As the world changes; the education system should also adopt new trends that will
change it so as to pace up with the changing world. Each year reports from different media
organizational experts on emerging trends of technology are released especially those that aim at
developing the education system in the near future (Vannatta & Beyerbach 2000). The reports
highlight a couple of major changes in the education system that the people at the educational
level concerned should take note of. Most of these reports show that most of the technological
trends now emerging have a very great impact on education.
Most educational institutions are appreciating embracing the changes since they have
more positive impacts that negative ones by changing how most things are run in the institution.
The reason behind this is to enable accommodation of the emerging technology with a view to
enabling innovation. Innovation is brought about by not only accepting the new technology and
ideas but also by adapting to the changes of the world at large (Vannatta & Beyerbach 2000).
Most reports give us an idea on visions of how the education system is bound to change in the
future in terms of the classrooms and training centers, emerging technologies and how they are
bound to affect the education system and potential benefits and concerns that we should all be
aware of.
The classroom and training centers have changed in terms of technology applicable and
are still changing. Currently, the lecturers have evolved from writing on a wall board and now
use projectors and there are smart screens in classes for learning purpose (Vannatta & Beyerbach
2000). In the future, however, the technology used in classrooms will be very different from the
one being used right now. In the next three to five years to come, students will have portable
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devices that they will be using in their classrooms instead of writing down what the teacher is
saying. They will have their notes digitally secured by saving all the learning information on the
cloud.
As a result, students will participate in classrooms through a backchannel media where
they can interact with one another and the teacher (Vannatta & Beyerbach 2000). They will be
able to post questions, answers, comments etc. on the devices and they will be displayed on the
screens in their classrooms so that everyone can see and reply through their digital devices. I
addition to this, new programs will be developed where students will be able to submit their
home works and exams online where the lectures concerned will mark them and post their results
online immediately hence the students will always be updated about their performance in class.
What this means is that students will not be required to print their assignments and
deliver them to their lectures. There will be no more winter vacations since lectures will be able
to teach online at their homes through their devices that will be connected to those of the
students and hence very convenient. In the future too, the class calendars will be shared to all
students and their guardians since an open calendar will be developed, unlike the current
calendar that is shared from the teacher to the student with pre-set activities. The students will be
obligated to adjust the calendars that will suit them best for the general benefit of their education
and will also enable them to incorporate extra curricula activities (Vannatta & Beyerbach 2000).
Vision of emerging technology
Back in the days of our grandmothers and grandfathers, education was all about going to
school and piling up a lot of books for their studies, in which their daily basis was waking up
early in the morning, packing these lots of books and then heading to the nearest bus stop and
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then get dropped in buildings (Page 2014). In the buildings where teachers had chalks and other
writing materials ready for their lessons to start. Nowadays all that is all gone especially in the
start of the 21st century since these buildings, for example, are no longer even suitable to hold
lessons for us (Khaddage et al. 2011). According to the wall street journal, this has been caused
by the emerging technology in the sector of education.
One of the major technologies that have contributed to the development of the education
sector today is the mobile technology, especially the mobile application (Page 2014). The mobile
technology, through the emergence of the mobile application, has brought out online schooling
as a very serious issue which has been seen to enable education to reach out to those people in
the rural areas. The mobile application has grown since then to the point that it is no longer an
impact to the outside class lessons but for now, it is the basis of the school’s administration plans.
The variety of the use of the mobile application as varied over the time and date it can be
categorized into the Garage Bands that are made for iPad and are basically applied in the music
classes (Page 2014).
The sector has even grown to the point that the course curriculums are experienced
through the entire use of the iTunes. A concept here is made very clear that the essence of going
to school has been changed majorly (Page 2014). As a result of this, the future of education is
seen to improve greatly too through the development of the mobile app technology. The mobile
app technology is seen to bring a very effective education model in the coming future. The
mobile app technology is seen to be able to help the students in the classroom by solving many
of the problems that are encountered including the problem that is commonly faced by many
students today, the one of classroom participation (Page 2014). An example of the solving
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problem is the Garage Band that is for the I Pad and that is sought to perform the same function
as the smart guitar.
Basically, the future of education is sought to be full of excitement and according to the
Wall street journal, every school in the world need to have a flexible system of administration to
enhance this future (Khaddage et al. 2011). The reason behind this is that there are many other
promising applications, and also the development of this mobile app which is to develop a major
digital framework in every school’s curriculum in the near future (Page 2014). An example of
this is the iTunes which are foreseen to offer the teachers of these classrooms a step in
developing the digital designs.
In this, the teachers will be able to offer their course programs through books, video and
audio lessons. The I Tune is also foreseen to help even the outside learners for them to access
these classes freely which basically puts it as the future Powerful new app (Page 2014). The
mobile app will be a platform for the development of the paperless homework presentation since
every assignment will be given through this app in the future (Khaddage et al. 2011). The
development of the mobile app will help students in their class participation in which the
students in every class will have an account in which they will be able to log into these accounts,
thus enabling them associate and discuss even with the teacher through this mobile app.
Through the development of the wikis, websites and the classrooms blogs will enable the
class calendars to be made available for the students and teachers and everyone will have a future
in developing a responsibility in the education sector (Page 2014). Every class proceedings will
be recorded and followed online through the available platforms that will include the YouTube
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and the Google Hangouts and this will enable the school’s administration to archive the lesson
and keep everyone on toes in their responsibilities (Page 2014).
The future classes are sought to have full connections to the social media platforms
whereby the mobile app development includes an establishment of the Twitter streams which
will make it suitable for the school’s announcements and help the students in the entire institution
to collaborate (Page 2014). The development of the Google plus Accounts is another major and
speculated development in which students will be able to form class groups and project
collaborations in which they will be able to share their ideas and teach others (Page 2014).
Finally, a Facebook account will also contribute in the bonding of the schools’ students. Digital
portfolios and the development of the web-based email accounts will be key to improving the
personal learning styles of the students.
Potential Benefits and Concerns
Integration of the emerging trends of technology in our classrooms in the future will
definitely bring with its advantages and disadvantages that should be a major concern for the
lectures, students, and parents at large (Khaddage et al. 2011). The potential benefits will not
only arise from the use of digital devices that the students will own to aid in their learning in the
future but also by use of the devices in the general educational level (Mehdipour & Zerehkafi
2013). Most research carried out to access the potential advantages and disadvantages of
integrating technology in educational level reveal that most teachers, students and parents despite
appreciating and being willing to accommodate the new trends expected to emerge in the future
due to the possible benefits, they have their fears too concerning the drawbacks the technology
will come along with.
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In my research and analysis on the potential benefits and drawbacks of future integration
of technology in the classrooms and training centers, I compiled some of the possible cons and
pros that will be likely to be felt (Mehdipour & Zerehkafi 2013). Use of emerging trends of
technology in our classrooms in the future will give the students a chance to venture in
pedagogy. The students in the future with the help of technology will have a chance to
experiment with new and more effective digital designs of their work (Mehdipour & Zerehkafi
2013).
Students both at elementary and higher levels of education will be able to attain high
levels of skills and have an experience with different soft wares before they enter the outside
world where they will be required to use the soft wares hence making it easy for them then
(Mehdipour & Zerehkafi 2013). We live in a digital based world and therefore the experience
with the soft wares at an early age is beneficial since the students have an understanding of how
to use them. Students and lecturers in the future by the aid of technology will be able to
accomplish tasks that are more complex than those they can handle now (Khaddage et al. 2011).
The reason behind this is because technology is developing new soft wares that will support the
students’ and teachers’ complex assignments and orders hence making learning and teaching
effectively.
The students and teachers will be able to interact conveniently even when at homes
through school websites and other programs that will be developed in the future (Mehdipour &
Zerehkafi 2013). When students will have their own digital devices accommodated in their
classrooms and training centers, this will enable the student and teachers to access information
fast without any risks of loss. Currently, students do their assignments and print them for
submission where they drop them in the lecturer’ boxes (Mehdipour & Zerehkafi 2013). Mostly,
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the assignments are lost hence this is an inconvenient way. On the other hand, however, in the
future, new technological trends will enable students to submit their assignments online through
drop boxes and get their results online hence reducing chances of loss.
Programs that will enable parents to have their meetings online will be developed
(Khaddage et al. 2011). The programs will benefit both the parents and the school administration
since information intended to be passed in face-to- face meetings where most parents don’t
attend for various reasons will be passed conveniently through online meetings to all parents
(Mehdipour & Zerehkafi 2013). In addition to his, the students will have a chance to interact
more with other students and the teachers to since the technology will change the roles of the
passive students since they will be able to post questions and comments on their devices and are
immediately displayed on the screens in the classrooms where the teachers can address on such
issues and also students can reply to such questions and comments.
On the other hand, however, despite all the benefits the new trends of technology are
expected to bring forth in the education system, they will also have their drawbacks altogether.
Generally, technology can distract the students from the intended purpose which is effective
learning. Although the school will set specific guidelines and boundaries in the application of
technology during school hours, some students will often be found deviating from the rules set,
especially by the smartphones and laptops (Mehdipour & Zerehkafi 2013). As a result, the
student’s attention in class will be divided hence may result to poor performance altogether.
Online classes where students necessarily don’t have to be in school will pose a social concern
where students might end up anti-social.
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The reason behind this is because some students may hide behind the technology and
never participate in discussions. In other words, the students may become passive and the
teachers may not notice them since they are not physically present in the classrooms. The
technology may lead to more cheating during exam and assignments since the students will
access the internet in their devices and look up answers on the internet without the teacher
noticing (Mehdipour & Zerehkafi 2013). The reason behind this is because there are few ways of
preventing cheating while the students are using digital devices to do their orders. Integration of
technology in our classrooms in the future is going to be disadvantageous since not all students
can afford the digital devices that will be required (Mehdipour & Zerehkafi 2013). The
technological resources are expensive and not all parents will be able to meet these costs hence
putting some students at a loss. On the same account, some students will adapt to technology
faster than others hence those that are slow will lag behind education wise. As a result,
technological trends will affect some students’ performance in the classrooms.
Conclusions and recommendations
In conclusion, there are many recommendations that are key to the building of the
development of the mobile app technology as we continue to subdue the past educational
systems. One of the major recommendations that can be made is the introduction and
development of the online corporate learning. First, this is an initiative that needs a lot of time
and efforts to develop since all over the years there has been a gradual increase of less than 13%
in the development of this initiative (Khaddage et al. 2011). Development of the online corporate
learning initiative will be the platform of the flexible, more effective and a cheap training of any
company’s employees or the teaching of students regardless of the number of them in one class.
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A good example of the effectiveness of this initiative is that it will not struggle like the
academic Massive Open Online Courses in the quest of establishing a model on the revenue
stream since the companies and firms who take on this initiative will be able to customize just
like it is done in classes, their interests and explore other responsibility options (Khaddage et al.
2011). Another recommendation is the skills management, where the technology can be applied
in the search for skills in the course of corporate online learning. In this, there will be an intense
focus on the issue that is been learned through the technology and this will definitely help in
measuring the progress of every individual since it will enhance the establishment of a competent
based learning platform.
The third will be the establishment of alternative learning styles. Basically, this can be
recommended since the era where students were reliable to only video or text learning materials
is over. No matter how effective they are, there must be a continuous development of the same or
else the inventions and establishment of other alternative learning styles alongside the said
tutorials. Another recommendation at this point world is the calling upon the concern on the
Code Schools which is the most efficient alternative learning style up to today. The system of the
Code School is essential to the students and everyone who is involved in the learning. First, it
develops the human mind greatly.
The reason behind developing the human mind is the fact that the Code School is based
on watching short tutorials then practicing the same either in groups or individually and one is
able to repeat the same process until they are familiar with the tutorial been put across. Online
competency-based training, on the other hand, can be recommended in situations where there is
nothing new been learned since it has been proved that it poses no disruptive potential to any
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learner. Developing all these recommendations will create another era of the use of the mobile
app technology in education and many other fields also.
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References
Vannatta, R. A., & Beyerbach, B. (2000). Facilitating a constructivist vision of technology
integration among education faculty and preservice teachers. Journal of Research on
Computing in Education, 33(2), 132-148.
Page, T. (2014). Application-based mobile devices in design education. International Journal of
Mobile Learning and Organisation, 8(2), 96-111.
Mehdipour,Y., & Zerehkafi, H. (2013). Mobile learning for education: Benefits and challenges.
International Journal of Computational Engineering Research, 3(6), 93-101.
Khaddage, F., Lattemann, C., & Bray, E. (2011, March). Mobile apps integration for teaching
and learning (are teachers ready to re-blend?). In Proceedings of Society for Information
Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. 2545-2552).