Tech Trends Article 1

This article describes 5 Educational Technology Tools that the author finds to be on their way out and cooling down in the educational world.  The author focused on the following: bans on cell phones, Common Core, flipped learning, homework and grading, and the use of tablets.  Besides these topics the author points out that arts education and blended learning are going into hibernation along with 1:1, gaming, and growth mindset.

The ban of cell phones has become a ludicrous idea in the classroom.  This is the tool we use today to find information at our fingertips.  It doesn’t make any sense to not use it in the classroom.  The concept of Common Core is also slowing down just like all of the political buzzwords.  The politicians are not supporting it and most states are doing away with it.  The flipped classroom is slowing down much due to the uncertainty in it’s effectiveness.  They point out that there is conflicting research on how well it works.  Some studies show it works well, some show it is not statistically significant, and others show it actually hurts a student’s learning.  Another problem is that not every student has access to the technology for this means to be effective.  

Another idea cooling down is homework and grading.  This is due to the fact of busy schedules for students and parents affecting time constraints, and also parents ability to be able to help students at home.  Grading has changed with the move to developing understanding and progressing through formative assessments and being graded on more of a final product.  Tablets have also gone cold because they are not so exciting for students any more.  Students want the next big thing.  Other ideas mentioned were one to one devices along with gaming and growth mindset.  

The first thing I thought about when hearing about these ‘cooling off’ ideas was how I am just starting to try them out myself.  My school just went 1 to 1 this year and now that every student has accessibility to the web I am trying out many of the new google tools and starting to try the blended classroom.  I would never go to a completely flipped classroom, but the blended classroom has already allowed me to provide so much more accessibility to students and be much more productive during class time answering questions.  

I would agree with these experts that these technologies are slowing down, but I like the term being more like hibernation.  I find that there is so much out there with technology and it is growing so fast that there is not enough time for many teachers or school districts to keep up with it for many reasons and many outside of their control.  This is why I think many schools and teachers just need time to catch up to be able to get the most effective use of the technology in their classroom.  As the flipped classroom research pointed out, it can go very well, stay the same, or actually hurt student’s learning based on how the technological idea is used.  

Schaffhauser, D. (2017). 5 Ed Tech Trends on the Way Out in 2017. T H E Journal, 44(2), 14.