In today’s classrooms, tomorrow’s technologies are currently being used which sows the seeds of how students will learn in the future. Analysts in technology are foreseeing the next top trends in this field.  Some of them are already in the classrooms, and much more are ready to be distributed.  These will make tremendous changes in the way education is taught.

These are a few new trends of educational technologies and how they can affect the classrooms.

Virtual Reality (VR)

VR adds a new dimension to learning and is influencing one of the greatest turf wars this year.  There are several companies, around the world, that have invested millions to develop their own brand of this technology.  These include Samsung, Oculus 0backed by Facebook, Sony, Google, and HTC, and some of their products are ready to go on the market.

Technology will allow students to test the VR seeing several careers giving them an educational experience.  It may even change the direction of what they study and the rest of their lives.  It can also teach difficult problems in different ways from the traditional teaching method.  By bringing this technology into the class, it will let students learn by experimenting. 

Google has its Expedition Pioneer program and has already brought the Google Cardboard devices, powered by a smartphone, into the classrooms in the US.  It’s their way of introducing VR technology to the students.  This isn’t one where the students are in their own virtual world, but an experience through VR social technology.

3D Printing

3D Printers are already assisting students in bringing their creative idea to life or experiencing hands-on of things that have always lived in textbooks.  This year may be a year of transformation as these printers become less expensive.  The power of this printer, in education, helps students create new ideas and duplicate others. 

In the beginning, students print and print, and continue to do so, because it’s so exciting.  Then they reach a point where they no longer want to copy something but want to create something that doesn’t already exist. 

Wearables

Wearable technology has more to prove in the field of education but is an up and coming star.  In about three years, it should be in classrooms and is even now making some waves.  This technology continues to push the lines of what students can create.  There have been many workshops featuring wearable technology along with electrical engineering. 

These wearables also offer benefits to the teachers.  They can ping a student’s location by GPS while on a field trip and can also record point of view lessons.  It gives the teachers many more options to engage and monitor their students. 

Tech Gets Smarter and More Interactive

While the engineers keep refining new techniques, the devices will be able to perform tasks much better, become more sophisticated. This sophistication will allow the smaller devices to do astonishing things. In the next year, there are innovations that should change the traditional way of teaching students. 

Some analysts vision robotics taking a hands-on role in education. Even now, students in special education are learning through toys that are robotic. They will be used as playmates to children who have learning disabilities.

Personalized Blended Learning

Customized tools should meet the students’ needs in a meaningful and personalized way.  It will be the king of learning if it is in a timely manner and based on practices that are the best.  It’s up to the teacher to identify and implement the mix of digital tools for every student.  They can choose from several teaching approaches such as learning based on games, projects and more. 

Mobile Learning

In the coming year, more mobile apps and tools will become available on Android and iOS.  The expectations will be higher when related to better learning.  The technology of mobile learning will encourage collaboration and involve several kinds of learners and a variety of groups of students that are interconnected. 

Flipped Learning Technology

This type of learning is reversed from the traditional method.  The student learns, from home, while watching lecture videos online.  Then their homework is done in the classroom where there can be an interaction between the students and the teacher.  This approach gives the teachers the ability to create fun and useful learning experiences.

As flipped learning becomes more widespread, the delivery tools and streaming of the videos, that are key to this, must be enhanced for interaction. The solution, based on the cloud, will replace the traditional ways of learning for the next generation.  There will be new features such as the capabilities of mobile learning and analytics that are powerful enough to measure the responses of the students. These will eventually become the symbols of the flipped classroom.

In conclusion:

As the world changes, education has to also change by encouraging innovation and using new technology.  These changes will assist students in developing skills that are becoming more valued in the world of business.  Some of these are entrepreneurship, collaboration, creativity, and solving problems.  Technology will always be the support behind the goals of learning.