General

Taking a look at Major Ed-tech trends for 2013

Using SMS Marketing to Connect:
This seems plausible. Of course mobile devices are on the rise. According to the article 53% of college students own a Smartphone, 93% text-message on their phones, and 89% of surveyed colleges send text message alerts as part of a crisis communication plan. What I question is who was surveyed, which colleges? Were they surveyed because of their use of SMS marketing to connect, in order to make the percentages seen in the article dominant? I can understand a college or university sending emergency notifications through students phones, however, it is mentioned that students could potentially get updates on deadlines for their classes and coursework. The latter would require professors to do this for their classes. Do professors do this? Are they willing to? Is their college/university set up for them to actually implement this?

Social Media:
Social media is everywhere. And for that reason among others, I do believe that this is a trend that has started and will continue to grow.

3D printing:
“Some predict that one day every classroom, if not every student, ill own a 3D printer”. ONE DAY, those are two words when put together create a whole lot of ambiguity. Could it mean 5 years, 10 years, 20…etc.?). I personally don’t see 3D printers as one of the forerunners on ed-tech trends, but I could be wrong.

As I read through it is clear that the information given throughout can inform teachers, ventures and the general public, however, every country, state, province, and school board functions in their own particular way. They have plans and visions they wish to implement, which I would say in general will fall into some part of the ed-tech trends, but definitely not all. Therefore, I see this ed-tech trends article as informative but not of practical use for let’s say an elementary teacher such as myself. It is good to know the direction of trends, but I am more concerned with my school board fixing the internet problems and IT support issues.

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