I think that the trends mentioned in “Horizon Report k-12 Edition” are very pertinent to today’s educating style. I have seen them in my most recent years of schooling somewhat frequently but I have also heard many stories from my younger cousins or friends who have different teachers who followed these various trends very closely. For example: the trend that social media is changing the way people interact, present ideas and information, and communicate. I personally have had to do several projects that were set up in social media format, such as creating a Facebook profile for various historical figures or having to make a YouTube video about how physics is portrayed in the world around us. I also have many friends who had teachers in high school that they communicated with through Twitter. Another example of a trend that I see acted out repeatedly is Openness (open content, open data, and open resources, along with notions of transparency and easy access to data and information). Currently, in my English class, we post all of our essays online so that they are “shared” and our class mates can look at them and give us feedback and ideas on how to improve them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many of the challenges portrayed in the report a very accurate as well. I think that the biggest challenge that is encountered is that teachers have a hard time keeping up with the advancements in technology and the ways in which it can be used for educational purposes. And more often than not, this trouble with technology is a major hang-up in the classroom. Not only are teachers unable to answer student questions about how to work the technology, but they waste class time because they are caught up trying to get various technologies to work because they haven’t taken the time beforehand to learn how, nor have they been required to learn how they work. The easiest solution to this problem is for the school board to bring in experts on each technological tool to come teach the instructors how to use them most effectively in their classrooms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Out of all of the different technologies mentioned in the report that are being integrated into educational methods, I think that the most interesting is 3D Printing. 3D Printing is gradually becoming more accessible and affordable to schools. The 3D printers can print off of designs, but they also give students the opportunity to create their own designs and prototypes and then print them off to create models of their own. The most common uses of this technology is in the fields of jewelry, footwear, industrial design, architecture, engineering and construction (AEC), automotive, aerospace, dental and medical industries, education, geographic information systems, civil engineering, and many others (http://mashable.com/category/3d-printing/). The opportunities that this gives students to take their education by the reigns and go crazy with all of the possibilities is incredible.