The Future of my Three Loves

The Future of my 3 loves; hands-on-learning, mobile-

learning, and Mayer's multimedia principal

As educators and students we are challenged to stay current with technologies and teaching methods to provide our students with an optimal learning experience, yet it is always fun to look ahead and imagine the possibilities of our future and how they will impact our life.  As an instructional design student I have chosen my three loves to be hands-on-learning, mobile-learning, and Mayer's multimedia principal.   My first love, mobile learning, has a future of being a 'sixth sense;' a concept that may adjust my teaching of the five senses.  Ted, a networking company, is currently creating a new sixth sense mobile technology which hangs on your neck and consists of a camera, projector, mirror, and caps to allow the user to interact with projected data through their fingertips...Watch the video below to see for yourself:

The implications of this sixth sense technology means that instructional designers must educate themselves and keep current on design theory in order to design these and other learning oriented tools (Reiser & Dempsey 2007).  In five to ten years, this recent development will be as common as cell phones students will no longer have the excuse of missing homework, because it will be stored in a device literally at their fingertips.  

My second love is Mayer's multimedia principle.  In the past five years many emerging technologies have been implemented into the classroom, and schools are beginning to integrate instructional technology tools to develop "Classrooms of the Future."  Today children are able to use rich media tools like Skype to collaborate with digital classrooms around the world, connecting and learning about other cultures is now easier than ever.  As a teacher, each time I see a new video, educational game, or software, I am eager to integrate it into my classroom.  However, I need to be careful to ensure I am choosing effective media that aligns with my instructional objectives. Instructional designers as well will have to conduct formal evaluations on current tools, and use information to guide the development/improvement of future tool.  In ten years I predict that these rich media sources, such as educational videos will be personalized based on each individual students' needs and abilities.  

The future of hands-on-learning is exciting as the trend in education is moving away from traditional lecture classrooms and towards simulated, active learning environments.  A good example of this is the Quest Learning Program, a new schools designed to use the principals of games to create an immersive hands-on-learning experience for its students.  In my own classroom I use learning centers as small-group-work, which enables my students to practice skills through guided discovery.  In the book, Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology, the authors predict, "as many creative designs give emphasis to socially active learning, interactions will become an even more central force in courseware development" (Reiser & Dempsey 2007).  In our near future I see many schools implementing active learning pedagogy as the Quest to Learn Program has done.