIONAL

TECHNOLOGY

Trends in Technology over years

Ahmed Alhamada

10/1/2016
Table of Contents
Med-term Horizon

Near-term Horizon

Long-term Horizon

Six Important
Developments inAccording to MNC Horizon report 2016 K-12 Education,
there are six important developments in educational
technology. These development can be divided into
three categories including: near-term developments
which are expected to be widely held in education fields within 12 months,
mid-term developments which are expected to be widely used within three
years, and long-term developments that will take four to five years to be part
Near-term
Horizon

of educational technologies. These developments are

discussed in more detailed in the next few paragraphs.
For that, they are changing a lot of

This

term

Makerspace

contains

two

developments:

s: education is trying to prepare

K-12
students for future demand by
improving their 21st centurys skills.

public library, community centers,

and classrooms into Makerspaces.
These

Makerspaces

where

people

participating

set
in

are

places

together
making

for
and

tinkering activities. Some of these

places

are

with

students can hone their skills and

3D

get new ones by using some of

printers, Virtual Reality headsets,

these tools. However, to serve as

and

many people as possible, there are

advanced

well

equipped

tools,

such

augmented

as

reality.

Even

though, these tools are important,

mobile Makerspace that

can move from place to another to help teachers and students who are
interested

in

these

activates,

but

they

lack

essential

equipment.

Governments and other companies have noticed the important of these

activities, so some of them participate positively. For
example,
Online Learning:

Stanford

Google

Company
Universitys

has

partnered

with

Robotics:

FabLearn program to make

research about the efficiency of making a classroom workspace model.
Online learning is an

educators leverage

with immersive

official or an

online learning in

technologies such as

unofficial activity that

different ways. Also,

virtual reality. Some

happen through the

they think that it is

students, however,

web. It is widely used

an effective way to

cannot attend school

in schools. In the US

help students to

for several reasons

alone, the number of

understand and

such as health

students who use it is

participate in the

problem or extreme

more than 2.7

classrooms especial

weather, so the

million. Now,

when it is supported

online learning is

helpful. Another

Robotics means the

activities but also to

benefits, online

design and

help students to

courses can be taken

applications of

absorb STEM

anytime and

robots. Today, robots

concepts, as tools

anywhere.

are used for several

such as RobotsLab

task including:

BOX allow teachers to

mining,

manipulate robots via

transportation, and

tablet devices. The

other tedious or

improvement of

dangerous tasks.

artificial intelligence

Robots are not only

helps robots to work

for automating

logically. Some

This term contains

two developments:

worker are anxious that these robots can take their places. However, robotics
and coding can be used in

Med-term Horizon

education

to

increase

critical thinking and problem-solving ability among learners. Furthermore,

students can learn vital computer skills when they program the robots. Also,
Long-term
Virtual Reality

to get maximum benefits of

Horizon
robot,
teachers and school staff need to be well

trained.
Virtual

reality

is

computer-generated

environment that mimics the physical attendance

of

people,

objects

experiences. This

and

realistic

sensory

Keyboard, or specific gestures. The headset that

is used for this Technology is mainly designed for
entertainments, but it can be leveraged for
education.
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However, using this technology

makes students engage in circumstances and

activities

without

disruption.

In

2015

many

countries started to participate with google to try

******

Google Expedition application. This application is

environment consists
of

3D

images

and

objects that can be

controlled by mouse,

an educational VR platform that enable operators

to visit more than 200 virtual places. One million
users used this application, which is free, to take
virtual field trip.

This term contains two developments:

It means using computer science to make smart machines that can simulate
humans in their tasks. This ability to resemble humans way of learning and
making decisions

is

depend

on

access to different kind of

information and analyses them. This technology allows people to

Artificial

communicate with machines the way they

communicate with each other. Today, one important incarnation of Artificial

Intelligence
Intelligence is virtual assistance such as Siri
and Cortana. Users can communicate with their

calendar alert. AI is

AL assistance by voice to search Internet or set a

embedded

in

adaptive learning platform which modifies the

Wearable Technology

level, speed, or contents based on the users

is smart devices that

respond.

can

be

worn

by

users. They can be

Wearable
***************************
Technology

an accessory such as
jewelry, eyewear or
smart textile. These
accessories

can

be

used not only to track

users activities such
as

sleeping,

and

walking, but also to

help users to watch
and

interact

media

in

ways.

with

different
However,

Wearable Technology
can

be

used

for

education fields. For

instance, it can be
used

in

physical

Education classes to
adjust

the

curriculums for every student based on her or his

performance

and

give

real-time

feedback.

Another example, this technology can be used to

help disabled students to communicate with
normal people. Two university students invented

interpret

SignAloud, smart gloves which has the ability to

Sign

American

Language

speech

or

to
text

message.
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