Learning Trends

(This is a very old post that I dug up from an old blog. It was originally written in 2014 for an assignment towards my Professional Instructor’s Diploma in British Columbia, Canada.)

Trends in adult education seem to be very related to the emerging role of the adult educator with online discourse suggesting that education will see an upswing in elearning, social media, effective instruction, and mobile learning options. Because more and more learners already engage online, institutions that offer elearning opportunities will be on the rise to capture that market niche (Wellham, 2014; NMC, N.D.; Quinton, 2013; Pappas, 2013).

In addition, because students are also already spending vast amounts of time online interacting in social media networks, the education industry will see a rise in educators who integrate social media platforms into the learning activities both online and offline (Morrison, 2013; Gikas & Grant, 2013).

Furthermore, with tuition costs on the rise, students are also getting savvier and expecting more from teachers-professional credibility will count just as much as educational degrees (Quinton, 2013; Wellham, 2014).

Lastly, today’s young adults have grown up with mobile technology (Turkle, 2012) and expect to be able to incorporate mobile devices into their learning experience(Gikas & Grant, 2013; Quinton, 2013).

Overall, educators roles are shifting to embrace technology and to better demonstrate their value to students.

References

Gikas, J. & Grant, M. (2013). Mobile computing devices in higher education: Student perspectives on learning with cellphones, smartphones & social media. The Internet and Higher Education 19 (2013), pp. 18–26. sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1096751613000262

Morrison, D. (December 13, 2013). Three social trends that will influence education in 2014 [Web log]. onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com/2013/12/13/three-social-trends-that-will-influence-education-in-2014

NMC Horizon Report > 2014 Higher Education Wiki. (n.d.).  horizon.wiki.nmc.org/Trends

Quinton, S. (Dec. 30, 2013). 5 Higher-Education Trends for 2014 [Web log]. theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/12/5-higher-education-trends-for-2014/282702

Pappas, C. (December 6, 2013). Future eLearning trends and technologies in the global eLearning industry [Web log]. Retrieved from elearningindustry.com/future-elearning-trends-and-technologies-in-the-global-elearning-industry

TED Talks (Producer). (2012). Sherry Turkle, Connected but not alone. ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together

Trotter, C. (April 11, 2014). Adults higher education changing role [Web log]. evolllution.com/opinions/adults-higher-education-changing-role

Welham, Holly. (January 9, 2014). What will 2014 bring for education and leadership? Futher Education and Leadership, The Guardian [Web log] theguardian.com/education/2014/jan/09/further-education-predictions-2014-apprenticeship-college