The NMC Horizon Report- 2012 K-12 Edition
The NMC Horizon Project is "a comprehensive research venture established in 2002 that identifies and describes emerging technologies likely to have a large impact over the coming five years in education around the globe" (p. 3). The report is broken down in to three sections, adoptions goals that are one year or less, two to three years and four to five years. These categories predict what technologies will become mainstream educational methods within these time periods. The one year or less category predicted that mobile apps and tablet computing would become mainstream by 2013. This prediction has already begun to happen just based on this class we're taking. We're learning how to incorporate different apps into our classrooms, and the different uses that they will have for preparation, organization, communication with families and students, as well as interactive applications that teach different material to students. We are also seeing a rise in tablet computing in our schools. More and more districts are either providing tablets to their students for educational purposes, or they are requiring that students purchase a tablet for school. This makes sure that students have the ability to access any applications that a teacher may use in the classroom, at home. These tablets allow students to take the learning experience outside of the school and engage with this technology at home where they have more opportunities to increase their engagement with the material and their interactions with their fellow students and their teachers.
The report also talks about game-based learning as a goal for two to three years from 2012. We are now beginning to see this movement grow, particularly for elementary aged kids. Websites like ABCmouse.com are becoming mainstream in kindergarten classrooms. Teachers use these websites and the interactive technology they have in their classrooms to help students learn math and reading concepts in a way that is fun for the students. At the upper levels of K-12 education, games like SimCity are cited as games in use in Social Studies classrooms. I think I would want to use games like SimCity in my own classroom to give students the opportunity to understand how our cities work and the effort that goes into running those cities.
Another area that stood out to me was augmented reality games. Games like Minecraft and WOW are becoming more popular among teenagers. By incorporating these types of games into the classroom, students will become more interested in the material because it is being presented in a manner that they are used to . For my classroom I would use a game like Civilization to teach students about how the first civilizations were formed and what it took to build and maintain these communities. These technologies are valuable for teachers as we move into the future and technology become a larger part of our everyday life.
The report also talks about game-based learning as a goal for two to three years from 2012. We are now beginning to see this movement grow, particularly for elementary aged kids. Websites like ABCmouse.com are becoming mainstream in kindergarten classrooms. Teachers use these websites and the interactive technology they have in their classrooms to help students learn math and reading concepts in a way that is fun for the students. At the upper levels of K-12 education, games like SimCity are cited as games in use in Social Studies classrooms. I think I would want to use games like SimCity in my own classroom to give students the opportunity to understand how our cities work and the effort that goes into running those cities.
Another area that stood out to me was augmented reality games. Games like Minecraft and WOW are becoming more popular among teenagers. By incorporating these types of games into the classroom, students will become more interested in the material because it is being presented in a manner that they are used to . For my classroom I would use a game like Civilization to teach students about how the first civilizations were formed and what it took to build and maintain these communities. These technologies are valuable for teachers as we move into the future and technology become a larger part of our everyday life.