Technology aiding Constructivism

The 2010 Horizon Report: K-12 Edition touches on something that looks set to profoundly affect education: collaboration.

This annual series of reports focuses on emerging technology use in primary and secondary education. As the report’s authors gaze into their crystal ball, they see Collaborative Environments entering schools in the coming year and Game-based learning appearing in the next two-three years.

On Collaborative Environments, the report states:“Whatever tools are chosen, collaborative environments give students tremendous opportunities to interact with peers and mentors, experience other worldviews, and model the kinds of work patterns that take place in an increasing number of professions.”

And for Game-based learning it says: “The greatest potential of games for learning lies in their ability to foster collaboration and engage students deeply in the process of learning.”

From my observations, I have seen how excitedly students react to game playing against one another. Mathletics is a case in point. They are engaged, they are involved. The best bit -- this is just the beginning.

And on an infrastructure level, the Federal Government’s National Broadband Network will provide an excellent platform in ensuring this seamlessly takes place. Speed and capacity will be the key. From what I see in my school and what is generally the case in Australia, slow Internet connections are impeding the take-up of next-generation technologies and applications. It’s important that when this network is built our schools are ready to capitalise on these emerging technologies.

For me, if Constructivism is based on a much greater emphasis of peer learning, this augers well for the future as this approach to learning will only be further aided by over-the-horizon technology.