Digital Transformation Trends in Education for 2018

The impact of a modernized school can be transformative for learning outcomes. Keeping students engaged is a huge challenge our educators deal with every day. Students learn in different ways, and at varying paces. Fortunately, a digital transformation is taking place to drive personalized, digital learning strategies in a really efficient and effective way. Here are the top six digital transformation trends that will have an enormous impact on education in 2018.

1.      Personalized Learning

Recent decades have seen a steady turn toward more personalized education. As education technology improves, teachers are finding more ways to create individualized learning opportunities for their students. The digital transformation trends of blended learning and adaptive learning are two ways to personalize the educational experience.

Blended learning

Teachers have always known the value of student ownership in learning. Blended learning personalizes lessons, allowing students to focus on discovery and to make their own decisions about direction and pace. The idea is to combine technology (such as a mobile learning platform or other online environments) with face-to-face interactions. This combination provides students with more ownership.

Adaptive learning

Similar to blended learning, adaptive learning allows students more freedom in designing their own educational paths. Adaptive learning technology analyzes a student’s input and instantly adjusts the student’s learning materials and assessments. Adaptive learning tools can increase classroom agility and support student achievement.

2.    Student-Led Learning

People often grow more comfortable with a topic after teaching others about it. In teaching, the mind is actively and profoundly engaged. Teachers have been using student-led learning in their classrooms for years. Most adults will recall making a presentation or two as students. But 21st-century education has brought student-led learning to the next level with wireless presentation systems and mirroring devices.

3.    Gamification

Who doesn’t like a good game? Teachers are always looking for motivating and engaging games to implement in their lessons. Gamification in the classroom inspires learning through many of the rewards behind what video games and strategy games do. This can be achieved by providing opportunities to earn badges, level up, and fail in order to restart and try again. It also encourages collaboration through team play.

Games have always been used in the classroom but now we see a more psychological approach to how they are implemented.  By using tools like Minecraft, teachers can find ways to reach students where they are while allowing students to share content and accomplishments with the rest of the class through wireless display and mirroring devices. By employing this digital transformation trend in the classroom, teachers can keep students actively involved while reinforcing both low-level and high-level concepts.

4.    Utilization of Cloud-Based Technology

Cloud-based technology allows students and teachers to have access to content and resources wherever they are while still being able to use the tools that they need to use to accomplish their goals.  There should be no more lost files, missing resources, or lack of access and this is an essential part of a school’s digital transformation.

5.    Learning Data and Analytics

By gathering and interpreting data from learners, analytical technology can improve knowledge retention and learner engagement. Personalizing what the learner receives can better serve the learner’s interests and learning style.

Data can be used to personalize the learning experience automatically (as with adaptive learning technology), but it can also be used to personalize interactions with students. Teachers can use interactive classroom orchestration tools, such as Windows Ink, and touchscreen displays to give students relevant, real-time feedback directly on their devices in a 1:1 environment.  When you add in analytics synthesized from a school’s student information system, teachers can go even further in adapting content to suit the students’ needs.

6.    1 to 1 Ratio Classrooms

A significant digital transformation trend we expect to see in 2018 is the rise of one computer per student. One-to-one provides educators the flexibility to supplement core curriculum with interactive online content to create more highly customized lessons. School IT teams benefit from standardization. Organizations such as One Laptop Per Child have been very impactful, as well as federal funding, bonds, and donations increasing the number of students with a device across the globe.

To use these devices effectively, schools are investing in wireless and classroom orchestration systems such as Screenbeam’s Classroom Commander or Net School Support which allows teachers and students to work in a fully interactive, agile classroom.

Classroom Commander helps teachers maximize student engagement and retention in many ways. For example, teachers can freely move around the room while presenting, watching student reactions and understanding. Proximity control is easier when wires aren’t a concern. Windows Ink support allows teachers to annotate comments directly onto a student device from the classroom display. Teachers view all student screens and active applications, can launch websites and apps across student devices, and blank screens on a single device or the entire classroom when needed.

The freedom of wireless is all thanks to Classroom Commander and Miracast, which works like wireless HDMI to allow screen mirroring without weighing down the existing infrastructure. Classroom Commander helps educators use their own expertise more effectively than ever before.

Written by David Lopez (2018)