Emerging Technologies 1

Emerging Technologies

Summer K. Yingling

College of Southern Nevada

Emerging Technologies 2

Abstract

The research topic for this paper is emerging technologies. The subjects of this paper include

subjects like game-based learning, MOOCs, and cloud computing. These subjects include the

normal questions asked all the time such as, how they work, what are the benefits that come with

these emerging technologies, what are the impacts on teaching and learning, and what could it be

like to integrate them at different grade levels? What I have found in researching these emerging

technologies is that these technologies could have great impacts on how teachers would teach the

21st century student and how it could affect the teaching and the learning process in the 21st

century. Having these technologies in the classroom could benefit the students, getting them

ready for the workforce and the real world. Granted MOOCs (Mass Open Online Course) could

be better used at the college level, but it is a great example of 21st century emerging technologies.
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Introduction to Emerging Technologies

Technology in the life of the 21st century learner is becoming more prominent than ever

before. Because of these technologies, one needs to take a closer look of how these technologies

work and why they are good for the 21st century learner.

Game-based Learning

Aristotle once said that, games are the opposite of learning (Ifenthaler, Eseryel, Ge,

2012). Generally, when one talks about game-based learning they think games that focus on one

specific aspect of the game. For game based-learning, the games focus on three aspects such as,

games scoring, external assessment, and embedded/ internal assessment. (Ifenthaler, Eseryel, Ge,

2012). These focuses are a benefit to the classroom because this is a way educators can assess

students through game-based environments.

To distinguish between these three factors, one looks at the different aspects of them. For

game scoring, it focuses on targets achieved (Ifenthaler, Eseryel, Ge, 2012) or obstacles the

child overcomes while playing the games. Game scoring also focuses on time needed to

complete the task given to them. External assessments focus on the de-briefing interviews

afterwards, diagrams, and test scores based on multiple-choice questions or short essays. Lastly,

when it comes to embedded or internal assessment, this focus is part of the gameplay and does

not interrupt the game (Ifenthaler, Eseryel, Ge, 2012).

Game-based learning impacts teaching and learning through assessing learners while in

an environment that can provide insight to the students learning style and learning capacity.

Game-based learning gives detailed insights into the learning process because game-based

learning mostly focuses on the process. The educator can better understand, , tracking

motivational, emotional, and metacognitive characteristics while playing a game (Ifenthaler,

Emerging Technologies 4

Eseryel, Ge, 2012). When educators get better insights to these characteristics, the immediate

feedback will help point out the difficulties the children are having with certain subjects. It could

also point out the assessment of clickstream, in other words, it could point out the strengths

and weaknesses of the game design (Ifenthaler, Eseryel, Ge, 2012).

McGonigal (2011) estimated that more than 180 million people in the United States

report playing these games for more than 13 h per week (Tobias, Fletcher, Wind, 2013).

Although that few instructional methods are similar, these numbers in the above quote prove that

game-based learning is a growing and emerging technology. By comparing this emerging

technology through other instructional delivery systems, one can see how game-based learning is

a major impact on teaching and learning. Educators now, have more resources for teaching such

as games like ABCmouse.com and, for upper level grades, educational websites like kids.usa.gov

are a resource for upper level educators. If there was no transfer between game-based learning

and external transfer into schools, games for instruction would be of no use to the children that

use them. A number of studies have found that, near and far transfer from computer games to

external tasks occurs if they engage comparable cognitive processes (Tobias, Fletcher, Wind,

2013). When there is transferable evidence from game-based learning to external tasks, it is clear

how game-based learning is a major impact on teaching and learning in schools.

MOOCs

MOOCs or massive open online classes, is one of the most growing and profitable

emerging technologies in the 21st century. This technology has been growing more and more

throughout the last couple of years. Within the year of 2015, more people signed up for

MOOCs in 2015 than they did in the first three years of the modern MOOC movement
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(Shah, 2015) MOOCs have affected the way students learn and the way educators teach their

subjects.

MOOCs are mass learning classes for students and their popularity, evidencing an

insatiable appetite at times, the rapid rise and expansion of the movement made it hard to ignore.

Reports of independent information resource community focusing on educational technology

developments, reported that, over 1,200 MOOCs had been offered since 2011 by more than

two hundred universities involving some 10 million students (Rhoads, 2015).

The benefits for the classroom are both convergent for private and public good interests.

The mix of private and public good interests can be determined through venture capital firms.

These firms represent circumstances where they form partnerships between for-profit

enterprises, , with non-profit universities (Rhoads, 2015). This complex organizational

system is a benefit for the classroom because it provides funding for MOOCs. Without the

private sector in this equation, the funding would be coming from non-profit organizations that

could potentially not have enough funding for this system to keep it going. Granted, the benefits

for the classroom that MOOCs bring is for upper level classes. MOOCs are a great way for upper

level learners to have the time to take classes, work, and take care of other things they need to

take care of.

MOOCs have impacted teaching and learning in many ways. MOOCs help educators

teach from wherever they are and reach a wider audience in teaching these subjects. The impacts

on learning are a considerable factor because of the high demand for MOOCs by college

students. The venture capitalists saw this demand to make higher education more available to

college students and the reality that online education was increasingly seen as part of the

solution to limited brick-and-mortar access (Rhoads, 2015). These courses that are offered
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because of MOOCs through the universities, help mimic the materials and requirement of a face-

to-face university course. But on the other side, MOOCs could not be as efficient as taking a

regular class course.

The integration of MOOCs at different grades levels are not as extensive as the benefits

for the classroom or the impacts on teaching and learning. When it comes to massive online open

classes, it is better if MOOCs are used for universities. There are not much studies on how

MOOCs are integrated at lower level grades. The universities use MOOCs to get students from

all over the world to take classes at their universities and help fund more university functions. In

the end, the students get their education and the school has more money to help further the

university in recourses and technology as well.

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is information processing done at a more efficient central level. Cloud

computing gives the ability to use as many servers as necessary to optimally respond to the cost

and the timing constraints of an application. If cloud computing was used in schools and

universities today, it would give a more efficient way for educators and students alike a more

central way to find information.

The benefits for the classroom come with the recourses used for these services. These

services can be metered and the users can be charged only for the recourses they use. Cloud

computing is an alluring way for several economic reasons: It requires a very low infrastructure

investment because there is no need to assemble and maintain a large-scale system and it has low

utility-based computing costs because customers are only billed for the infrastructure used

(Marinescu, 2013) This can also impact educators and students around the globe.
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The impacts on teaching and learning are both at the educational level and economical

level. The users benefit from the potential to reduce the execution time of compute-intensive and

data-intensive applications through parallelization. If educators were to use cloud computing, it

would put all data and computing at one central level to where everyone can find something they

needed at one main level. Using cloud computing would make it easier to scale up and down to

accommodate a dynamic load, to recover after a system failure, and to efficiently support

checkpoint or restarting procedures (Marinescu, 2013) Cloud computing could back up all files

and data that the educator and student would save to the computer at a school or office. Also, the

workload can be partitioned in segments of arbitrary size and can be processed in parallel by the

servers available in the cloud. That would be part of the downside on the learning aspect of cloud

computing. The students would only be able to save what is available on the cloud at the time.

Cloud computing would enable better, Real-time collaboration between teachers as they

progress with their lessons, assessments and projects (Curtmola, Carpinelli, Hirsch, Kimmel,

Burr-Alexander, 2014)

The integrations at different grade levels would be like to say the least. All teachers could

use cloud computing to help with lesson planning and help students keep all their assignments in

one place if necessary. Elementary students would benefit from cloud computing through finding

what they needed in one place without having to ask the teacher for help. Educators teaching at

this level could put all grades in one place as well. At the middle school level, educators could

make a safer way for students to browse the internet. At the high school level, educators and

students alike would be able to find all assignments needed for teaching and learning at one

place. At the college level, again everything would be in one central location for all to access

what they needed.

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References

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Foundations, Innovations, and Perspectives. Assessment into Game-Based Learning, 1-12.

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