We learned how to type on keyboards, could easily save documents to a floppy disc, play Number Munchers, read through Compton’s Encyclopedia and browse on Netscape Navigator.
Today, nearly twenty years later, technology in schools sure has come a long way.
Here is a look at the top tech education apps and trends making waves in the news this week:
Tuesday, September 30th, Google announced their new cloud-based platform built specifically for education. Drive for Education offers unlimited data storage with search and sort features. It is available free of charge to non-profit educational institutions.
Schools in Massachusetts have begun teaching computer coding as early as Kindergarten. ScratchJr is a new app designed to teach users as young as 5 years old basic computer programming.
The free iPad app was launched in July by researchers at MIT and one local elementary school is already using it.
Tech company Dyn has entered into the education market to search for future talent – at a high school level. Based in New Hampshire, Dyn developed their educational program available at no cost to the local community in hopes of these students becoming future employees.
STEAM Ahead, their four year program that teaches the students about science, technology, engineering, arts and math, also provides internships and mentorships.
Last week, Udacity, an online educational organization offering massive open online courses, announced $35 million in new venture capital. It will now draw more of its instructors from industry — while creating a course catalog targeting specific technical skills.
The goal is to help people who are already working in the field win promotions or qualify for better jobs. Not just for students, popular app Remind is designed to help teachers send messages or newsletters to the entire class or parents via email, cellphone, iPad or Android easily.
This Tuesday the company announced $40 million in new cash from Venture Capital investors. With all these programs, and many others, in place, technology is playing a greater role in our schools than ever before.
Some of these tools directly help children learn, others make our schools run more proficiently, but each is beneficial.
In the last nineteen years, classrooms have evolved and embraced technology. What do you think 6th graders will be learning in technology in 2033?
