Week 30: The Broader Professional Context: Comtemporary Trends

Activity 6: A Contemporary trend in New Zealand or internationally

What: Identify one trend that is most relevant to your practice:

A trend or statistically observable change (Visser & Gagnon 2005) that I am captivated by is the rise and impact of technology. Why? In the 21^st century this rise has been exponential. It is now ubiquitous in schools especially in the form of cell phones, ipads and/or laptops. It is impacting on both how and what we teach as we try to prepare students for future living.

So what: Analyse the trend

There are three main areas: Education, Employment and Cyberisks.

It has transformed our understanding of teaching and learning. Learning can now be more personalised.  ‘Anywhere, anytime’ - students are now connected 24 hours a day. It is common for people to be involved simultaneously in several activities.(OECD 2016)

Digital disruption will lead to the discontinuing of many jobs. The Oxford Martin Institute survey of 702 occupations in the USA predicted that 47% could be automated within 20 years. At 0.0078 probability teachers are likely to be around for a while yet. (KPMG International 2014)

The speed and power of new technologies allow individuals and organisations to stay one step ahead of formal regulations (OECD 2016) We need to think about how to problem solve this.

Key challenges/opportunities trend poses to my practice and context

With 24 hour connectedness and a developing fear of missing out (FOMO)  some students are becoming dependent -  even addicted to technology; for example, on the internet and gaming. Research shows that

It is associated with structural and functional changes in brain regions involving emotional processing, executive attention, decision-making and cognitive control.” (Lin & Zhou et al, 2012)

This has implications for the classroom and society. Furthermore, even if students are not addicted, their ability to focus for longer lengths of time is decreasing.

Additionally, the teachers ICT skills often lag behind the technical skills required by students for the workplace. The challenge is to better prepare teachers for teaching using technology.

As for employment,  Frey and Osborne, authors of the Oxford Martin research, expect low-skilled workers will  move to tasks that are not susceptible to computerisation — i.e., tasks that required creative and social intelligence,” “For workers to win the race, however, they will have to acquire creative and social skills.”(2013)  

There is an opportunity for education to be more interactive and collaborative to meet this need and we are therefore heading in the right direction. Furthermore, there is a need to help our learners to be adaptable and flexible in the face of change.

It is already impacting the teaching context. With the abundance of information now available through the internet, it is vital that critical literacy skills are taught so students are not manipulated by those with dishonest intentions.

Students also need to be taught how to keep themselves safe online and respectful commenting behaviour. Teachers need ongoing education in order to be proactive about alerting students to cyberisks

Now What?

The Ministry of Education has introduced a new digital literacy curriculum  which encompasses Years 1-10 which is future-focused  and includes coding. The establishment of professional development courses such as that offered by the Mindlab are essential for teachers to try to keep up with the constant rate of change

The limitations that might impact the adoption of this trend could be the lack of technology teachers, the lack of access to technology for some schools,  (we only became a 1:1 device school this year – until now we had to rely on being able to book the computer room),  the lack of finance and the lack of technology PD.

References

Adams Becker, S., Cummins, M., Davis, A., Freeman, A., Hall Giesinger, C., and Ananthanarayanan, V. (2017). NMC Horizon Report: 2017 Higher Education Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.

Frey, C. & Osborne, M. (2013) The Future of Employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerisation. Technological Forecasting and Social Change. 114,January 2017 p254-280. DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2016.08.019

KPMG International. (2014). Future state 2030: the global megatrends shaping governments” [Video]. KPMG International Cooperative: USA. Retrieved from http://www.kpmg.com/Global/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/future-state-government/Documents/future-state-2030-v3.pdfNew Media Consortium. (2017). NMC and CoSN Release the Horizon Report: 2017 K-12 Edition [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-rPhEltg9o

National Intelligence Council. (2017). Global trends: The Paradox of Progress. National Intelligence Council: US. Retrieved from https://www.dni.gov/files/images/globalTrends/documents/GT-Main-Report.pdf

OECD. (2016) Trends Shaping Education 2016, OECD Publishing, Paris.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/trends_edu-2016-en

Visser, L., & Gagnon, K. (2005). Defining “Trends” and “Issues” in Distance Education. Conversation with Donald Paul Ely Y. Visser, L. Visser, M. Simonson & R. Amirault (Eds. de la serie), Trends and Issues in Distance Education. International Perspectives, pp.83-89.

Zhou, Yan, Fu-Chun Lin, Ya-Song Du, Ling-di Qin, Zhi-Min Zhao, Jian-Rong Xu, and Hao Lei. “Gray Matter Abnormalities in Internet Addiction: A Voxel-Based Morphometry Study.” European Journal of Radiology 79, no. 1 (July 2011): 92–95. doi:10.1016/j.ejrad.2009.10.025.