It’s a new year, a fresh start, a new chapter, turning a new leaf, a time to look at what you’ve done and figure out final-04-01edtechroundtable-mp3-image-700x700what you want to do better or do differently.  On today’s show we take a look at some EdTech trends that will make 2017 the… Best. Year. Ever.  – At least until 2018 comes along.

Lessons Learned

Dennis – Trader Joe’s Chocolate Stars – Better get them before Christmas.

Chris – Sometimes doing nothing at all is the most productive thing

Notes & Links

EdTech Trends for 2017 (from ESchool News)

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2017/01/02/hot-edtech-trends-2017/3/

Experts asked what they thought would be the hottest trends for 2017. We’re not going to go into all 15, but here are a few we’d like to comment on.  Do we want to do this? Maybe we’re ahead of the curve and doing this already?

Virtual Reality (Kathy Schrock) – “Not the tethered headsets and computer-based environments, but the simple Google Cardboard compatible headsets with a smartphone as the ‘computer.’“  Here at Concordia we started using a tool called Cospaces.io

Increase in amount and quality of Open Educational Resources (OER’s)  (Ted Levine, Kids Discover)  Those offering paid content are really going to have to step up their game to compete with what we can get for free.

Data, Data, and More Data – increase in data driven decision making.  Not just Big Data, but “small data” (“such as observation of students’ behavior and social interactions, and assessment of their emotional well-being” – Jennifer Medbery)

Blended Learning will become the norm – (Peter West, St. Stephens College) New and easier to use tools will “increase the momentum of online resources to support independent student learning in 2017”

Educators will (finally) embrace Digital Collaboration (Dave Blanchard, Cambridge-Isanti Schools) “more educators will have this realization and come together to learn from each other, and not reinvent the wheel when trying something new or exploring new options.”