Education Essay Example: Trends in K-12 Education

Trends in K-12 education is the introduction of topics like the personalized learning approaches that specifies the need for online learning, doing assignments, hybrid learning strategies and submission of assignment online. According to the current technological advances, classroom designs and the appropriate pedagogical approaches offers a chance to rely on the web-based devices and tools that provide efficiency (Eisenkraft, 2010). Also, the administration at the K-12 level now relies on a more sophisticated system which effectively manages and secures a substantial number of learners data. It is now easy to teach a course like design and architecture unlike in the past times when learning was not yet digitized. It is now evident that the future K-12 classrooms will develop and adopt new educational technologies.

Secondly, the future K-12 classrooms will, therefore, be designed to offer chances for collaborative learning options. There will be a more collaborative and personalized learning options that employ the new classroom designs (Peppler, 2013). For instance, the future classroom might even not need an instructor in class since the new and current technologies will allow practical teaching to take place. The wide range of techniques that range from the use of computers and mobile devices in conjunction with the use of whiteboards will make learning to be more convenient.

Thirdly, the future K-12 will tend to rely on the upcoming educational technologies in delivering content, provision of personalized feedback and application of instructional technologies in providing content and enhancing the students performance. Also, Roehrig et al. (2012) outline that the technology will provide a foundation for improved learning space since teachers and students will be able to access large amounts of content using useful virtual tools that might come up in the coming years. Game-based learning will be essential to the future instructional content delivery.

Also, the future K-12 classroom will be enhanced with more students acquiring learning without necessarily showing up physically in the classes. In future, online learning will reduce physical enrollment hence students in the United States will be given an opportunity to acquire a complete education while within their homes. Just like the current discussion boards, students will be able to engage in virtual space discussions that will enable them to exchange ideas and skills professionally through their respective laptops, tablets, computers and mobile phones. The application of virtual space will boost collaborative learning that will majorly involve advanced and authentic problem-solving methods.

Since technology will tend to change and enhance teacher-student interaction, the role of the instructor will be to create a driving question for projects. According to Madden et al. (2013), the teacher will also be obligated to advising the students on the choices they make. STEAM is said to be able to remove limitations and ends up replacing them with critique, innovation, wonder, and inquiry. Another role of the instructor will be to align STEAM with integrity by improving the models of implementation since it is well known that STEAM is founded on assessment and the set standards.

Additionally, both the teacher and the students should coordinate to create a curriculum schema map on the chosen topic, problem or idea. The process is termed as discovery. The second step is to connect which depends on the selected curricular schema roadmap. After choosing a subject matter for instance photography, there develops a need to think about the things related to the selected digital photography and coming up with the essential questions for the learners to explore their findings. The instructor should ensure that learners get a chance to create and reflect on their creativity or conclusions of their topic of research to ensure that the learners do not end up being brainwashed.

On viewing the video, the big ideas that drive the project is the relevance of expanding the knowledge about the traditional scientific learning to broaden the subject of science and technology to incorporate both biological, engineering, design, arts and mathematics. Education will be diversified and not to be limited to one discipline hence opening up the minds of the students to widen the overall scope of scientific inquiry (Christensen, Horn & Staker, 2013). The steps that students go through is being creative, combining ideas from their disciplines (Hamner & Cross, 2013). Students end up becoming ambitious and improve their learning. The students ended up creating a marine self-steering machine that looks like a fish by application of biotechnology, engineering, and design, arts and mathematics. The students can apply the maneuvering technology or steering technology designs in creating the fish-like steering marine model machine. The weaknesses of STEAM learning is that it might lead to confusion for the students who cannot link their discipline with their peers.

References

Christensen, C. M., Horn, M. B., & Staker, H. (2013). Is K-12 Blended Learning Disruptive? An Introduction to the Theory of Hybrids. Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation.

Hamner, E., & Cross, J. (2013, March). Arts & Bots: Techniques for distributing a STEAM robotics program through K-12 classrooms. In Integrated STEM Education Conference (ISEC), 2013 IEEE (pp. 1-5). IEEE.

Eisenkraft, A. (2010). Retrospective analysis of technological literacy of K-12 students in the USA. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 20(3), 277-303.

Madden, M. E., Baxter, M., Beauchamp, H., Bouchard, K., Habermas, D., Huff, M., ... & Plague, G. (2013). Rethinking STEM education: An interdisciplinary STEAM curriculum. Procedia Computer Science, 20, 541-546.

Peppler, K. (2013). STEAM-powered computing education: Using e-textiles to integrate the arts and STEM. Computer, 1.

Roehrig, G. H., Moore, T. J., Wang, H. H., & Park, M. S. (2012). Is adding the E enough? Investigating the impact of K12 engineering standards on the implementation of STEM integration. School Science and Mathematics, 112(1), 31-44.