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Educational technology trends discussed at advocacy group summit

by admin on 2/13/2012 • Category: Online Education

Technological development is developing at an accelerating pace. The implications for academia are vast, and the ways in which students learn are changing with every passing day. A group of educational technology advocates, the New Media Consortium (NMC), recently discussed the impact that modern technology has on the higher education landscape at its annual summit, reports The Chronicle of Higher Education.

This gathering celebrated the 10th year of the NMC's Horizons Project, a meeting of minds that charts the effects of technology on the education sector. More than 100 experts gathered at the summit to discuss the most important technological developments and their implications on academia, and the group identified 28 "meta-trends" that will likely shape the educational landscape in the coming years.

Of all the issues facing academia today, the prevalence of open-source digital course materials and online learning initiatives were considered by many to be the most important.

"Concepts like open content, open data and open resources, along with notions of transparency and easy access to data and information, is moving from a trend to a value for much of the world," reads a summary of the NMC's report. "As authoritative sources lose their importance, there is need for more curation and other forms of validation to generate meaning in information and media."

Open educational resources (OERs) are perhaps one of the fastest-growing areas within the academic technology sector. Not only allowing greater numbers of individuals to access academic resources, OERs also have profound implications to reduce the potential cost of education.

According to the Center for American Progress (CAP), OERs are driving innovation in how internet technology can be applied to learning.

"Many of these online learning options are becoming more sophisticated," reads an article published on the CAP website. "They can now go beyond discussion boards and web-based file sharing and instead offer instruction that responds to the needs of individual learners. Students can even supplement that learning with other resources such as classroom lectures by professors from elite institutions available on sites such as Peer 2 Peer University, a grassroots open education project."

As OERs become increasingly complex and widespread, they could address a growing need in the education sector. More individuals are choosing to return to higher education than ever before, and such systems could enable universities to handle increasing student demand. According to data from the National Center for Educational Statistics, projected college enrollment figures are expected to reach almost 25 million individuals annually by 2020.

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