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"The minute you're born, you learn by playing together," says Åsmund Furuseth, VP for business development of Kahoot!, a game-based learning platform with one exclamation mark and 13 million monthly users.

Furuseth and his colleagues at Kahoot! want students, parents and teachers to keep that process going into school and beyond. His company enables anyone to create their own game-based educational content, and helps to found new types of classrooms in which to best exploit it. Furuseth tells WIRED.co.uk he wants to "create an emotional connection between the learners so that they learn much better together -- this is what we believe is the future of how you learn".

Based out of Oslo and London, Kahoot! is considered one of Norway's startup success stories. The company claims more than 50 million users in total, with 13 million per month, and more than one million professional teachers creating content on the platform. Half of that content is shared openly for any user to use.

At the core of the company is the belief that formalised education isn't necessarily the best way for children to learn. "We need to bring back the concept of play so that they can learn and explore in a much better way than what we have today," Furuseth says. "So that when they come out of the educational system they can figure out things we don't know and be the creatives of the future."

Three components have come together to make Kahoot! more than just a concept: first is the experience of We Are Human, a London-based design agency that, according to Furuseth, focuses on "how using the heart hand and mind can achieve a much better experience of any product" and members of which collaborated with the team. The second element is the game-based platform designed by the company's CTO, who is based in Oslo. The third is research from a university in Trondheim that looked at using interactive quizzes in the classroom.

From these three disparate starting points discussions started as early as 2006 on concepts for improving educational technology. It was 2012 when Kahoot! the company was actually born. Furuseth was brought on board just afterwards, when the team took to the stage to pitch at SXSW. "We had 5,000 users, but we were still accepted because they loved the story," he says. "We onboarded some ambassadors and super exciting early adopters and we were able to capture a lot of super exciting moments. We saw that this product really has the effect we are looking for. Any subject, any language -- you can create a learning experience in a super simple way just using imagery, video and questions to achieve an extremely good social learning experience."

Kahoot!

The element of competition is crucial, Furuseth says; children are trying to get their names up on the leaderboard, which is at the front of the classroom. Separately while they are technically engaging with their own devices, they are not looking down at them. The information they need is on the screen and their own devices function in the same way as buzzers. "It's super important to us that you are not looking down at the device, but you are looking up at the screen and you are looking around and you are engaging with people. Then of course you see the others and you have a good social learning experience."

Kahoot! can be played on almost any device, and only requires extremely low bandwidth (it was originally based on Bluetooth). "A big part of our impact mission is to support developing countries by enabling the platform to work for them as well," says Furuseth. "Something I'm really engaged is a thing we call the global classroom, so you can have classrooms playing Kahoot! with another classroom. We have children in Africa playing Kahoot! games with children in the US and Norway."

Of course another thing that makes Kahoot! a fantastic education resource is that not only are some of the world's best teachers using it to create educational content, but that it is then distributed free of charge. Kahoot! is free to all users, and will remain so.

How does the company intend to make money? "We will enable some of the users to get some value in terms of other services around it," says Furuseth. "One important thing for us is that a lot of brands are part of our journey. We call it 'to be in Kahoots! for better education'. People who want to pay to join our story can join it. That's the only income we have at the moment."

What Kahoot! has that is useful to these brands -- as well as to teachers and to students -- is data. Not student data of course; this is only accessible by teachers for assessment and benchmarking and students themselves. It is the data it has about learning -- what Furuseth calls the "contextual data" -- "how is it used, when is it used, for what purpose is it used, how can it be reused for another purpose". "Of course it's early days, but this data about the content you have created is of huge value, so if you create a quiz about something -- accounting for example -- you will get access to information about where was it used, how it was used,which countries is it used in and for what purpose," he says. "That is something we are looking into and of course will be of huge value to brands and creators of contents -- teachers, or whoever."

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"The minute you're born, you learn by playing together," says Åsmund Furuseth, VP for business development of Kahoot!, a game-based learning platform with one exclamation mark and 13 million monthly users. Furuseth and his colleagues at Kahoot! want students, parents and teachers to keep that process going into school and beyond.

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Mark up websites, graphics, and photos, or start drawing on a blank canvas. Browse the web with your students or make that remote tutoring session more productive than ever. No plug-ins, downloads, or firewall voodoo - it's all here, ready to go when you are. Browser-agnostic, user-friendly.

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Twiddla is an Online Whiteboard for the Modern Classroom. Mark up websites, graphics, and photos, or start brainstorming on a blank canvas. Voice and Text chat too!

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These Free Applications can Enable a Tremendous Variety of Collaborative Teaching and Learning Interactions and Activities

The 2014 Gates Foundation report, Teachers Know Best: What Educators Want from Digital Instructional Tools, indicates that teachers want tools supporting student collaboration and providing interactive experiences. This doesn't come as a big surprise since these types of tools are fun and engaging. They also support 21 st century skills like collaboration, communication, and creativity.

You know what else teachers like? Good quality tools that are free! And why not? Funds are limited and free is totally affordable!

This week on EmergingEdTech, we've put together a listing of 20 top notch free tools that are being used in schools and classrooms to collaborate and interact on assignments, projects, and other active learning efforts. Many of these applications are totally free, while others have levels of functionality starting at free and then adding additional capabilities through paid options.

These tools deliver a wide array of functionality, from communication to collaborative document editing, whiteboards, and gaming, to full Learning Management System capabilities. There's something here for everyone! Dig in and enjoy!

1. Twiddla ( www.twiddla.com)

Twiddle provides a really easy to use collaborative online whiteboard. This no-setup web based meeting playground is quick and easy - inviting others to collaborate by just hitting the green GO button to start a session and then use the Invite option. This app provides a great set of tools. You can easily add an image, web page, or document as a background to markup. There is a color palette tool, pen width tool, a shapes tool, and text can be inserted. There's even a chat option built in.

2. Google Drive ( drive.google.com)

Most of you are probably already familiar with Google Drive, which lets you share and collaboratively edit Google Docs with anyone else who has a Google account, for free. Sweet. Being able to collaboratively edit documents and worksheets opens up a world of possibilities for interactive classroom activities and projects.

This free tool* allows users to easily create bubble maps, that can be exported in various formats, saved (by exporting and re-importing them in an appropriate format), and yes, edited collaboratively. The use of bubble maps as a teaching tool has been a good practice for decades, but bringing it to a new level by enabling collaborative editing through an online tool is totally 21 st century!
*The Basic plan lets you create, share, and collaboratively edit 3 Bubble Maps.

This multi-platform, device agnostic, kid-safe platform is perfect for active learning share content, have a dialogue (in or out of the classroom), and even get parents involved! A rich set of features including collaboration-enabling functions like Learning Communities and Discussions have encouraged over 34 million teachers and students to adopt Edmodo, making it one of the most popular free education tools on the Web. Check out 10 Reasons Why Edmodo is an Excellent (and Hugely Popular) Digital Learning Platform to learn more.

Yammer is a private social network. Work in groups, share files, co-edit content and more with their free Basic plan. Explore 5 Ways Yammer is Improving Communication, Connections, and Learning in our Schools to learn more.

This popular, widely known platform provides for group meetings tools that can be particularly effective for remote participants to come together. For example, if you're thinking about collaborating with a remote classroom, Skype can be huge asset in doing so. Skype is also great from bringing students who might be stuck at home due to illness or other situations into the classroom to join the class for a collaborative dialogue or other activity.

Vyew is a collaborative interactive white board. It has come a long way since we first covered it on EmergingEdTech years ago. Not only can you create a collaborative whiteboard on line, you can upload images and document and write over them, have a discussion around them, and more. Check out theW hat is Vyew video on their home page to learn more. The free version only allows for a small set of users (10 real time participants), but that can work well if you set up a few separate groups. Larger groups of participants aren't too expensive, starting at $10/mo.

8. Wikispaces ( wikispaces.com)

Wikis provide an easy place to create a members-only web site where users can have discussions, share documents and so on. Wikispaces was built for education. They even have a special classroom tool that is focused on Collaborative Writing: Wikispaces Classroom.

9. Facebook ( facebook.com)

Yeah, that's right - Facebook. If you put up a group page specifically for your class, you get a place of you own to collaborate. Of course, this is only for kids over 13. There are a lot of teachers using Facebook. Check out Facebook Summit 2011, an Excellent Academic Use of the Popular Internet App to learn about one teacher's fun project using Facebook.

10. Google Hangouts ( www.google.com/hangouts)

Google Hangouts in becoming an increasingly popular alternative to Skype for bringing remote groups of people to together to communicate and collaborate. A couple advantages Google Hangouts has is the potential to have a Hangout recorded, and the fact that you are less likely to have the occasional availability issue that the free version of Skype can have. Combine Google Hangouts and Google Drive (or many of the other tools in this list) and you can collaboratively edit content while you're hanging out!

Create flowcharts and diagrams online with real time collaboration. This a very useful tool in a wide variety of academic disciplines, and being able to collaboratively edit them makes Cacoo a powerful application. Here is a link to learn about and access their free Academic plan: https://cacoo.com/lang/en/academic.

12. Titanpad ( titanpad.com)

What about collaboration on the iPad? Well, a number of the tools in this listing will work fine on many platforms, but Titanpad is geared specifically towards the iPad. TitanPad lets people work on one document simultaneously, and you can get a space for your team on your own private subdomain for free.

13. HaikuLearning ( www.haikulearning.com)

Haiku is a popular education site, and it's free for teachers. The solo plan includes 5 classes with up to 2GB of storage (with the ability to upgrade for a fee if you need more). This cloud-based app provides content sharing, assignments, feedback, grading, and more. Somewhat along the lines of Edmodo, Haiku is a basic Learning Management System that provides rich tools for the classroom.

Just search out a unique hashtag and you're in business. Using a hashtag and a tool like Tweetdeck (also free), where you can dedicate a column to a specific search phrase (your hashtag in this case) and bam!, you've got a live stream of all content posted with that hashtag. Collect and share research or news, create a class poem or story (one student posts to the hashtag at a time, taking turns to build out the content), search out subject matter experts and follow them, and so on. Here are 100 Ways to Teach With Twitter.

15. Minecraft ( minecraftedu.com)

Multiplayer games can be a great way to provide an interactive, collaborative experience in the classroom. With a little know-how, Minecraft players can interact. Read this article to learn more about teaching using Minecraft: Gamifying the Classroom with Minecraft - the Possibilities are Powerful and Endless!

16. Economics-games ( economics-games.com)

Here we have a purpose-built multiplayer game for the classroom. Economics-games.com is a free educational games site for teaching microeconomics, industrial organization and game theory. Choose the game you want to run, enter the number of players and that's it: You just have to communicate their logins to your students and have them connect to the site with their phones, tablets or laptops. You can then observe and debrief the game through your interface.

17. World of Warcraft ( wowinschool.pbworks.com)

Check this site out to learn all about using World of Warcraft and other MMPORGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games) in the classroom. Through this site, all project materials, including a fully-developed language arts course, aligned to middle grades standards, are now available under a creative commons license.

18. Bounceapp ( www.bounceapp.com)

Review, notate, share, and discuss any web page with Bounceapp. Bounceapp makes it really easy to grab a web page screen shot and make notes on it. This can then be sent to others. User can share ideas on the same site by each grabbing, notating, and then sharing their work. For a more collaborative experience, Bounce will work with Notableapp.com to let a workgroup collaborate (Notableapp is not free, but there is a free 30 day trial).

Wiggio is a free workgroup application that provides meetings, to-do lists, messaging, calendars, polls, and file sharing. This is a fully blown collaboration environment, and it is free (there is a premium service, but this is really only for organizations looking for a branded workspace and priority support - the primary functionality of Wiggio is totally free).

20. SocialFolders.me ( socialfolders.me)

This is a bit of a stretch as a collaborative tool, but it's a cool app and it could provide for a unique twist on the idea of collaboration. If you are using any of the apps supported by SocialFolders, say, Facebook and Instagram, for group work in a course, Social Folders can provide the ability to allow members of the workgroup to synch selected shared content, making it a sort of collection or gathering place for group content. Besides that, it's a cool app that anyone who uses more than one social media application may find pretty darn useful (coordinate your content across multiple social media apps and back it up at the same time)!

This rich set of free tools can provide an endless array of collaborative, interactive class work for years to come. Happy collaborating everyone!

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20 Fun Free Tools for Interactive Classroom Collaboration - Emerging Education Technologies

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These Free Applications can Enable a Tremendous Variety of Collaborative Teaching and Learning Interactions and Activities The 2014 Gates Foundation report, Teachers Know Best: What Educators Want from Digital Instructional Tools, indicates that teachers want tools supporting student collaboration and providing interactive experiences. This doesn't come as a big surprise since these types of tools [...]

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I recently read a study on creativity that blew my mind:

"A major factor in creativity is education: not whether you had a 'good' or 'expensive' or 'public' education, but whether you were encouraged to develop your creativity starting at an early age and continuing throughout your school years." - Adobe

Powtoon in Your Classroom - Creativity & Education

We saw this first-hand, when Edson Tellez, a volunteer teacher in rural Mexico, wrote to us about how Powtoon changed the way his students viewed the world. " They're getting more creative, more receptive, and more dynamic in each class."

The mind blowing fact is that developing creativity is the primary determining factor in the overall success of your students! And there are 2 factors that contribute to that development:

1 - Students must have a platform to be creative with (physical materials, online programs, a stage etc...)

2- Direction - Even if you teach in the most affluent school, with the most expensive technology; your students are still only as good as the direction given to them. They are only as good as the challenges you present, the projects you assign and the creativity you encourage.

And Powtoon wants to help you ignite this creativity!

When Technology Meets Creativity

We are standing at an incredible moment in time, at the intersection between technology and creativity... And this is why we at Powtoon have dedicated ourselves to creating the most exciting, engaging, out-of-this-world templates for school!

Each template is a compact lesson plan that provides the starting point for infinite creativity. The real beauty behind these templates is that they serve as a platform for imagination; Students can edit characters, images, animations, text, live footage and even upload their own voiceover, videos and music!

11 Quick & Amazing Ways to Use Powtoon in Your Classroom (plus 8 bonus ideas) including real examples from teachers & students!

1. Red Carpet Intros: Introduce yourself in the most glamorous and unique way possible!

Then have your students do the same, with this Student Resume Template!

2. Mission Impossible Template - Spy music and cyber security transform any assignment into a secret mission (where your students are the heroes)

Check out this example: Mr. Thomas and his Mission Impossible Homework Assignment.

3. Five Facts Template - Get your class focused with a checklist or countdown (the most popular template for learning new topics)

A more advanced template for middle school students:

And for those students who "know it all" - they can share their wisdom in this "5 Pieces of Advice" template!

4. School Rules Template - Lay down your classroom rules in an unforgettable way!

Ms. Soriano shows us how it's done!

5. Show Them How - Students become the educators and create how-to videos to explain topics or summarize large assignments!

One student named Mayank, converted this CEO Resume Template into a presentation about the immune system (by simply switching text and images)!

These Students imagined a very different way to learn botany!

6. Book Report Template - Typing up a book report is lame, becoming a storyteller and movie producer is epic!!

Or if you prefer the traditional feel of pencil and paper, here's another option:

7. Blue Sky Template; The Maker Space Template- Use this template as a starting point to help students lay out their goals for future projects (and Powtoons)! This is where DIY Meets Education.

8. School Syllabus Template - Ease tensions and peak interest by introducing your course syllabus in animation (the non-threatening medium 😉

9. Class Goals Template - Design Thinking! The Human centered design process to help your students "Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test."

10. Special Events Templates - Martin Luther King Day, Memorial Day, winter holidays, birthdays, Valentine's Day and so much more!

11. Year in Review - Celebrate accomplishments, milestones and... graduation!

BONUS TIME! 8 More Lesson Ideas

After receiving Helpful feedback from teachers and educators, we at the Powtoon Edu headquarters are excited to present 8 more ways to use Powtoon in the Classroom:

12. Timeline Template - Move back in time to highlight historical events and move forward to share modern research and visions of the future!

13. Science fair - Summarize your results (all that data and statistics) in an easy-to-interpret infographic Powtoon

14. Six Word Story - Do more with less. Limit the amount of words and watch visual creativity explode!

15. Integrate familiar technologies with animation. Transform Your Powerpoint into an awesome video! How? Simply use an existing PPTX presentation (or save your Google Slides presentations as a PPTX) then click on the Import to Powtoon feature, Voila! You now have a video that's ready to be awesomized with live footage, funny characters and wowzer effects!

16. Meet John Template -
Storytelling time with Pixar Pitch; Use John to teach the art of the narrative structure with familiar Pixar movie elements.

17. Snap and Shoot Powtoon - Don't fight the cell phone integrate it! Record and shoot face to camera Powtoons with the Powtoon Connect App! Download at the App Store for ios users, or at Google Play for android users.

18. Evidence of Learning Video Project - Gather Powtoons as Evidence of student learning. Both you and your students will be excited to show off their "evidence."

19. Collaborate with colleagues- Join forces, brainstorm and help your colleagues come up with great ideas to optimize teaching and learning! Check out this team challenge about Data-Driven PLC, made a whole lot digestible with this "Meet Jane" template.

Powtoon in Your Classroom - Try it now!

There you have it! The best way to encourage and develop creativity in this technological age is with these outrageous pre-made templates and Powtoon lesson ideas. I've shared 11 quick and amazing ways to use Powtoon in your classroom right now, but there are an infinite number of ways to use Powtoon to spark your students' creativity!

How have you used technology to spark creativity in the classroom? I'd love to hear about examples in the comments below!
This post has been edited and updated for clarity.
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11 Quick & Amazing Ways to Use PowToon in Your Classroom

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I recently read a study on creativity that blew my mind: "A major factor in creativity is education: not whether you had a 'good' or 'expensive' or 'public' education, but whether you were encouraged to develop your creativity starting at an early age and continuing throughout your school years."

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Look at an example of mobile learning (Kahoot)
Look at course writing (Uduntu)
Collaboration? Padlet?

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Blended learning is a term increasingly used to describe the way is being combined with traditional classroom methods and independent study to create a new, hybrid teaching methodology. It represents a much greater change in basic technique than simply adding computers to classrooms; it represents, in many cases, a fundamental change in the way teachers and students approach the learning experience. It has already produced an offshoot - the flipped classroom - that has quickly become a distinct approach of its own.

No single, reliable definition of blended learning exists, or even a universal agreement on the term itself. Many use terms like hybrid, mixed, or integrative to describe the same trend. But the trend is significant. In 2000 an estimated 45,000 K-12 students took an online course, but almost a decade later more than 3 million took courses that way, many of them using computers in the schools themselves.

A learning model in three parts

There is a general consensus among education innovators that blended learning has three primary components:

In-person classroom activities facilitated by a trained educator.

Online learning materials, often including pre-recorded lectures given by that same instructor.

Structured independent study time guided by the material in the lectures and skills developed during the classroom experience.

A course created in a blended learning model uses the classroom time for activities that benefit the most from direct interaction. Traditional education (especially at the college level) tends to place an emphasis on delivering material by way of a lecture, while in a blended learning model lectures can be videotaped ahead of time so the student can watch on their own time. The classroom time is more likely to be for structured exercises that emphasize the application of the curriculum to solve problems or work through tasks.

An individual semester of blended learning may emphasize classroom time at the beginning, then gradually increase the amount of work that students do online or during independent study. Many argue that class discussion boards, for example, are far more useful if the participants have met face-to-face first.

The "flipped" classroom, a more recent coinage, refers to classes that are structured almost exclusively around a reversal of expectations for lectures and homework. Students are expected to watch lectures online at home, and do homework while they are in class.

Blended learning redefining teaching roles

In some situations, the move to blended learning has inspired educators to redefine traditional roles. The word " facilitator " has emerged as an alternative to "teacher," bringing with it a slightly different focus. The facilitator places an emphasis on empowering students with the skills and knowledge required to make the most of the online material and independent study time, guiding students toward the most meaningful experience possible. Facilitators focus on four key areas:

Development of online and offline course content.

Facilitation of communication with and among students, including the pedagogy of communicating content online without the contextual clues students would get in person.

Guiding the learning experience of individual students, and customizing material wherever possible to strengthen the learning experience.

Assessment and grading, not unlike the expectations for teachers within the traditional framework.

By putting an emphasis on learning through supervised activities, blended learning has proven to be very adaptable to what some corporations are calling blended training. Trainers can shift their focus from the delivery of knowledge to its application, and companies spend less flying trainers around to oversee all instruction in person.
Image used under Creative Commons by Flickr user Sarah M Stewart.
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Tools for creating content that can be easily added to Moodle

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Note: You are currently viewing documentation for Moodle 3.1. Up-to-date documentation for the latest stable version of Moodle is probably available here: Creating SCORM Content.

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Hot Educational Technologies

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Lots of useful ideas

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What do you need to do to quickly develop critical thinking? What teaching methods to use? These questions will appear in the head after the desire to improve the quality of decisions made. The approach to training your thinking is complex and time-consuming. For this reason, many give up halfway.

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Graeme Simpson, Director of Marketing at Global University Systems, helps institutions the world over win new students via digital marketing strategies and social media, in a new era of stiff competition.

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THE 10 HOTTEST TOPICS IN ED TECH

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The most compelling topics among educators who embrace technology to transform teaching and learning are not about the tech at all, but about the students.

Here's a list of the hottest trends in edtech right now.

1. Computational thinking

Computational thinking (CT) is no longer a concept discussed only in computer science or coding classes. Educators are finding that computation thinking is a cross-disciplinary skill and is just as relevant in language arts and math classes. Educators are becoming skilled at incorporating CT components like decomposition, generalizing, algorithmic thinking, evaluation and abstraction - no matter the subject area. Together, these steps teach students the foundations of how to approach a problem and solve it using reasoning, creativity and expression, as well as providing a new way to demonstrate content knowledge.

2. Professional learning

Professional development (PD) is out. Professional learning (PL) is in. What's the difference? Instead of developing people via PD (collective eye roll for the sit-and-get of the past), PL focuses on providing ongoing, embedded opportunities for growth using active methods. Professional learning is differentiated, personalized and workday friendly for busy educators.

Look for an added focus on professional learning for instructional technology coaches, helping them up their game as they guide staff integrating technology in their classrooms.

3. AR, VR and mixed reality

In the past, discussions about artificial reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality in schools focused on using what others had developed. Now, both educators and students are moving into creation mode with these technologies. Students are harnessing their creativity to develop artifacts of their learning in all curricular areas using these tools.

4. Artificial intelligence

How can we take advantage of artificial intelligence (AI) in learning environments? Digital voice assistants like Alexa and Echo have made their way into classrooms, but educators are just uncovering ways to use them. Look for AI to explode in schools in the near future, predicts ISTE board member Hall Davidson, senior director, global learning initiatives for Discovery Education. He sees the potential of AI to support students in reaching higher levels of learning and thinking as they use the devices to practice asking questions and thinking out loud.

5. Global learning

The concept of global learning isn't new. What's fresh about the topic now is the level of maturity it will reach as more and more educators understand the value of learning in a global context. The excitement around students participating in global collaboration is only going to increase. Why? Because, as educator Mali Bickley puts it, global learning enables students and teachers to harness the power of technology to develop relationships with their global peers while addressing complex and important global issues. Students who have participated in global learning provide the proof - their discussions and collaborative projects have addressed worldwide problems like food scarcity, climate change, refugee crises and child labor.

6. Learner profiles

Both the ISTE Standards for Students and the ISTE Standards for Educators include specific profiles of learners. The Student Standards provide a framework for helping students become Empowered Learners, Digital Citizens, Knowledge Constructors, Innovative Designers, Computational Thinkers, Creative Communicators and Global Collaborators, while the Educator Standards are a road map for becoming Learners, Leaders, Citizens, Collaborators, Designers, Facilitators and Analysts. Both students and educators are embracing their new roles, moving from adoption of learner profiles to successful implementation.

7. Learning sciences

Advances in technology and rigorous scientific experimentation mean scientists know more than ever before about how the brain functions. Increasingly, they're disseminating that information to educators and education leaders in the hope of optimizing teaching and learning. Informed by neuroscience, cognitive psychology, development psychology, sociology and computer science, the learning sciences speak to the heart of education - how to best help humans learn. Look for a focus on updating educators' knowledge of the learning sciences and bringing students to the table to help them understand how they learn.

8. Digital citizenship

Digital citizenship is being redefined. The focus is moving away from warning students about online risks or trying to curtail their activities and toward helping them leverage the power of digital media to work toward creation, social justice and equity. The new digital citizenship, also reflected in the ISTE Standards for Students, is about being in community with others and creating digital citizenship curricula that shows students possibilities over problems, opportunities over risks and community successes over personal gain.

9. Student-centered learning

Student-centered learning environments have been called "the schools of the future." Truth be told, at many schools, the future is here. That's because the benefits of student-centered learning and the student agency that comes with it are being proven out.

Chris Lehmann, founding principal of the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, says student-driven learning isn't a lofty ideal. It's a moral imperative. And by almost any measure, from test scores to graduation rates, next-generation schools that have put students at the center of their learning are outperforming their neighbors.

"There are enough examples out there now that you have to work hard to say that this stuff doesn't work," Lehmann says.
This list of hot edtech topics emerged from a review of thousands of educator-created sessions submitted for the 2018 ISTE Conference & Expo. Curious how the topics change from year to year? Here were the hottest topics for 2017.

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The most compelling topics among educators who embrace technology to transform teaching and learning are not about the tech at all, but about the students. Here's a list of the hottest trends in edtech right now.

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Material from Learning Technologies 2015

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Material from Learning Technologies 2015

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See above

Going deeper in to the science of learning, cognitive neuroscientist Dr Christian Jarrett challenged delegates to a brain quiz where they had to identify whether the following statements were true or false:

right-brained people are more creative, left-brained people are more analytical;

most of us use only 10% of our brains;

women have more balanced brains than men;

people learn better when taught with their preferred style – visual, auditory, kinaesthetic; and

physical coordination exercises can improve the integrated function of the left and right brain hemispheres.

After much discussion among delegates, he claimed all five statements to be myths. This challenged many delegates who base their learning on some of this thinking. One L&D manager asked if they should ditch all the personality-style questionnaires that they use in their business. “Yes, I would,” was Jarrett’s response.

Jarrett then shared five learning tips, which are supported by research:

1. People learn more effectively when they have to teach – knowing you will have to teach the information you are learning means that you will order the information differently in your mind and be able to recall more facts more quickly.

2. The testing effect – research shows that testing is very powerful for recalling information because retrieval helps to strengthen the memory.

3. The drawing effect – drawing concepts can help people retain those concepts. The actual act of drawing helps retain ideas more effectively than those who choose to retain information by reading alone.

4. The spacing effect – studies show that the longer you want to remember information, the longer you should leave it between looking at that material and recalling it, in an exam for example.

5. Time-of-day effect – the time of day that you study and practise can affect how well you learn. It depends on the material, but there is a benefit to studying later in the day, as the brain continues to process information as you sleep.

Jarrett said that effective learning requires L&D teams to encourage learners to integrate what they know and come at learning from different angles. He added that incidental learning is very powerful.

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Some Topics mentioned in Links - NB mostly corporate training programs

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Some Topics mentioned in Links - NB mostly corporate training programs

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Multi-Device Learning (eg accessing from mobiles and PCs etc)
micro learning - Breaking up content into bite-sized pieces to make it easier for learners to absorb
self-directed learning
putting the learner, or consumer first - getting feedback, how they actually want to learn
Good and bad ways of using video
Gamification
Creating useful eLearning content
Learning how to learn
Learning collaboration
Augmented Learning
Social Media
Big Data
Personalisation
Open Educational Resources
Flipped Learning
"Pedagogy is the driver. Technology is the accelerator"
Blended Learning
Apps for learning
Games for learning

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E-Learning is one of the most rapidly developing industries in the modern technological world and it can be explained by the powerful demand of users whose number grows exponentially. As more and more educational institutions and commercial companies are embracing the benefits of online education, e-Learning thrives and moves forward at the speed of light. That's why it's difficult to keep up with its pace. So, to optimize this process, people make prognoses and create trends which we are going to talk about. But are they always correct and necessary to follow? Can they bring more harm than benefit? Let's find out!

1. Personalization

Everybody talks about individual skills and needs that trigger a personalized approach to firmly settle into e-Learning nowadays. But the issue is not only about the fact that somebody can use individually designed courses better because they are fully adapted to one's estimated requirements. A personalized approach works effectively because people like when they are treated individually, and the reason for this lies in human nature. Moreover, with technological advancements come growing demands, which cause people to crave for even more comfort and convenience. That's why personalization is such a popular trend everywhere, especially in e-Learning where the result depends on efficiency and full optimization.

Our verdict: follow.

2. Automation

In 2016, all the processes in e-Learning will be automated like never before. Special tools will be able to create courses and learning materials which will be a cost-efficient solution for online course producers. Furthermore, these tools will compile quizzes and tests, due to their capability to scan information and extract the most important parts. Although a step toward automation looks like a logical move to make, it clashes with the aforementioned personalization approach because the notion of automated techniques presupposes the collective concept of processing and producing. Chances are that this contradiction will be resolved in the long run, but at the dawn of its integration, clashes are inevitable.

Our verdict: ignore ... for a while.

3. Big Data

Progress is a matter of trial and error, and big data plays an important role in it. Big data is the result of actions which involve testing, optimizing and iterating, but it is also the source which dictates the next move. So, it's no wonder that big data analysis comes to the forefront in e-Learning in 2016. It is the means that allows boosting development by taking into account all the flaws or benefits which are acquired in the process of big data analysis. The effectiveness of this trend depends on the way the organization applies its results, and if they are used efficiently, big data will certainly become an indispensable tool in e-Learning development.

Our verdict: definitely follow.

4. Corporate e-Learning

As was mentioned before, commercial companies are starting to comprehend the value of online learning, because it opens an ocean of opportunities for staff development. It is a smart solution that strikes a balance on expenses and resources: employees don't need to be sent to other cities or even countries to undergo special courses, and companies don't have to spend additional costs on hiring educators. In addition, businesses can benefit from adaptive and competency-based learning, which provides only the necessary knowledge, omitting information the learners have already mastered. That's why in 2016, this trend will become much stronger and engage more adult learners into online education.

Our verdict: follow.

5. mLearning

Due to the mobile device boom, people prefer small computing gadgets over relatively bulky laptops because they have a number of advanced features, and the most important of them is their portability. That's why e-Learning acquires a new form which promises to even surpass its predecessor someday. It won't happen in 2016, but this year mLearning trend will definitely keep evolving: new apps with more expanded features in online education will flood the market in the near future: they will make e-Learning more widespread as people will be able to make use of it on the go.

Our verdict: be ready for it.

6. Social Media

This is rather a necessary step than just a trend to follow. Always perceived as tools of promotion, social media can become a strong amplifier on the way to personalization, because they are a means of direct communication with users. People are eager to leave their feedback and discuss their attitude where it looks normal and natural, so e-Learning can't neglect the opportunity of live communication that can greatly contribute to big data analysis. Overall, the implementation of this channel boosts the development of two trends: personalization and big data. That's why its value is obvious.

One of the dramatic examples of this trend is Twitter. This social media network has been ranked # 1 in the list of "Top 100 Tools for Learning" for 7 years in a row since 2009.

"For me Twitter gives access to smart people who provide an enormous wealth of information and insight through their commentary and links to research, articles and other resources." Charles Jennings, 2015

Our verdict: follow.

7. Augmented Learning

When learning is adaptive to the environment of the user, it becomes much more effective and popular as well. And with another stage in development, augmented reality becomes an integral part of online education. The spread of wearable technology will influence it several-fold, but the main booster of augmented learning will be virtual reality and its accessibility. People will be able to enhance their online education with visual and auditory perception, and the potential of virtual manipulation cannot be overstated.

Our verdict: be ready for it.

8. Gamification

Interaction is among the key features that makes e-Learning successful, because the level of knowledge perception is dependent on learners' engagement. And gamification is the main tool that involves people in active learning: nothing stimulates learners better than challenges, points, badges and leaderboards. The number of e-Learning apps that are designed in a form of the game is rapidly growing and is projected to double its quantity in the near future. So, 2016 will see a great rise of gamification and will give a foundation for its implementation in augmented learning.

Our verdict: follow, but go easy on it :)

These main e-Learning trends give us the big picture of what to do next and how to embrace the future open-armed. But the changes that are necessary to integrate all these novelties can become expensive and time-consuming, so it's better to move step by step and make the progress gradual. Moreover, some trends like personalization, social media, big data and gamification will become obligatory e-Learning conditions while others will gain their force in the long run. Thus, it' efficient to concentrate on more topical issues but still keep abreast of the trends. Follow the current news and stay tuned!

What trends are on your list of the 2016 e-Learning resolution? Share with us in the comments below, we'd love to hear your insights!

Lily Wilson is a 34 year-old homestay freelance academic writer. Lily runs her personal blog AnAwfulLotofWriting and works as a contributing academic writer at ThePensters.com.

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Top E-Learning Trends in 2016: Follow or Ignore?

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E-Learning is one of the most rapidly developing industries in the modern technological world and it can be explained by the powerful demand of users whose number grows exponentially. As more and more educational institutions and commercial companies are embracing the benefits of online education, e-Learning thrives and moves forward at the speed of light.

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Most useful for Educational Technology

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Roundtable

What's Hot, What's Not in 2016

Our expert panelists weigh in on education technology to give us their verdict on which approaches to tech-enabled learning will have a major impact, which ones are stagnating and which ones might be better forgotten entirely.

Our panelists for the 2016 What's Hot, What's Not roundtable

The four panelists in THE Journal's annual end-of-year survey hit full consensus on just two of 11 topics - giving the "hot" label unanimously to "blended learning" and "student data privacy concerns." Meanwhile, e-portfolios garnered the least amount of enthusiasm, with two panelists opting for "losing steam" and two for "lukewarm." Other topics formed a mixed bag, with the "lukewarm" rating suggesting that many technologies/techniques are holding steady, if not exactly lighting the education world on fire.

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD): Lukewarm to Hot

Karen Billings: There is huge upside [in BYOD], but it won't be easy. Teachers need to keep up with the huge numbers of apps on the market. Administrators must get increased bandwidth for their schools, and tech directors must transition to cloud-based solutions. Providers need to ensure their apps work on tablets and smart phones. With the shifts in platforms, operating systems and form factors, there are major development issues for companies.

Jim Flanagan: With numerous studies and reports showing that personal tablet and smartphone ownership continues to grow for students, it makes sense that school districts are continuing to explore ways to have students use these devices as learning tools - whether at school, at home or both. However, many schools around the country still lack the WiFi connectivity necessary to truly realize the potential of mobile devices for learning. Ultimately, schools must prepare for "use any device," as many students have access to many devices, while also guaranteeing equitable access to at least one high-quality, dedicated device for each student.

Dissenting Voice - Chris Harris: Despite showing promise as a way for schools to reach a 1-to-1 goal without having to spend money, this never really took off in most places. The problem with BYOD is that it provides a wonderful opportunity for those families with the economic means to purchase devices without really solving the major issues of providing equity for all learners. Add to that the problem of matching software/apps to multiple devices, and you end up with a solution that causes more problems than it solves. With the low price points on Chromebooks and the ability to pursue building or district-wide rollouts that provide equity, I don't see BYOD persisting.

Tom Murray: All districts have BYOD in place as students are already bringing their devices to school. It's whether or not school leaders embrace the device as a learning tool that's the true discussion. BYOD will remain one of the most talked about initiatives in 2016, yet at this point, some districts have had this opportunity in place in some capacity for almost a decade. Many districts continue to pilot and dabble with BYOD, yet the fear of abdicating some classroom control still gets in the way for some teachers. Although an increasing number of schools are allowing and even promoting student devices on campus, changing the instructional pedagogy is ultimately the challenge and what takes the most time to transform. The FCC will continue its work mitigating the digital divide in what's been coined the "homework gap," and, as always, educators need to problem solve connectivity issues for those students who lose access the moment they leave the school campus.

Social Media for Teaching and Learning: Lukewarm to Hot

Karen Billings: Growth is lukewarm with consistent student interest and a growing acceptance by teachers, administrators and learning providers. Social media gives students more opportunity to write about topics that interest them and to reach an audience that they want to reach.

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What's Hot, What's Not in 2016 -- THE Journal

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Roundtable Our expert panelists weigh in on education technology to give us their verdict on which approaches to tech-enabled learning will have a major impact, which ones are stagnating and which ones might be better forgotten entirely.

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The technology of today has completely transformed how employees access information and how they use it. But the technology of tomorrow could do this this all over again. Martin Couzins returns from the Learning Technologies conference and exhibition with his highlights.
Speaking at last month's conference in London, strategist and futurist Gerd Leonhard told learning and development (L&D) professionals that they need to be prepared for the new ways in which people can interact with technology.

Augmented reality and virtual reality, for example, are changing the way that people interact with information. Leonhard said: "We can use visual means, audio and gestures to control interfaces, and that will change completely how we actually do things."

He cited research from Oxford University, which predicts that job automation will see 47% of jobs disappear in the coming years. The good news is that the roles left will focus on people's strengths such as negotiation skills, creativity and imagination.

In five years, said Leonhard, we will access information to help us do our jobs on an on-demand basis, within the flow of work, as opposed to the way we download information now. This means that L&D's role will be to disseminate, filter and "peer rate" that knowledge to facilitate business outcomes.

But L&D will need to do much more, according to Sugata Mitra, professor of educational technology at Newcastle University. He argued that the processes of the past - communication by paper, production lines dependent on human labour, and the manual processing of information - shaped our education system, which, in turn, helped shape corporate learning.

Although technology transformed industry and communications, education has remained relatively unchanged since the industrial revolution. This means we continue to "produce people" for an age that no longer exists.

Outdated ways of learning

Mitra said: "L&D has to do a retooling job to undo a child's 17 years of educational damage, by supporting colleagues to learn for themselves and develop their curiosity, rather than teaching them what they need to know.

"For learning to happen, L&D teams must create the right environment and present the right problems and challenges for people to work on."

Research scientist and author Professor Robert Winston picked up on the theme of how humans learn best. He provided delegates with a history lesson in how the brain has developed, from Neanderthal man to today's human.

For example, early man hunted in packs, and was a social animal. This means communication is key to how humans work together, he said. Therefore, organisations need to ensure that communication between employees is effective.

Learning is a collaborative process - a brain on its own has a finite capacity for knowledge. Many brains expand that knowledge, which is why collaboration is so important in business.

Winston said that, as people learn by watching others through imitation, L&D professionals should reconsider the current emphasis on autonomy in learning and identify situations where employees would do better to learn on their own or together.

Going deeper in to the science of learning, cognitive neuroscientist Dr Christian Jarrett challenged delegates to a brain quiz where they had to identify whether the following statements were true or false:

right-brained people are more creative, left-brained people are more analytical;

most of us use only 10% of our brains;

women have more balanced brains than men;

people learn better when taught with their preferred style - visual, auditory, kinaesthetic; and

physical coordination exercises can improve the integrated function of the left and right brain hemispheres.

After much discussion among delegates, he claimed all five statements to be myths. This challenged many delegates who base their learning on some of this thinking. One L&D manager asked if they should ditch all the personality-style questionnaires that they use in their business. "Yes, I would," was Jarrett's response.

Jarrett then shared five learning tips, which are supported by research:

1. People learn more effectively when they have to teach - knowing you will have to teach the information you are learning means that you will order the information differently in your mind and be able to recall more facts more quickly.

2. The testing effect - research shows that testing is very powerful for recalling information because retrieval helps to strengthen the memory.

3. The drawing effect - drawing concepts can help people retain those concepts. The actual act of drawing helps retain ideas more effectively than those who choose to retain information by reading alone.

4. The spacing effect - studies show that the longer you want to remember information, the longer you should leave it between looking at that material and recalling it, in an exam for example.

5. Time-of-day effect - the time of day that you study and practise can affect how well you learn. It depends on the material, but there is a benefit to studying later in the day, as the brain continues to process information as you sleep.

Jarrett said that effective learning requires L&D teams to encourage learners to integrate what they know and come at learning from different angles. He added that incidental learning is very powerful.

L&D challenges

Away from the myth-busting and science of learning, Nigel Paine, former chief learning officer at the BBC and author of The Learning Challenge, brought delegates back down to earth with a look at everyday challenges facing L&D teams.

Learning Technologies 2015 in quotes

"Today we can study particles and far-away galaxies but the brain remains a mystery" - Dr Christian Jarrett, cognitive neuroscientist

"We need to help people take ownership of learning" - Donald Taylor, chairman, Learning and Performance Institute

"Google changed our lives pedagogically forever" - Donald Clark, co-founder Epic Group

"In L&D we don't treat adults as adults. We treat them as schoolchildren and put them in classrooms. We need to trust people to learn for themselves" - Andrew Jacobs, organisational learning manager, London Borough of Lewisham

"The 70:20:10 model of learning does not dispense with the need for a learning department" - Charles Jennings, Internet Time Alliance

The first is balancing day-to-day activity with being able to manage big changes pragmatically. Second, L&D needs to be a credible player in the organisation so that it is listened to and can make a contribution to the demands of the organisation. An important element in this is helping colleagues understand where learning fits into the business.

Third, learning professionals need to keep abreast of technology to understand how to use it as an enabler of learning. And finally, the fourth challenge is how to amplify the learning. Paine said that learning is no longer something that can be controlled by L&D.

"Unfortunately, the truth is that if you want to be unbelievably successful in your organisation you can't control learning any longer. You've got to give it away. It's got to happen everywhere.

"It's got to bubble up all over the place. You've got to look at the buzz you can create that will resonate massively around the organisation. The more it resonates, the bigger the impact and the more successful you will be," he said.

He added that L&D teams need to start listening to the business and show some humility in order to succeed.

"L&D needs a bit of humility. So talk, listen and learn from the organisation. Work out what's hot, what's happening and what you can expand and develop. Work out what the roadblocks are and have a vision. If you have no idea where you might want to end up you're going to find it very, very difficult to get there."

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Learning Technologies 2015: L&D has to "undo educational damage" - Personnel Today

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The technology of today has completely transformed how employees access information and how they use it. But the technology of tomorrow could do this this all over again. Martin Couzins returns from the Learning Technologies conference and exhibition with his highlights. Speaking at last month's conference in London, strategist and futurist Gerd Leonhard told learning and development ...

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When it comes to professional services, Deloitte is a firm whose results you can rely on. It co-operates closely with the leading companies and corporations, and this co-operation lays the groundwork for their analytic report analyzing the current situation. Here are the key ideas and trends the firm's latest report, Global Human Capital Trends 2016, touches upon, as well as the new learning paradigm shift it suggests.

Lately, executives and leaders of many companies began to realize that quality learning provided in the workplace environment is one of the few factors that can help attract valuable candidates, make working in the company more engaging, and help retain talent.

The Need For A Learning Paradigm Shift

The ubiquity of various mobile devices featuring round-the-clock internet access makes learning an activity one can participate in anywhere, anytime. These days, you can learn anything online. One can easily find a video or a podcast on any topic, created by the leading professionals in the field, and obtain new skills -or even an academic degree- without leaving one's desk, or while drinking coffee in a café.

In turn, the employees now understand better than ever that their pay grade is very much related to their learning curve, and demand the employer to provide the ability for dynamic learning in the workplace. The members of the new generation, accustomed to a self-directed learning environment, see individual learning on the job as an integral part of their day-to-day employment activity, and companies that fail to recognize that are at risk of losing their best employees.

The attitude towards learning is gradually changing. It is no longer considered an episodic activity, mostly taking place during the onboarding stage. The new learning paradigm places the employee in the spotlight, and turns learning into a constant, continuous process. Companies that embrace this new concept of learning aim to give their employees access to a wide range of resources, both internal and public, which allows for individualized studying programs, instead of pushing standardized courses upon every employee.

The New Learning Paradigm

The new learning paradigm places the following responsibilities upon training departments:

Help employees "learn how to learn".

Organize events and programs in order to stimulate knowledge sharing among staff.

Develop user-friendly, easy to use learning portals and video sharing services.

Promote collaboration between employees, enabling continuous learning and knowledge sharing.

Despite the general understanding of the necessity to provide self-learning opportunities, 61 percent of employers report having difficulties with it.

Due to the new goals set before corporate training departments, they gradually drift away from their traditional "course builder" role. Now, their responsibilities are more like that of product managers, who work to satisfy the unmet demands of their "clients".

Bringing about the evolution of corporate training is a complex and demanding task, and most companies and organizations are still in the early stages of implementing new techniques and restructuring their training departments. However, the trend is clear: Companies that care about their employees' self-learning must assist them in acquiring the necessary skills and knowledge using both internal and public sources, and if your organization has not yet given this matter any thought, now is a fine time to start.

Transforming Your Learning Processes: 5 Recommendations

In conclusion, we'd like to offer a few recommendations that will help you begin evolving the training processes in your organization:

1. Acknowledge That Every Employee Knows Best In Which Direction To Take Their Learning.

Companies interested in stimulating the professional growth of employees must look for ways of improving the user experience of their educational programs and initiatives. Treat employees as customers, whose needs must be met, instead of students that must be pushed through standardized classes.

2. Reject Top-Down Education In Favor Of Bottom-Up.

The transition to the student-centered model of education demands a significant mental shift within the organization. Relinquishing total control over the educational content, schedule, and the choice of learning platforms is hard, but it is necessary for transitioning to the new paradigm, and is rewarded with the improved learning efficiency.

3. Use Technology To Direct Your Employees' Self-Learning.

Mobile, social, and cloud platforms providing services related to self-learning must become an integral part of your new learning programs. Good learning platforms enable you to integrate all types of content, and give both students and trainers a handy way of managing learning content and adding to it. Keep an eye on innovational offerings from vendors new to the market to keep your learning environment in top shape.

4. Adopt The Continuous Education Model.

Foster a corporate culture that gives employees access to the necessary educational resources at any stage of their career.

5. Choose The Learning Paradigm That Supports An Extended Development Vision.

Consider the meaning of the word "development" and the vision of an employee's professional growth within your organization. If no such vision exists, you need to create it and communicate it to all employees.

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Learning Trends In 2016 - Learning Paradigm Shift - eLearning Industry

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When it comes to professional services, Deloitte is a firm whose results you can rely on. It co-operates closely with the leading companies and corporations, and this co-operation lays the groundwork for their analytic report analyzing the current situation.

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eLearning programs and courses are becoming the talk of the town. Their nature of being based on technology allows them to be very effective in our tech savvy world of today. First of all, companies are being able to reduce costs by providing online readily available platforms. Secondly, they are saving a lot of time and effort that would otherwise be used in creating and implementing learning programs in traditional classrooms. Different eLearning development trends are helping in boosting the success rates of learning programs by offering solutions that improve interactivity of participants and allow them to have better retention of study material.

These and many other benefits of eLearning programs keep eLearning at the top of the most awaited trends list. In the year 2016, the focus remains on improving existing eLearning solutions by providing fun and interactive solutions based on the self-regulated study. That, in turn, will prove to be significantly beneficial for both employers and employees worldwide.

1. Mobile Learning

The increased use of mobile devices cannot be neglected. Mobiles have become an essential part of our lives, and they are helping people stay on top of important tasks and commitments. That is why we can now see an increase in the mobile eLearning market. Students of today wish to have a mobile app for everything. Whether it's online banking, shopping, playing games, or having access to their important files, being able to have information at hand is much appreciated. Mobile learning also proves to be a great topic for student projects and writing assignments, allowing them to give their views and suggestions of mobile learning. Some of the obvious benefits of handheld learning or eLearning include:

Scheduled flexibility.

Portability.

Ease of access.

Distraction-free learning.

Information available at the touch of a button.

Quick access to study material around the clock.

Concise presentation of learning concepts.

It is no wonder that eLearning is a design trend with many success factors. The convenience of handheld learning cannot be neglected and we can confidently say that it's here to stay.

2. Adaptive Programs

As their name suggest, these programs enable experienced employees to adapt to new concepts fairly quickly. Through the use of these adaptive programs, employees can avoid wasting their time on things they have already studied. Adaptive programs make it possible for employees to speed up their learning process, allowing them to become productive and effective learners.

The use of infographics also proves to be very effective. The time that users save with these programs can be utilized on learning new tasks. These programs are being implemented in different parts of the world. It won't be long before we see competency-driven online learning programs outshining their competitors in the eLearning market. A fine example includes Smart Sparrow, an adaptive eLearning program that focuses on engaging each student.

3. Gamification

When you combine gamification techniques with online learning, you take the concept to an exciting new level! Gamification has been around for quite some time now and it's becoming one of the most powerful eLearning development trends. It is the concept that makes use of game mechanics to provide a fun and interactive approach to learning. Gamification trends are successful in improving employee participation and focus retention. Not only are employees prone to picking up concepts faster. The process of learning is also made effective and one that all employees can look forward to.

The popular fast food chain "McDonald's" is also using gamification-based learning to train its employees on the new till systems being implemented. The game simulates the working of the new till system and allows employees to demonstrate their knowledge of offering quality customer service. Not only is this process of learning fun and interactive, but it also provides a very real feel of actual business situations. This process of learning is motivational and helps employees offer their absolute best when it comes to customer service.

4. Automated Technology

Automated technologies help with exercises, assessments, games, and tests that are based on study material of different eLearning courses. When companies make use of these automated technologies, they are significantly saving on design time. Furthermore, their costs associated with creating learning programs are noticeable reduced. With automated technologies, it becomes easier to focus on polishing the content of eLearning courses. Instead of providing more information, the focus shifts to providing quality content.

Final Thoughts

2016 will be an exciting year for various eLearning development trends. The focus will be on providing automated, gamification-based, competency-based, mobile-friendly eLearning solutions. These will in turn help in keeping users actively engaged and keen on learning.

It won't be too long before you see new and improved eLearning development trends in the online study world. In order to ensure that you don't miss out on the exciting news, follow different eLearning providers on social media. That will help you keep on top of what's hot in the eLearning world. If you would like to have a taste of these eLearning models, there are countless test and demo online learning models that you can play around with online. These allow you to get a good feel of how companies can teach their users through fun and interactive digital learning experience.

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4 Top eLearning Development Trends To Look Out For - eLearning Industry

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eLearning programs and courses are becoming the talk of the town. Their nature of being based on technology allows them to be very effective in our tech savvy world of today.

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This year's Learning Technologies has been the biggest and best yet, with a fantastic turnout of more than 7,500 visitors and 250 exhibitors - a sign that the learning industry is in great health!

The hottest themes at this year's show were gamification and virtual reality with most learning professionals we spoke to keener than ever to find new ways to engage with learners and use innovative learning technologies to drive business transformation.

Kallidus contributed to the growing debate on learning innovation and achieving business impact with three extremely popular seminars. The aisles were jam-packed despite this year's exhibition halls playing host to up to 11 different seminars at any given time.

We were delighted to have two of our customers join us for our seminars. Firstly, Samantha Peterson from NHS Business Services Authority delivered a great presentation sharing strategic insight and practical tips from her organisation's award winning LMS implementation.

Next up, Ian Tatton from Transport for London talked about TfL's three-year journey to transform customer service at London Underground. This is the largest business transformation programme in Europe and TfL's collaborative partnership with Kallidus has enabled the delivery of a truly immersive learning programme using video and gamification. Our shared success has already led to a hat trick of awards - gold for 'best use of blended learning' and bronze for 'best e-learning project' at November's E-Learning Awards, and last week we scooped one of the highest industry accolades: the LPI's gold Learning Award for 'external learning solution of the year'.

If you missed either of these presentations you can read the full case studies on our website or check out our customer video testimonials here

Also on trend, was our seminar looking at how gamification can power up e-learning which Joshua Roberts (this year's silver E-Learning Award winning designer) delivered in a highly engaging way. If you want to find out more about how gamification can win learners hearts and minds then take a look at Joshua's TrainingZone column.

Kallidus was among the largest stands at the show providing the perfect platform to unveil our new brand identity, showcase our award winning learning and talent solutions, and serve up the best smoothies in town - all part of our refreshing approach to learning! Our new 'Pocket Guide to Gamification' flew off the stand like hot cakes, but don't worry if you didn't manage to grab one, drop us a line at marketing@kallidus.com and we'll happily send you an electronic copy.

Learning Technologies 2016 really was an excellent show for Kallidus and is the best place in Europe to share learning expertise, network in the industry and have valuable business conversations. So it was a great delight when we found out that Kallidus was mentioned as a Top 5 organisation to have engaging and profitable business conversations with in the official Learning Technologies exit poll. This year we punched well above our weight to became one of the few companies to feature in the top five of five different categories including #1 for memorable collateral, #2 for visual impact, #4 for must see company, #5 for engagement and #2 for giving away fresh smoothies.

Which parts of the show did you enjoy most? Do you agree that the industry has evolved since last year's show? And what are you hoping to see more of at the Learning Technologies Summer Forum? We'd love to hear your thoughts.

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This year's Learning Technologies has been the biggest and best yet, with a fantastic turnout of more than 7,500 visitors and 250 exhibitors - a sign that the learning industry is in great health!

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hot learning technologies

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Learning Technologies 2016 is just around the corner, and Europe's leading L&D exhibition and conference is bigger than ever.

With more than 160 free seminars and 70 conference speakers you're spoilt for choice when deciding what to see.

Last week we spoke to three leading figures in the L&D industry to get their view on what's going to be hot in 2016. We're using their discussion to help pick out some seminars and conference talks that will help you get to grips with the concepts that matter in 2016.

Hear what Donald Taylor, chair of the Learning Technologies conference, John Curran, Chairman of the Elearning Network and Laura Overton, Managing Director of Towards Maturity think are the next big thing, and find out where you can discover more about each hot topic.

Multi-device learning

One of the topics discussed at length in the Elearning in 2016 hangout was mobile and multi-device learning.

Each of the experts had a position on the subject and revealed how L&D can benefit from making it part of their strategy or developing the role it already has.

Donald Taylor contrasted the old way of thinking about mobile learning with the modern approach made possible with advances in technology.

"But what it does mean is what people do all the time, you get on the Tube and you see people all the time on their phone, they are reading, they are listening, they are watching these may not be elearning modules but by goodness they are learning."
"What it did mean was - let's squeeze a one hour course onto an absolutely, impossibly inadequate medium and expect people to learn, well that's not going to work.

John Curran confirmed that learners want to access learning wherever they can and creating multi- device modules is one way to make that easier.

"The more accessible we can make our learning micro modules, the more likely they're going to be accessed at whatever time and space people decide they need to learn."

Laura Overton expressed concerns that L&D teams still aren't fully committed to making multi-device learning.

"I think most people are kind of playing still and the majority of their playing is about having responsive content that will appear everywhere."

Brush up on mobile learning with our multi-device picks for Learning Technologies 2016:

Talk 1: Love to learn! Ideas for using multi-device games & video in elearning

Louise Pasterfield - Managing Director Sponge UK

03 Feb, 11:00 - 11:30, & 04 Feb 14:00 - 14:30, Theatre 12

This seminar will explore ideas for taking multi-device elearning to the next level with the use of games and video. Showcasing real-life examples, it will consider how you can enrich elearning by combining the latest innovative technologies for effective results.

Talk 2: Driving learning with the latest in mobile delivery - T1S4

Geoff Stead, Sr Director, Mobile Learning, Qualcomm

04 Feb, 11:10 - 12:20, Track 1

Mobile delivery of content is pretty much a done-deal now. Everyone does it. But are we making the most of what we have, and what's coming next? In this session, Qualcomm's Geoff Stead describes the latest advances and how he's putting them to use at one of the world's earliest and most comprehensive adopters.

Each of the industry figures was asked what they thought would be the hot topic for L&D professionals in 2016. We've scoured the Learning Technologies timetable to identify some of the key sessions that relate to these hot topics.

Donald Taylor - Chairman of the Learning Performance Institution (LPI) and the Learning and Skills Group (LSG)

After performing his annual on line survey Donald Taylor revealed what he predicts will be the hot topic of 2016 for L&D:

"The buzz word that will be hot, my survey tells me quite unequivocally, is micro learning. That's what everyone's going to be talking about, it's sexy, it's hot."

Breaking up content into bite-sized pieces to make it easier for learners to absorb is not a new concept. The renewed interest in mobile and multi-device platforms in 2015 has led many L&D teams to refocus on smaller chunks of content which can be more easily accessed in a variety of situations.

You can find the full low down on the survey results that led to this pick on Don's blog.

Learning Technologies 2016 has several free seminars that you can attend to find out more about micro learning and how it might benefit your L&D programme:

Talk 4: Micro learning and the rise of mobile

Alex Noble, Online Academy Manager, RICS

4 th Feb, 10:15 - 10:45, Theatre 2

John Curran - Chairman of the Elearning Network

John chose to look further ahead, thinking about what could make real changes in the L&D landscape.

"So my buzz word for 2016, and I'm sure it won't be mentioned a lot at Learning Tech is heutagogy... It's self-directed learning and I really believe that that's where the future is"

Explaining that cognitive science made up a big part his current reading list he cited the following books as inspiration for his choice of buzz word:

These Learning Technologies 2016 talks will discuss elements of self-directed learning and should offer some inspiration to anyone looking into the neuroscience behind the theory.

Talk 6: Collaborative learning - T4S2

Jane Hart, Workplace Learning & Collaboration Advisor, Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies

Cathy Hoy, Senior L&D Manager, Europe, Coca-Cola Enterprises

3 rd Feb, 13:50 - 15:00, Track 4

Most of us collaborate at work every day and learn from colleagues on-the-job. But throw some technology into the mix and the picture can blur and processes become over complicated. The key is incorporating the learning into people's workflow. Easier said than done perhaps, which is why Jane Hart and Cathy Hoy will be on hand to share tips on how to make it happen in practice.

Laura Overton - Managing Director of Towards Maturity

Towards Maturity publishes reports and conducts surveys with input from thousands of L&D professionals, so Laura is in a unique position to offer advice to the industry.

"My key thing would be thinking consumer first... I think we need to get in tune with our staff, how they're currently learning and meet them at their point of need."

The idea of putting the learner, or consumer, first is something that Towards Maturity highlight in their Learner Voice reports. Taking feedback from real learners and collating the experiences they've had helps L&D professionals focus on the most important areas.

Creating a learning culture based around the needs of the end user is an experience many in L&D can learn from.

Learn more on this subject at the following talks:

Talk 8: Building a global learning culture - T5S5

Laura Overton, Director, Towards Maturity

Stuart Miller, Global IT Director, Worldmark International

Anne Watson, Global HR Director, Worldmark International

4 th Feb, 13:50 - 15:00, Track 5

What differentiates top flight companies in their adoption of learning technologies and a learning culture? Laura Overton has been researching this for years, and is pretty sure the answer is clear. But who is actually doing it? In this presentation she is joined by one company - Worldmark - that has done it internationally and is here to share their experiences and the lessons learned.

What else is on at Learning Technologies 2016?

The full seminar and conference programme is available on the Learning Technologies 2016 website .

Sponge UK will be exhibiting at Stand C16 if you'd like to talk about any of the subjects raised in the hangout or play a specially designed elearning game.

In case you need some more inspiration for your schedule we've picked out some interesting looking talks that don't fit into one of the themes from the Hangout.

Talk 10: Video for learning - T2S6

Emma Barrow, Head of Digital Learning, Royal Mail Group

Ian Slater, Manager, Technical Training, PII Pipeline Solutions, A GE Oil & Gas /Al Shaheen Joint Venture

4 th Feb, 15:30 - 16:40, Track 2

Video for learning can range from the expensive and slick, to guerrilla recordings on smart phones. Each has benefits, video remains an intimidating medium for many. Hear how two organisations are creating their own processes and take away practical details that will enable you to deliver video content with new levels of flexibility and application.

There's an opportunity to meet some of the conference speakers and talk face to face about their talks at Towards Maturity's eXchanges. You can sign up for one of the ten spaces for each session here.

You'll have the opportunity to talk with some of the speakers we've already highlighted, but we'd also suggest checking out these talks at Stand H21 if the topics discussed in this post are interesting to you:

Bob Mosher, Apply Synergies - How To Support Performance at the Real Moment of Need - 3rd Feb, 12:45 - 13:45

Dave Kelly, eLearning Guild - How L&D Professionals Can Keep Updated With the Next and Now of Learning Technology - 4th Feb, 11:30 - 12:30

You can watch the Elearning in 2016 Hangout in full on our YouTube channel .

If you'd like to schedule a meeting with someone from Sponge UK at Learning Technologies 2016 get in touch with us on absorb@spongeuk.com , or drop by stand C16 to play our elearning games.

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10 hot topic talks at Learning Technologies 2016 | Sponge UK

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Learning Technologies 2016 is just around the corner, and Europe's leading L&D exhibition and conference is bigger than ever. With more than 160 free seminars and 70 conference speakers you're spoilt for choice when deciding what to see. Last week we spoke to three leading figures in the L&D industry to get their view on what's going to be hot in 2016.