Horizon Report Response

Just as I have stressed before and as the article mentions, learning is more effective and engaging when you can relate it to your own life. What better way to relate to young student today than through technology? The Horizon Report details several uses of technology for educational purposes.

One point that caught my eye was that many schools are now turning to students completing their core classes online. I was actually told that Gainesville State College is going to turn to this since they joined with North Georgia. The first two years of these students college career will be spend mostly at home. If the students are ok with this new policy and it saves money for the school then by all means do it, but personally I would be very unhappy. If I am paying for education I want to be able to have a physical classroom to come learn and have face to face contact with a teacher and other students. When it came time to attend school and start my major classes, I would feel so unprepared and shocked. I think it is important for students to adjust to the college life and being on campus, attending classes with strangers is essential to that adjustment.

There are two technologies in the Horizon Report that I look forward to seeing how they integrate into education. The first being gaming, I just find it hard to believe they can design some kind of program that is educational, but actually fun and engaging. For elementary age students I know they already have some because my sister plays educational games on the computer when she comes home and the must be fun for her to choose those games over sitting on YouTube watching pageant or gymnastics videos. The other technology is gesture-based computing. I am intrigued to know how they will incorporate this into education. I think it is a great idea to use these technologies for helping disabled students, but I want to see it incorporated into other areas of education. Considering gesture-based computing will not be adopted for four to five years, the Horizon Report predicts, I guess I will have to be patient.