• What is the future of learning?

  • How do we incorporate technology into our curriculums?

  • Who is driving educational technology growth?

find out below

Where Traditional Pedagogy Fails

If you were to travel back in time about one hundred years ago, EVERYTHING would be different. Technology has advanced to the point where we are now seeing autonomous vehicles on the road; cutting edge breakthroughs in healthcare have basically eradicted some diseases. Technology has changed almost all facets of society... except education. As educators and students, we have reached the crossroads of learning where we can either follow the path of outdated pedagogical methods... or we can allow technology to individualize our learning for a more enriching experience.

The Plan

In order to get students to play a more proactive role in their education, and to help educators facilitate this process, I plan on making a long-term documentary that highlights where education has been and where it's heading with the assistance of educational technology.

How Will I Accomplish This?

I plan on interviewing all relevant stakeholders and subject-matter-experts. These will include everyone from students to professors and everyone in between.

Below is a rough sequence of how the documemtary will be laid out. The deeper I get into filming the documentary and learning from my interviewees, the more likely the sequence is subject to change.

What needs to change?

If you go into a typical classroom now, you still have a teacher lecturing in front of a group of 30-40 students who all learn in different manners. We may be using smart boards instead of chalkboards, but the way most professors teach hasn’t veered far from the traditional pedagogical approach.
What's worse is that university students have no choice but to take classes in these massive lecture halls where there is little room for engagement. Universities need a solution that can effectively engage students if they want to prepare them for the real world.

The Stats

(SOURCE)
96%

Percentage of University leadership in the U.S. that believes that their institutions are effective in preparing students for the workforce

6%

Percentage of business leaders that believe their employees enter positions with the requisite skills

What are the students saying?

When asked the very general question: "What did you learn in college?" students responded with...

It's clear how easily accesible information is outside of traditional instruction... so what is the solution?

The Pros and Cons of MOOCs

Pros
  • Offers self-guided learning that adapts to each individual studen
  • Connects "students" from all around the world through convenient forums
  • Utilizes flexible digital media tools like videos (Pause, Rewind, Repeat information)
  • Free and easily accessible
Cons
  • Some fields require a high degree of monitored field experience
  • Lack of guiding force (such as a teacher) results in high dropout rates

So if MOOCs are not the immediate solution to "fixing" education, what is?

BLENDED LEARNING AIDED BY EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

With blended learning we're finally utilizing technology to improve an outdated process. We can take the best aspects of MOOCs and physical, face-to-face instruction and combine them into creating effective and engaging curriculums.

ConnectED: Obama's Initiative to Reform Education

(SOURCE)

Upgrade connectivity

Within 5 years, connect 99% of America’s students to the digital age through next-gen broadband.

Train Educators

Invest in improving the skills of teachers to allow a greater understanding of technology tools to improve student outcomes.

Build on Private Sector Innovation

Allow students and teachers to take advantage of the latest and cutting edge tools (apps) that far surpass textbooks in their ability to serve engaging material

Stakeholders to Interview

Upon conducting a stakeholder analysis, I have determined that the key stakeholders in the field of educational technology besides students and educators are: instructional designers, Institution policy makers, Digital Learning Platform creators, and Higher Education Leaders (Like Dr. Barbara Kurshan) as pictured below.

Watch her talk on innovation in EdTech

Read my full final report

Created by Ronnie Mendoza