THE TOP 3 EDUCATION TRENDS OF 2010

This a guest post By TeachStreet. Teachstreet is a website that provides online and local classes, including SAT Prep Classes.
2010 was a year of experimentation, change and flux, as educators scrambled to lay a foundation for a 21st century style of learning. Among the top trends in education were:

1. Mobile Devices in the Classroom

This year, Notre Dame set up an experimental classroom where every student was given an iPad. While some critics said that introducing mobile devices would be a distraction to students (as they can play games on the devices), others pointed out that iPads in the classroom may help the teacher make the classroom experience more interactive and engaging. The verdict is still out on whether or not mobile devices are a help or a hindrance, but this trend shows no sign of slowing down.



2. Emphasis on Teacher Evaluation

The “Race to the Top” program announced by the Obama administration last year had a big effect on how teachers were evaluated. Each state that competed for the $4.35 billion in funding had to make serious reforms in order to qualify for the program. A big part of meeting those qualifications were to create more merit based incentives for teachers who did well. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation jumped on the teacher evaluation bandwagon and provided over $335 million dollars in funding to place webcams in classrooms to better understand just what “star teachers” did in order to create a great learning experience.

3. Remote Learning

Although remote learning has been around for a while, many more universities are offering remote learning courses, including prestigious Universities like Stanford and Columbia. As webinars and other streaming video technologies become more reliable and ubiquitous, it only seems natural for this trend to continue. This is going to be especially handy for working students who will be able to fit their coursework around and between shifts.

As usual, technology was a big driver for changes in education in 2010. It’s still unclear where these changes will lead us, but that many will point to 2010 as a key year of change.

This article was originally posted at http://www.eduinreview.com/blog/2010/12/the-top-3-education-trends-of-2010/

Mobile will become our gateway to the world

2010 marked the year in which infrastructure, technology and design finally intersected in the mobile space. For the first time, sales of smartphones outpaced sales of desktops and laptops, iPhone and iPad applications were downloaded more than 7 billion times and research shows e-mail access is now on the rise on the iPhone while declining on the computer.

With the foundation in place, in the coming year we will witness the scales tip: Mobile device users will interact with content, companies and the Web more on their phones and iPads than on their computers, and IT and service providers will create solutions that are defined by our mobile consumption and use behaviors. "The highway has been there but until now we needed a special car to get us to our destination, so the average pedestrian was not going to get there. Now that technology barriers have been lowered, mobile will become an extension of who we are," said Philippe Suchet, CEO of MyShopanion, and the recipient of the Web2.0' Summit 2010 award for most innovative startup in the mobile shopping category.

From social shopping on the go, to easy paperless transactions and check-ins, to watching (and creating) videos with friends abroad, to in-class learning and collaboration, to managing our health real-time - prepare for an explosion of connected experiences across all points of interactions between people and people, people and companies, and people and information in the cloud.

Source: edustange.posterous.com

After one semester, students and staff love iPads at St. Cat's

Students in a sixth grade science class in the middle school program at St. Catherine's High School use their iPad tablets rather than pens, pencils, and notebooks, Thursday December 9, 2010. / Mark Hertzberg mhertzberg@journaltimes.com Buy this photo at jtreprints.com

RACINE - Seated at his school desk Thursday, sixth-grader Nicholas Rodriguez placed his fingers on an Apple iPad touch-screen and began typing the findings of a group science experiment onto a slide for a class presentation.

At a desk across from Nicholas, fellow sixth-grader Sam Letsch used another iPad to search the Internet for photos to be included in the presentation. Upon finding them, he quickly e-mailed them to Nicholas who placed them in the presentation file.

Around Nicholas and Sam, 25 other sixth-graders in the Middle School Program at St. Catherine's High School did similar work on iPads, which are very thin, light and portable single-panel touch-screen computers.

Students in St. Catherine's Middle School Program, which started this fall with 54 sixth- and seventh-graders, have been using iPads all school year in place of textbooks, spirals and standard computers. Students and staff said after some adjustment at the start of school the iPads are now working well and they'd never go back to classes that use regular textbooks, paper and pencils.

"All our books are on (the iPads). We don't have to carry around our big books anymore. Instead of writing everything down you can type in notes, e-mail them to our teacher and they can grade it right at their computer," said Nicholas, 11, adding that means assignments are returned quicker so students know sooner if answers are right or wrong and if they need help. "The old way is slower."

The old way is also less engaging, said Diane Putra, middle school science and math teacher at St. Catherine's, 1200 Park Ave. Petra said the iPads keep her class lessons moving faster and keep students attentive because they allow for so many interactive activities that can involve each and every student.

"I couldn't go back to the other method," Petra said of teaching with regular books, paper and pencils. "This has so much to offer."

Using the iPads, students can access electronic versions of their textbooks that include online activities and video tutorials. The iPads also have a word-processor program, an electronic dictionary, a drawing program, school-appropriate Internet access, interactive learning games and a calendar for recording homework assignments, explained Sam, 11, clicking through the programs on the iPad Thursday.

St. Catherine's is the only school in Racine County and in much of the country to provide iPads for individual students, a decision made to expose students to the latest technology - for a per student technology fee of $400, which replaces a textbook fee.

St. Catherine's plans to increase iPad use among students to include eighth-graders next school year and high schoolers the following year.

So far no iPads have been stolen, damaged or lost and the new machines have caused only a few problems, including occasional screen glares and students sometimes getting distracted during lessons by all the iPad features. Petra said those problems have been largely fixed by closing blinds in classrooms, the wearing off of the iPads' novelty and rearranging student desks so teachers can see their screens.

Petra also said her students picked up the new technology fast. Watching them in class Thursday the students typed with ease on the iPads and quickly switched from program to program with no difficulty or confusion.

"It was hard at first," Sam said. But the iPads include a typing program that taught students to use the iPad keyboard and frequent iPad use has accustomed students to the machines. "It really does get a lot easier as the year goes."

Source: journaltimes.com