NMC Beyond the Horizon Series

The growing use of data mining software in online education has great potential to support student success by identifying and reaching out to struggling students and streamlining the path to graduation. This can be a challenge for institutions that are using a variety of technology systems that are not integrated with each other. As institutions implement learning management systems, degree planning technologies, early alert systems, and tutor scheduling that promote increased interactions among various stakeholders, there is a need for centralized aggregation of these data to provide students with holistic support that improves learning outcomes. Join us to hear from an institutional exemplar who is building solutions that integrate student data across platforms. Then participants had the opportunity to work with peers to address challenges and develop solutions of their own.

Competency-based education (CBE), which allows students to receive credit for and build on real-world skills more efficiently than the conventional semester system, provides a flexible and affordable solution for student success. During this webinar attendees had the opportunity to hear from two panelists about institutional exemplars focused on building solutions that create infrastructure and support for this accelerated college completion model. Participants also broke into small groups to engage in deeper conversations about CBE, and begin to brainstorm solutions to overcome current challenges impeding higher education’s adoption of this education model.

Part two of the NMC’s digital literacy event series explores the question: How do we prepare students to live and thrive in a digital society? Digital literacy goes beyond technical skills. It includes the complex practices of digital professions and subject specialisms. It involves the lifelong, life-wide skills required to thrive in a digital society. Institutions are charged with developing students’ digital citizenship, ensuring mastery of responsible and appropriate technology use, including online communication etiquette and digital rights and responsibilities in blended and online learning settings and beyond. This new category of competence is affecting curriculum design, professional development, and student-facing services and resources. In this event, panelists will discuss how learning-focused organizations and national governments are responding to these new responsibilities. Panelists’ expertise includes the development of national and international frameworks to support digital literacies.

This event explores a pressing challenge for higher education institutions across the world: advancing digital literacy among students and faculty. As technology use is proliferating and becoming more ubiquitous in people’s daily lives, colleges and universities have become more adept at integrating it into every facet of campus life to enhance course design, course materials, and interactions between learners and educators. However, simply knowing how to use the tools does not solve the challenge. Education professionals must be able to tie the use of digital tools to progressive pedagogies and deeper learning outcomes to equip students with 21st century skills that help them flourish in college life and in their careers. Identifying and implementing effective frameworks is paramount, and a number of organizations and institutions are leading the way. Hear from an international panel of experts on their perspectives on digital literacy, the biggest challenges associated with advancing it, and recommendations for developing successful digital literacy initiatives.

Openness — which includes concepts such as open content, open data, and open resources, along with notions of transparency and easy access to data and information — is becoming highly valued across education. In this online event, four Higher Ed thought leaders share insights behind their innovative approach to openness. The program also focuses on working towards a common vision that defines “open” not just in economic terms, but in making available educational materials that are freely copiable, freely remixable, and free of barriers to access, sharing, and educational use.

There is an increasing interest in using new sources of data for personalizing the learning experience, for ongoing formative assessment of learning, and for performance measurement; this interest is spurring the development of a relatively new field — data-informed learning and assessment. In this online event, three higher ed thought leaders share insights behind their innovative use of data. The program also focuses on leveraging data to build better pedagogies, empower students to take an active part in their learning, target at-risk student populations, and assess factors affecting completion and student success.

The future of learning is mobile. Increasingly portable devices, including smartphones, tablets, and wearables, are capturing a larger share of the information market. With the shift to mobile content consumption and most recently, production, educators and learners expect access to educational resources anytime and anywhere. In this online event, representatives from four organizations featured in the NMC Horizon Report series will share insights behind their innovative use of mobiles. The program will also focus on mobiles’ impact on digital strategy, user experience, virtual reality, and location intelligence. Explore how this trend is providing a greater understanding of user behavior to inform better learning design.

New forms of teaching and learning require educational institutions to rethink how physical space is configured. Both formal and informal educational settings are increasingly designed to support more collaborative and project-based interactions with attention to greater mobility, flexibility, and multiple device usage. In this one-hour online event, representatives from five organizations featured in the NMC Horizon Report: 2016 Higher Education Edition will share insights behind their innovative learning space designs and explore how this trend is fostering more active learning environments.

Personalizing learning refers to the range of educational programs, learning experiences, instructional approaches, and academic support strategies intended to address the specific learning needs, interests, aspirations, or cultural backgrounds of individual students. Institutions are also harnessing technology to help students advance toward educational goals and create a culture dedicated to student success. In this online event, panelists will explore how this trend is fostering advancements in online learning environments and adaptive learning technologies, making it more possible to support learners’ individual learning paths. Additionally, they will reveal how personalized learning is empowering students to take ownership of their education and prime themselves for lifelong learning.

Certified skills are a valuable form of academic and professional capital. In this edition of the NMC Beyond the Horizon virtual event series, we will explore the use of digital open badges. These portable machine-readable credentials can verify the mastery of competencies demonstrated across the learning experience while connecting learners to new opportunities and workforce demand. The panelists draw on experience supporting a range of institutions in developing digital credential badge programs that verify achievements in competency-based education degree programs, open online courses, cross-curricular literacies, co- and extra-curricular activities, student affairs, and faculty development — among other areas. This online program considers topics including new ways of thinking about assessing skills as well as how digital credentials can inform new programs and strengthen relationships.

Creating a hybrid experience in educational settings is a growing trend that has been highlighted in multiple editions of the NMC Horizon Report. Hybrid learning, also referred to as blended learning, is the integration of both online and face-to-face modalities to create a cohesive learning experience with flexibility and support for learners. In this online event, panelists will explore how the hybrid approach is fostering independent learning and collaboration, as well as cultivating more channels of communication among students and instructors. Panelists will reveal how the integration of online tools also provides instructors with the ability to track student success and engagement, rearranging face-to-face instruction around more active, hands-on activities.

Over the past few years, makerspaces have emerged in many learning-focused settings, including museums and libraries, generating a surge of interest worldwide. People of all ages are putting their ideas into action by modeling, prototyping, iterating, and creating using a range of technologies and tools, such as 3D printing. The rise of these creative environments has also raised important questions around professional development, evaluation, sustainability, and institutional philosophies of making. This online session will introduce a framework for designing makerspaces and maker programs, allocating resources, and evaluating evidence of learning. As the panel shares promising practices, challenges, and opportunities, you will gain a better understanding of how the framework could be adapted in your setting.

NMC members are a guild of superheroes from campuses and organizations around the world, and the NMC is where they go to exchange new ideas about future learning and its intersection with emerging technology. Through our initiatives, publications, and professional development opportunities, you can help shape the course of these important conversations. For this edition of the virtual NMC Beyond the Horizon series, we’ll explore how you can get the most out of your NMC membership. By diving into the expanding benefits of an NMC membership and ways to get involved, we hope to make your NMC experience more relevant and heroic than ever. Our goal is to prepare you to take on whatever forces come your way, make the future of learning happen today, and become a better leader at your organization!

Are you looking to implement a new technology in your learning environment? Then this virtual event is for you! In this NMC Beyond the Horizon program, Jonathan Nalder (an Apple Distinguished Educator and an NMC K-12 Ambassador) will provide an introduction to SAMR, an NMC Academy course he created that provides practical ways to apply the framework in different K-12 and higher education contexts. The SAMR model was developed by Dr Ruben Puentedura to help educators select, use, and evaluate technology in support of education. S is for Substitution, where technology acts as a direct tool substitute, with no functional change. A is for Augmentation, where technology is still a tool substitute, but there is some functional change. M is for Modification, where technology allows for significant learning task redesign. R is for Redefinition, where the capabilities of the technology being employed allow for the creation of new tasks that were previously inconceivable. Joining Jonathan, will be a panel of experts engaged in SAMR projects who will share their thoughts and best practices on its applications.

The Internet. Tablets. 3D printing. Wearable Technology. All once outliers in discussions of possible future learning scenarios, unlikely developments in their early days according to the common wisdom, but each laden with enormous potential impact even then. Imagine if we could have anticipated these developments as they were happening and maximized their educational value early on. How might we have influenced them? Taken advantage of them? What would we have done differently? How could we have used them — right away — to the benefit of teaching and learning? For this edition of the NMC Beyond the Horizon we will have a focused conversation on the possible futures of technologies currently within our grasp, Internet privacy, the network, and machine learning.

This event is a collaboration between the NMC and Media & Technology, a Professional Network of the American Alliance of Museums. In this discussion via Google+ Hangout On Air, a panel of experts explores the variety of ways that cultural institutions such as galleries, libraries, archives, and museums can apply open licensing to their collections, as well as how this type of licensing benefits both institutions and their audiences. The conversation introduces viewers to open licensing models and articulates the potential benefits and challenges for implementing open licensing at institutions of all sizes. Panel Moderator: Digital Strategist Michael Edson of the Smithsonian Institution and Open Knowledge Foundation

In this NMC online event, we explored a Horizon Project challenge. New models of education are bringing unprecedented competition to the traditional models of education. Across the board, institutions are looking for ways to provide a high quality of service and more learning opportunities. Advancements in areas such as online learning and open content are challenging formal learning institutions to rethink their paradigms to make them more relevant and more easily accessible. Hear perspectives from a panel of thought leaders on how this theme is materializing across different learning sectors and how it can be successfully addressed. Panel moderator: Bryan Alexander

Watch the NMC and our panel of thought leaders explore the Horizon Project topic: Creating Authentic Learning Opportunities. Authentic learning, especially that which brings real life experiences into the classroom, is still all too uncommon in schools. Authentic learning is seen as an important pedagogical strategy, with great potential to increase the engagement of students who are seeking some connection between the world as they know it exists outside of school, and their experiences in school that are meant to prepare them for that world. Use of learning strategies that incorporate real life experiences, technology, and tools that are already familiar to students, and interactions from community members are examples of approaches that can bring authentic learning into the classroom. Practices such as these may help retain students in school and prepare them for further education, careers, and citizenship in a way that traditional practices are too often failing to do. PANELISTS: Panel Moderator: Samantha Becker, Senior Director, Communications and Director, NMC Horizon Project at the New Media Consortium Tosca Killoran, Early Learning Team Leader, NIST International School Jennifer Beradino, Kinder Foundation Education Center (KFEC) at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Kyle Dickson, Director, AT&T Learning Studio at Abilene Christian University Michael Furdyck, Co-founder, TakingItGlobal

Faculty training does not always acknowledge the fact that digital media literacy continues its rise in importance as a key skill in every discipline and profession. Training in the supporting skills and techniques is rare in teacher education and in the preparation of faculty, museum, and library professionals. In recent years, new kinds of professional development opportunities have arisen in the form of online experiences where education professionals can gain new skills. Massive open online courses, webcast series, and other forms of training, such as the NMC Academy and HP LIFE e-Learning, are making it easier to continuously learn about new technologies and pedagogies. In this special edition of the NMC On the Horizon series, a panel of experts explored different professional development opportunities and discuss the evolving training needs of educators. Panel Moderator: Holly Ludgate, Senior Director of Program Development, NMC Panelists: -Samantha Adams Becker, Senior Director of Communications, NMC -Sue Bedard, Course Director, Full Sail University -David W. Deeds, High School Technology Integration Coach, American School of Guatemala -Alex Freeman, Director of Special Projects, NMC -Jonathan Nalder, NMC K-12 Ambassador; JNXYZ.Education; JNXYZ.net

In this NMC On the Horizon virtual event, a panel of experts discusses the increasing focus on open content. The movement toward open content reflects a change in the way educators and scholars are conceptualizing education. Information is everywhere now; the challenge is to make effective use of it. Often mistaken to simply mean “free of charge,” advocates of openness have worked toward defining “open” more broadly — not just free in economic terms, but also in terms of ownership and usage rights. Alternative licensing schemes such as Creative Commons have advanced this vision by providing a legal framework for people to share content freely. The goal of openness is to ensure the unimpeded distribution of valuable, scientific knowledge and to guarantee that educational materials are freely copiable, freely remixable, and free of barriers to access. Using open content also has pragmatic appeal; it offers solutions to the rising cost of education and addresses the scarcity of quality resources in remote or developing regions of the world. As more schools, universities, and other academic institutions integrate open content into curricula, there will be increased focus on processes to evaluate and validate these resources on a wide scale. Issues of intellectual property and digital citizenship are equally important to understanding the impact of this trend on teaching and learning. Panel Moderator: Victoria Estrada, NMC Panelists: Dr. Susan Hines, Associate Vice President for Teaching and Learning Technologies at Chadron State College Rob Lancefield, Manager of Museum Information Services, Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University Cristiana Mattos de Assumpção, Educational Technology Coordinator at Colegio Bandeirantes in São Paulo, Brazil Paul Signorelli, Writer/Trainer/Instructional Designer/Presenter/Social Media Strategist/Consultant, Paul Signorelli and Associates Karen Smith, Mitacs Elevate Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Toronto & Mozilla About the NMC On the Horizon Series The "NMC On the Horizon" series reflects the research and work of the NMC Horizon Project in action. International panels of experts are convened across all education sectors to address the emerging technologies poised to significantly impact teaching and learning.

Education professionals are increasingly expected to be adept at a variety of technology-based and other approaches for content delivery, learner support, and assessment. Emerging approaches to learning call for them to act as guides and mentors. As this trend gathers steam, many institutions are reimagining the primary responsibilities of educators, librarians, and museum staff. Hear perspectives from a panel of thought leaders on how this theme is materializing across different learning sectors and how it can be successfully addressed. Panel Moderator: Alex Freeman, Director of Special Projects at the NMC Panlelists: Christine Dipaulo, Innovation Specialist at String Theory Schools Kaela Hoskings, Director of Education at Artpace San Antonio John Ittelson, Professor Emeritus at the California State University, Monterey Bay Joshua Mika, LRC Director at Beebe Elementary About the NMC On the Horizon Series The "NMC On the Horizon" series reflects the research and work of the NMC Horizon Project in action. International panels of experts are convened across all education sectors to address the trends, challenges, and emerging technologies poised to significantly impact teaching and learning.

There is a focused movement to reinvent traditional learning spaces and rearrange the entire educational experience — a trend that is largely being driven by the influence of innovative learning approaches. Century-old practices in which students learn subject-by-subject, while uniformly facing the front of the classroom, are perceived by many as an antiquated approach to teaching and learning. The multidisciplinary nature of project-based learning, co-creation, and other contemporary approaches has brought attention to innovative designs of learning environments. Panel Moderator: Holly Ludgate, Senior Director of Program Development, NMC Panelists: Stephanie Barbuto, Social Studies Teacher at String Theory High Schoool Lambert Heller, Head of the Open Science Lab at TIB Hannover, Germany Rudolf Mumenthaler, Professor of library science at the University of Applied Sciences (HTW) Chur in Switzerland Seema Rao, Director of Intergenerational Learning, Cleveland Museum of Art Lisa Stephens, Senior Strategist, Academic Innovation at SUNY Annie Tuttle, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Sociology - SUNY - Onondaga Community College About the NMC On the Horizon Series The "NMC On the Horizon" series reflects the research and work of the NMC Horizon Project in action. International panels of experts are convened across all education sectors to address the emerging technologies poised to significantly impact teaching and learning. Learn more at http://www.nmc.org.

In this NMC On the Horizon event, our panel of experts explores potential applications of crowdsourcing to enhance teaching and learning. To register for future events, visit http://go.nmc.org/register. Crowdsourcing refers to a set of methods that can be used to motivate a community to contribute ideas, information, or content that would otherwise remain undiscovered. Its rapidly growing appeal stems from its effectiveness in filling gaps that cannot be bridged by other means, in addition to the spirit of inclusivity in involving communities in content creation and decision-making. One particularly compelling component of this topic is crowdfunding -- an effort to raise money through a network of people, typically through a combination of social networks and fundraising platforms on the Internet. Panel moderator: Samantha Adams Becker, Senior Director of Communications at the NMC Panelists: Emory Craig, Director of eLearning at the College of New Rochelle Heather Chirtea, founder and Executive Director at Digital Wish Lori Byrd Philips, Digital Marketing Content Coordinator and the former Wikipedian in Residence at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis Yohn Sutton, Zookeeper of Reptiles and Amphibians at the Virginia Zoological Park

Natural user interfaces (NUIs) allow people to engage in virtual activities through movements, manipulating content intuitively. The idea of being able to have a completely natural interaction with devices is not new, but neither has its full potential been realized. What makes NUIs especially interesting is the burgeoning high fidelity of systems that understand gestures, facial expressions, and their nuances, as well as the convergence of gesture-sensing technology with voice recognition, which allows users to interact in an almost natural fashion, with gesture, expression, and voice communicating their intentions to devices. Panel Moderator: Rob Catto, Program Director, Full Sail University Panelists: Jennifer Foley, Director of Interpretation, Cleveland Museum of Art Jonathan Lee, Visiting Professor of Software Systems Design, New Mexico Highlands University Megan Wilson, Technology Integrator, Avenues: The World School in New York City About the NMC On the Horizon Series The NMC On the Horizon series reflects the research and work of the NMC Horizon Project in action. International panels of experts are convened across all education sectors to address the emerging technologies poised to significantly impact teaching and learning. Register for future events at http://go.nmc.org/register.

The 2014 NMC Summer Conference -- the global edtech forum for Higher Ed, museums, libraries, and schools took place from June 16-19 in Portland, Oregon! Watch the archived recording of the 2014 NMC Summer Conference Preview. NMC staff, several presenters, and our opening keynoter convened to chat about the exciting sessions and tips for navigating the event.

What are some great applications of game-play/gamification in education? What are the elements that make learning engaging? How do you deal with the criticism that learning through games is distracting? Where is gamification headed? While a growing number of educational institutions and programs are experimenting with game-play, there has also been increased attention surrounding gamification — the integration of gaming elements, mechanics, and frameworks into non-game situations and scenarios. Businesses have embraced gamification as a way to design incentive programs that engage employees through rewards, leader boards, and badges, often with a mobile component. Although more nascent than in military or industry settings, the gamification of education is gaining support among educators who recognize that effectively designed games can stimulate large gains in productivity and creativity among learners.

What does BYOD look like across different learning environments? Why is BYOD important for teaching and learning? What are the challenges in implementing and managing BYOD initiatives? What does the future of BYOD look like? The term BYOD, which stands for "Bring Your Own Device," refers to the practice of people -- be they students, faculty, staff, or patrons -- bringing their own laptops, tablets, smartphones, or other mobile devices with them to the learning environment.

How can we leverage Big Data for teaching and learning? How can Big Data personalize learning experiences and boost engagement across education sectors? What are some challenges we will face along the way, and how can we begin to solve them? Big Data is a science that has long been used by businesses to analyze commercial activities, identify spending trends, and predict consumer behavior. Education sectors are embarking on similar data science pursuits, but with the aim of improving student retention and providing a high quality, personalized experience for learners. For museums, for example, Big Data provides access to demographics information that can be correlated with visitor patterns to inform the development of exhibitions and programs.

The NMC is proud to present: NMC On the Horizon! On the Horizon is a series of live web events hosted by the NMC and our featured panelists on a wide variety of subjects. We'll host a new On the Horizon event each month - join Holly and Alex as they outline the year's schedule in this short video.

How do we define a Makerspace? Who participates? What is the value? Why is this important for teaching and learning? How do we assess Makerspace activities? For the inaugural edition of the new NMC On the Horizon series on October 16th, we're bringing in edtech experts across the Higher Ed, K-12, and museum sectors to engage in a live panel discussion about this emerging NMC Horizon Project topic. In the 21st century learning landscape, creativity, design, and engineering are making their way to the forefront of educational considerations as tools such as 3D printers, robotics, and 3D modeling web-based applications become accessible to more people. The question of how to renovate or repurpose classrooms to address the needs of the future is being answered through the concept of Makerspaces, which offer the tools and learning experiences needed to help people carry out their ideas.

In this Google Hangout On Air, learn about a simple way to deliver blended learning to student mobile devices using the new mobile eBuilder tool. Teachers can build digital eTextbooks, activities, and lesson plans with very simple drag-and-drop skills through a computer's browser, then save activities as an app that can be downloaded to any mobile smartphone or tablet, on the Apple or Android platform. Build Curriculum for any Mobile Device -- Build Once, Learn Anywhere Digital Wish's Executive Director, Heather Chirtea demonstrates a simple way to deliver blended learning to student mobile devices using the new eBuilder. The mobile eBuilder tool allows teachers to build digital eTextbooks, activities, and lesson plans with very simple drag-and-drop skills through a computer's browser. Digital content can be saved as an app that can be downloaded to any smartphone, tablet, Apple or Android device. Come get a demonstration of the tool, sign up for your free creator account, and get started building content. Every attendee will get their own mini-mobile marketplace to share content with your students, friends, or members. Ease-of-Use In practice, the eBuilder is so easy to use, that teachers with only the most basic computer skills can build rich content in minutes, combining text, video, weblinks, and quizzes - and delivering that content immediately to any student mobile device. The eBuilder is an absolute cornerstone for any school implementing Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) programs. Content is fluidly adapted and changed to meet the specific learning needs of any student, or curriculum goals. It reduces the need for ongoing support because there are no technology barriers for late-adopting technology users. Heather Chirtea is Digital Wish's founder and Executive Director. At www.digitalwish.org teachers make technology wishes, and donors make those wishes come true with contributions, bringing technology to needy classrooms in all 50 states. Since August 2009, Digital Wish has granted over 30,000 classroom technology wishes through its online network of over 62,000 teachers, and delivered over $13 million in technology products to American classrooms directly impacting over 500,000 students. In research, Digital Wish secured over $1.2M in stimulus funding to put 1:1 computing into 24 towns, reducing the planning time for technology adoption from 18 months to just 4 weeks, and achieving measured gains in student engagement and 21st century skills. Read the research. Previously, as the longstanding president of Tool Factory, an educational software publisher, Heather traveled widely throughout the United States to conduct over 400 lively seminars on classroom technology integration each year. With a dual B.S. in communications and operations management from Syracuse University, Heather has co-authored five books on classroom technology; designed more than 60 hands-on technology seminars for educators; launched online services for classroom clip art, worksheets, lesson plans, and formative testing and assessment; and written over 5,000 standards-based test questions. She's served on the board of directors for VITA-Learn (VT) and New England ISTE technology associations.