Technology Outlook for Norwegian Schools

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3 Technology Outlook for Norwegian Schools An NMC Horizon Project Regional Analysis Executive Summary... 1 Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less BYOD... 5 Cloud Computing... 6 Flipped Classroom... 7 Social Media... 8 Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years Games and Gamification... 9 Mobile Learning Online Learning Open Content Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Four to Five Years Learning Analytics Natural User Interfaces Real-Time Machine Translation Wearable Technology Top Ten Trends Impacting Technology Decisions Top Ten Most Significant Challenges Methodology Horizon.Norway Advisory Board... 23

4 The Technology Outlook for Norwegian Schools An NMC Horizon Project Regional Analysis is a collaboration between The New Media Consortium and The Norwegian Centre for ICT in Education 2013, The New Media Consortium Creative Commons License Permission is granted under a Creative Commons Attribution License to replicate, copy, distribute, transmit, or adapt this report freely provided that attribution is provided as illustrated in the citation below. To view a copy of this license, visit or send a letter to Creative Commons, 559 Nathan Abbott Way, Stanford, California 94305, USA. Citation Johnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Cummins, M., and Estrada, V. (2013). Technology Outlook for Norwegian Schools : An NMC Horizon Project Regional Analysis. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium. Cover Photo by Mads Bødker: Printed Robot. ISBN

5 Executive Summary Executive Summary The Technology Outlook for Norwegian Schools : An NMC Horizon Project Regional Analysis reflects a collaborative research effort between the New Media Consortium (NMC) and the Norwegian Centre for ICT in Education to inform education leaders about significant developments in technologies supporting teaching, learning, and creative inquiry at Norwegian schools. All of the research underpinning the report makes use of the NMC s Delphi-based process for bringing groups of experts to a consensus viewpoint, in this case around the impact of emerging technologies on Norwegian school education over the next five years. The same process underlies the NMC Horizon Report series, the most visible product of an ongoing research effort begun in 2002 to systematically identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on education around the globe. The Technology Outlook for Norwegian Schools was produced to explore emerging technologies and forecast their potential impact expressly in a Norwegian context. In the effort that ran from September through October 2013, the carefully selected group of 38 experts who contributed to this report considered hundreds of relevant articles, news, blog posts, research, and project examples as part of the preparation that ultimately pinpointed the most notable emerging technology topics, trends, and challenges for Norwegian schools over the next five years. Collectively the 2013 Horizon Project Norway Advisory Board represents a range of diverse perspectives across the country s learning sector. The project has been conducted under an open data philosophy, and all the interim projects, secondary research, discussions, and ranking instrumentation can be viewed at norway.wiki.nmc.org. The precise research methodology employed in the work is detailed in a special section found at the end of this report. Table 1: Comparison of Final 12 Topics Across Three NMC Horizon Research Projects NMC Horizon Report 2013 K-12 Edition Technology Outlook for Norwegian Schools Technology Outlook for STEM+ Education Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less BYOD BYOD Learning Analytics Cloud Computing Cloud Computing Mobile Learning Mobile Learning Flipped Classroom Online Learning Online Learning Social Media Virtual and Remote Laboratories Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years Electronic Publishing Games and Gamification 3D Printing Learning Analytics Mobile Learning Games and Gamification Open Content Online Learning Immersive Learning Environments Personalized Learning Open Content Wearable Technology Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Four to Five Years 3D Printing Learning Analytics Flexible Displays Augmented Reality Natural User Interfaces The Internet of Things Virtual and Remote Laboratories Real-Time Machine Translation Machine Learning Wearable Technology Wearable Technology Virtual Assistants The 12 technologies to watch presented in the body of this report reflect our experts opinions as to which of the more than 40 technologies considered will be most important to Norwegian school education over the five years following the publication of the report. As Table 1 above illustrates, the choices of our experts overlap in interesting ways with those who contributed to the Technology Outlook for STEM+ Education , a global sector analysis exploring technology adoption across science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, as well as the 2013, NMC An NMC Horizon Project Regional Analysis Page 1

6 Executive Summary NMC Horizon Report > 2013 K-12 Edition, which looked at technology uptake across schools from a global perspective. All three of these projects advisory boards a group of 132 acknowledged experts share some visions for the use of educational technology in schools. There are several overlapping topics between the Norway report and the global K-12 report, while it is clear that STEM disciplines are seeing a different timeline and mix in the technologies they feel will be important. Compared to both of the other advisory boards, the Norway experts saw mobile learning, online learning, and learning analytics as further away from widespread use in the Norwegian school context. Both the global K-12 and the 2013 Horizon Project Norway groups viewed BYOD as poised for imminent adoption, largely based on the rise of tablet and smartphone usage. Mobiles have proven benefits for teaching and learning, and now schools in Norway and across the globe are starting to relax their policies to allow students to use their own devices in the classroom. Both panels also saw cloud computing as rapidly moving into widespread use. Google Apps, Skype, and other cloud-based resources are increasingly being used as collaborative tools that can be conveniently accessed from anywhere, making learning more ubiquitous. Additionally, the Horizon Project Norway and global K-12 groups saw open content positioned on the mid-term horizon; in Norway, organizations such as the National Digital Learning Arena (NDLA) are catalysing important discussions around open educational resources. There was also agreement about the placement of wearable technology on the far-term horizon; much of the work being done in this field across education institutions is experimental, with companies in the consumer sector leading advancements in the field. Table 2: Top-Ranked Trends Across Three NMC Horizon Research Projects NMC Horizon Report 2013 K-12 Edition Technology Outlook for Norwegian Schools Technology Outlook for STEM+ Education Education paradigms are shifting to include online learning, hybrid learning, and collaborative models. Social media is changing the way people interact, present ideas and information, and communicate. Openness concepts like open content, open data, and open resources, along with notions of transparency and easy access to data and information is becoming a value. Social media is changing the way people interact, present ideas and information, and communicate. Education paradigms are shifting to include online learning, hybrid learning, and collaborative models. People expect to be able to work, learn, and study whenever and wherever they want. Education paradigms are shifting to include online learning, hybrid learning, and collaborative models. Citizen science projects increasingly provide formal students and lifelong learners the opportunity to participate and learn in real STEM projects. The abundance of resources and relationships made easily accessible via the Internet is increasingly challenging us to revisit our roles as educators. The Horizon.STEM and the Norway experts share a common vision that games and gamification are still two to three years away for most educators, even though research indicates that, especially for complex subjects, connecting lessons to the real world whether through simulations or online games engages learners and helps them better grasp the material. Several unique choices distinguished the viewpoints expressed by the Horizon Project Norway Advisory Board from their counterparts. While previous K-12 and STEM advisory boards have 2013, NMC An NMC Horizon Project Regional Analysis Page 2

7 Executive Summary tracked social media use through all three horizons into mainstream use, Norwegian educators still see it as much as a year away from broad use. With Norway ranking third highest among European nations for posting to social media platforms, schools there can be expected to increasingly leverage social media and networks to amplify communication and collaboration among teachers and students. Similarly, the group also saw the flipped classroom as some months away, placing it in the near term horizon. As Norway educators focus on implementing 21 st century pedagogies, it is likely that the pattern seen in other Horizon studies around the utility of the flipped classroom concept will find broad traction in Norway as well. Real-time machine translation, an obviously useful technology in Europe, was seen as coming, although still some five years out. This is the first Horizon Project advisory board to vote this topic into a report, although given the pace of development with the technology, it will undoubtedly be featured in other reports as the technology becomes more well established. Advancements in computing systems are facilitating the automatic analysis of speech, physical gesture, and other nuanced human actions. There are vast implications for teaching, learning, and productivity as the relationship between people and machines becomes more natural and intuitive, and the Horizon Project Norway Advisory Board agreed, placing natural user interfaces (NUIs) on the far-term horizon. Touchscreens, haptic interfaces, voice, facial, and emotional recognition will enable students to interact with devices much more seamlessly. While there are obvious overlaps with other Horizon Project studies, the nuances of the technologies and their associated adoption horizons featured in this report are specific to Norwegian schools. Likewise, the key trends (Table 2 and pages 17-18) and significant challenges (Table 3 and pages 19-20) selected by the 2013 Horizon Project Norway Advisory Board distinctly reflect the current drivers and obstacles facing Norwegian schools over the coming five years. Table 3: Top-Ranked Challenges Across Three NMC Horizon Research Projects NMC Horizon Report 2013 K-12 Edition Ongoing professional development needs to be valued and integrated into the culture of the schools. Technology Outlook for Norwegian Schools Current approaches to initial teacher training and in-service training in digital tools and pedagogies are insufficient for the need. Technology Outlook for STEM+ Education The demand for personalized learning is not adequately supported by current technology or practices. Too often it is education s own processes and practices that limit broader uptake of new technologies. Teachers and schools remain dependent on physical textbooks. Appropriate metrics of evaluation lag the emergence of new scholarly forms of authoring, publishing, and researching. New models of education are bringing unprecedented competition to the traditional models of education. Digital skills and the use of ICT for learning do not appear to be embedded in reform efforts, measurement strategies, prioritized areas, and national programmes to any appreciable extent. Most academics are not using new and compelling technologies for learning and teaching, nor for organizing their own research. The experts spent a fair amount of time researching and discussing relevant trends and challenges in the context of teaching, learning, and creative inquiry in Norwegian schools. Horizon Project advisory boards in general have agreed that trends like these are important drivers of technology adoption; the 2013 Horizon Project Norway group especially saw such a linkage. At the same time, 2013, NMC An NMC Horizon Project Regional Analysis Page 3

8 Executive Summary these panels of experts also usually find that technology adoption is often hindered by both local and systemic challenges. Many challenges impacting technology uptake are grounded in everyday realities that often make it difficult to learn about, much less adopt, new tools and approaches. All three advisory boards in our comparison agree on the notion that education paradigms are transitioning to encompass more online, hybrid, and collaborative learning models. This trend is further underscored by the Horizon Project Norway panel s placement of the flipped classroom as a technology topic on the near-term, and online learning on the mid-term horizon. Schools are taking a cue from the online offerings across higher education and emphasizing digital learning. Social media rose to the top of the trends for the Horizon Project Norway Advisory Board, echoing their placement of the topic on the Technologies to Watch list. The group agreed that the emergence of Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms is changing the way people communicate. This decision resonates with the global K-12 group, who ranked it as the second most key trend. The Horizon Project Norway panel also highlighted one trend that has appeared in other Horizon Project studies, but that has especially important implications here. Norwegians expect to work, learn, and study wherever and whenever they want. Primary and secondary students in Norway have never known a world without Internet access. Using desktops, laptops, and mobile devices, they are able to connect to a limitless network that contains learning opportunities around every corner. The emergence of smartphones and tablets has further enabled students and teachers alike to discover new information and share ideas at home, on the road, or wherever they may be. The top three challenges identified by the Horizon Project Norway Advisory Board were completely unique to Norway, and solidly based in local realities. Concerns about initial teacher training in the digital arena surfaced as the most highly ranked challenge. While there is an emphasis being placed on digital competence for students through the national curriculum, there is a concern that many pre-service teachers are not receiving a sufficiently rigorous foundation. Another significant challenge noted was the dependence Norwegian schools have on printed textbooks. The national curriculum relies on them to dispense mandated subject matter. Although there is more attention being paid to open educational resources, publishers have not yet embraced open learning concepts, and it is unclear what their role will be in producing this type of content. The advisory board also agreed that digital skills and the use of ICT are not prevalent enough across the education system from reform to assessment. While technology use is rising across the country, it is simply not embedded frequently or deeply enough in schools These points and comparisons provide an important context for the main body of the report that follows this summary. Twelve key technologies are profiled, each on a single page that describes a technology ranked as very important for Norwegian schools over the next year, two to three years, or four to five years. Each page opens with a definition of the highlighted technology, outlines its educational relevance, points to several real life examples of its current use, and ends with additional readings for those who wish to learn more. Following those discussions are sections that detail the advisory board s top-ranked trends and challenges and articulate why they are seen as highly influential factors in the adoption of the technologies over the coming five years. Those key sections, and this report in general, constitute a reference and straightforward technology-planning guide for educators, researchers, administrators, policymakers, and technologists. It is our hope that this research will help to inform the choices that institutions are making about technology to improve, support, or extend teaching, learning, and creative inquiry across Norwegian schools. Educators and administrators worldwide look to the NMC Horizon Project and both its global and regional reports as key strategic technology planning references, and it is for that purpose that the Technology Outlook for Norwegian Schools is presented. 2013, NMC An NMC Horizon Project Regional Analysis Page 4

9 Technologies to Watch Time-to-Adoption: One Year or Less BYOD The term BYOD, which stands for Bring Your Own Device, refers to the practice of students bringing their own laptops, tablets, smartphones, or other mobile devices with them to class. Intel coined the term in 2009, when the company observed that an increasing number of its employees were using their own devices and connecting them to the corporate network. Since then, this type of activity has become commonplace in workplaces all over the globe. The BYOD movement in education institutions is being driven by a major challenge that many institutions face a lack of funds to support one-to-one learning, which is a systemic solution in which every student is provided a laptop or mobile device that can be used to support learning in and outside of the classroom. BYOD makes one-to-one easier by simply leveraging the devices that students already have, or those their parents could buy for them. In practice, it has proven important to provide funds to support families in financial need, and to standardize on a small set of devices and software packages. Often the school will negotiate advantageous pricing for families to reduce their costs. In early studies, the act of a student using his or her own device for learning has proven to increase productivity and engagement. BYOD has gained momentum in upper secondary education in Norway, and tablet computing has accelerated the pace of BYOD, especially in schools, where these smaller, less-expensive devices are seen as a better option than traditional laptops. With their ever-growing capabilities, tablets, (which now include an expanding set of choices, such as the ipad, Galaxy, Nexus, and Surface) are well positioned for BYOD environments. Relevance for Teaching, Learning, or Creative Inquiry Because BYOD allows students access to the same devices at school and at home, it can extend learning opportunities to times and places outside of the classroom. BYOD policies allow students to work with technology with which they are already comfortable and familiar. BYOD programs eliminate the support and other burdens from schools that go along with paying for and maintaining institution-provided devices. BYOD in Practice Falmouth Public Schools launched a BYOD pilot program in which all teachers can integrate personal mobile devices into their classroom activities: go.nmc.org/falmouth. In the ITEC Project at Odda Ungdomsskole, eighth grade students brought their iphones to math class to download the GPS-enabled app MotionxHD, so they could measure and calculate angles of triangles and rectangles in the schoolyard: go.nmc.org/ite. This year, three counties in Norway will implement BYOD in their schools, adding on to two counties that have already developed policies encouraging students to use their own devices during class: go.nmc.org/byodnor. For Further Reading 20 BYOD Resources For The 21st Century School go.nmc.org/bres (Terry Heick, TeachThought, 2 April 2013.) BYOD policies encourage a student-centred learning approach, and this list of resources covers many BYOD-related issues, such as establishing successful guidelines and other important considerations. Mapping of Schools Relative to Bring Your Own Device go.nmc.org/kart (Norwegian Centre for ICT in Education, 1 March 2013.) This report outlines key issues relating to BYOD from Norwegian counties perspectives and discusses how schools can implement it. 2013, NMC An NMC Horizon Project Regional Analysis Page 5

10 Technologies to Watch Time-to-Adoption: One Year or Less Cloud Computing Cloud computing refers to expandable, on-demand services and tools that are served to the user via the Internet from a specialized data centre and do not live on a user s device. Cloud computing resources support collaboration, file storage, virtualization, and access to computing cycles, and the number of available applications that rely on cloud technologies has grown to the point that few institutions do not make some use of the cloud, whether as a matter of policy or not. Cloud computing is often used as a synonym for grid computing, in which unused processing cycles of all computers in a single network are leveraged to troubleshoot issues that cannot be resolved by a single machine. The primary distinction is how the host computers are accessed. Clouds, especially those supported by dedicated data centres, can be public, private, secure, or a hybrid of any or all of these. Many businesses, organizations, and institutions use storage, software (SaaS), and API services to reduce IT overhead costs. Google Apps, a SaaS provider, for example, has become a popular choice for education institutions and many have moved their infrastructure to Gmail and adopted Google Docs for document sharing and collaboration, but such services do not meet the high security needs of many corporations or government agencies. Private cloud computing solves these issues by providing common cloud solutions in secure environments. Hybrid clouds provide the benefits of both types. Whether connecting at home, work, school, on the road, or in social spaces, nearly everyone who uses the network relies on cloud computing to access or share their information and applications. Relevance for Teaching, Learning, or Creative Inquiry The adoption of cloud-based platforms and services provides a more flexible means of adjusting a school s infrastructure and technology portfolio to the needs of the moment. Cloud resources are often free and very simple to use, making access to storage, tools, media, and educational materials much more accessible than ever before. Online access to documents and applications facilitates greater flexibility, enabling students and teachers to create and edit their own materials and to consult and review information wherever and whenever they need it. Cloud Computing in Practice The NANSen project, run by the Norwegian research and education network UNINETT, is establishing a sector-specific set of common cloud services: go.nmc.org/uninett. Sandvika High School students used Microsoft OneNote, Skydrive, and Google Docs to collaborate in writing and publishing a book on connected learning: go.nmc.org/conne. WeVideo is a Norwegian cloud-based video creation tool that includes editing software and a central hub for user collaboration and management, making it especially useful in classroom settings: go.nmc.org/wev. For Further Reading Cloud Jargon Unwound: Distinguishing SaaS, IaaS and PaaS go.nmc.org/expla (Fredric Paul, Read Write Web, 8 May 2013.) This infographic explains the differences between IaaS, SaaS, PaaS and other potentially confusing cloud-related acronyms. Protecting Vulnerable Data Subjects: Findings from a Survey of EU Data Protection Officials on the Use of Cloud Services in Organisations go.nmc.org/safe (Jeff Gould, SafeGov.org, 23 September 2013.) This report recommends establishing codes of conduct for schools and cloud providers that include a binding pledge to ban the processing and secondary use of students personal information for advertising purposes. 2013, NMC An NMC Horizon Project Regional Analysis Page 6

11 Technologies to Watch Time-to-Adoption: One Year or Less Flipped Classroom The flipped classroom refers to a model of learning that rearranges how time is spent both in and out of class to shift the ownership of learning from the educators to the students. After class, students manage the content they use, the pace and style of learning, and the ways in which they demonstrate their knowledge, and the teacher becomes the guide, adapting instructional approaches to suit their learning needs and supporting their personal learning journeys. Rather than the teacher using class time to lecture to students and dispense information, that work is done by each student after class, and could take the form of watching video lectures, listening to podcasts, perusing enhanced e-book content, collaborating with their peers in online communities, and more. Students can access this wide variety of resources any time they need them. In the flipped classroom model, valuable class time can be devoted to more active, projectbased learning where students work together to solve local or global challenges or other realworld applications to gain a deeper understanding of the subject. Teachers can also devote more time interacting with each individual. The goal is for students to learn more authentically by doing, with the teacher guiding the way; the lecture is no longer the expected driver of concept mastery. The flipped classroom model is part of a larger pedagogical movement that overlaps with blended learning, inquiry-based learning, and other instructional approaches and tools that are meant to be flexible, active, and more engaging for students. It has the potential to better enable educators to design unique and quality learning opportunities, curriculum, and assessments that are more personal and relevant to students lives. Relevance for Teaching, Learning, or Creative Inquiry Flipped classroom concepts and the idea of providing the student with a more diverse set of learning resources can support self-directed learning. More active learning is an important component of the flipped classroom: lectures can be watched with ensuing online discussions unfolding at home, and teachers can use class time for hands-on activities or trips outside of the building. Flipped Classroom in Practice Eighth grade grammar students at Sandgotna Secondary School in Bergen are watching video lectures and completing online surveys to demonstrate subject comprehension in a flipped learning model: go.nmc.org/flipgram. Hundsund Lower Secondary School uses a flipped classroom for all subjects, assigning students brief video lectures to watch at home so that when they come to class the next day, they can discuss the material and receive personalized support: go.nmc.org/hugsno. Videos by a mathematics educator at Sandvika High School explain concepts to students at home, and class time is reserved for active problem solving: go.nmc.org/anneflip. For Further Reading 5 Flipped Classroom Issues (And Solutions) For Teachers go.nmc.org/flipsol (Beth Holland and Samantha Morra, Edudemic, 12 August 2013.) Teachers make five suggestions about how to implement the flipped classroom model effectively and include an infographic and presentation to support educators who share similar goals. Flipped Classroom 2.0: Competency Learning With Videos go.nmc.org/samsflip (Katrina Schwartz, MindShift, 21 May 2013.) A pioneer of the flipped classroom, Aaron Sams, describes the transition of the pedagogical model from video-centric learning to a strategy that focuses on helping students find resources for self-directed learning. 2013, NMC An NMC Horizon Project Regional Analysis Page 7

12 Technologies to Watch Time-to-Adoption: One Year or Less Social Media Today s web users are prolific creators of content, and they upload photographs, audio, and video to cloud-based social media sites, such as Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, and many others, by the billions. While the initial emphasis of social networks was placed on producing and uploading media to these popular sharing sites, as the notion of social media has evolved it has ultimately become more about the conversations started and relationships formed via this media. When users log in to Facebook and Twitter, two of the sites that have the most subscribers and daily traffic, they are there to see what their family, friends, and favourite brands and organizations are doing and who is talking about what. For educational institutions, social media enables twoway dialogues between students, prospective students, educators, and the institution that are less formal than with other media. New tools, such as Facebook s social search engine, promise to mine these interactions using a concept known as the social graph. A person s social graph represents the sum of all of a person s online social connections (who he or she is friends with, who likes the things she or her friends are interested in, who among those connections is where, etc.) and provides a means to search and navigate those connections. Social graphs can be visualized in a variety of interesting ways, but far more interesting is the information embedded within the social graph and what it can tell us. Relevance for Teaching, Learning, or Creative Inquiry Engagement in social media either as producers of content, or consumers, or aggregators of user-generated content will allow faculty to more deeply connect with each other. Social media outlets enable students to create powerful personal learning networks to direct and focus their own learning. Video platforms including YouTube and Vimeo enable educators to upload and share instructional videos that students can watch anywhere. Similarly, Google Hangouts allow them to connect with students outside of the classroom. Social Media in Practice At the Bjørgvin Secondary School, tools such as YouTube and Twitter are being used to teach mathematics: go.nmc.org/flippmath. Researchers from Stord/Haugesund University College are investigating the role of social media in education to address ethical considerations and the relationship fostered between educators and students: go.nmc.org/hsh. Students at Kastellet School in Oslo made learning resources including podcasts and screencasts on subjects ranging from religion to social science and mathematics by collaborating on Facebook, as well as sharing their final products: go.nmc.org/kast. For Further Reading Challenges and Opportunities for Schools and Teachers in a Digital World go.nmc.org/smil (European Schoolnet, April 2013.) This report describes the work and the outcomes of the Social Media in Learning and Education (SMILE) Action Research Project, in which a group of European teachers collaborated to improve the understanding of the challenges and opportunities encompassed by social media for teachers and schools. From Twitter to Edmodo: Schools Collaborate With Social Media go.nmc.org/socme (David Raths, THE Journal, 5 February 2013.) Several innovative instructional technology leaders discuss why social media is a valuable learning tool, allowing schools to model digital citizenship behaviours and enabling students to reach both peers and field experts. 2013, NMC An NMC Horizon Project Regional Analysis Page 8