Horizon Report Reflection

I do agree with the trends listed in the report. Trends such as the first one mentioned (Education paradigms are shifting to include online learning, hybrid learning, and collaborative models) are ones that I see myself through first hand experience. With a private school education my whole life, I have seen various technologies in the classroom setting, including emphasis on online learning techniques. I had a class solely for learning how to work and navigate computers and perform correct research. In this class, we went on multiple websites that helped us with what we were currently learning, whether it was spelling, math, or religion, there were websites that would give us quizzes or chapter summaries to help us better understand. We also used websites such as Quizlet, where you can make flashcards and study them; you can also study sets that other people have made. Another trend mentioned learning through social media, which I have seen as well. It stated that social media helps people better interact, and it engages students in current events and media.

These new technology trends have and will influence my personal learning in several ways. Techniques such as BYOD have impacted me already. In middle school, we would go to detention if we had our phones out. In high school, as iPhones were becoming more popular, some teachers allowed us to take them out to look facts up. In my religion class senior year, we used them to take weekly quizzes; this involved us going to a certain link, entering our name, and submitting answers via this website. This is like the idea of the clicker used here at UGA. This is seen especially in schools with limited funding where the cost of technology is increasingly dramatically. Personally, out of all technologies I have found the i-devices so helpful. On an iPad I can take notes in class and easily look something up. Moreover, it has apps that will help me as a speech therapist.

One of the challenges mentioned is pressure placed on teachers to incorporate emerging technologies and new media in their classrooms and curriculum. I believe this is a significant challenge that teachers have to face and overcome. Diminishing teacher authority is something I have thought about. In the future, when I want to use technology to teach effectively I will, but if I feel as though it is taking away my authority I will stop. In speech therapy, there is a large emphasis on the use of technology, but this can easily be replaced by manual methods. Another challenge is that technology may not be fit to each student’s needs. This issue may be resolved if there is not such a huge pressure to have the correct certain technology and more pressure to do things the old fashioned way. Overall, technology has taken control of our lives. It has impacted us positively and negatively. We must try to find equilibrium between doing tasks with technology and without it.

This is a picture of a speech therapist using technology to help her patient. 

This is a picture I took in class of the books we needed to get for the class. I took this with my iPhone of a projector with an image from a computer. This just shows the integration of technology in the classroom setting.