Welcome to 2023, FilaFriends! Every January we make a new set of edtech predictions, giving our best guesses as to what this year will hold for our industry. No, we don’t use magic to make our predictions – just our 17 years of experience! If you’re curious about 2023’s edtech trends and hot topics, be sure to read on!
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For more game-based learning updates and industry expertise, why not follow Filament Games on Twitter and Facebook? With that, let us gaze into the future!
Social-Emotional Learning Takes Priority to Make Up for Hard Times and Lost Time
Students have certainly been through a lot in the past few years. From significant changes in routine to the loss of loved ones, now more than ever is the time to prioritize social-emotional learning (SEL). As MagicBox puts it, “Supporting students’ SEL is important to support their mental well-being, catch up on learning loss, return to school, and adapt to new circumstances. SEL has specific benefits for disadvantaged students, who didn’t have much support during school closures.” Due to the emotional turmoil and academic disruption that both students and staff have gone through, we predict that SEL is going to be an edtech trend in 2023! Social-emotional learning has a wide variety of benefits, helping students healthily cope with difficult moments and mistakes, and helping them to be present and fully enjoy their victories and accomplishments.
As we’ve established before on the blog, technology can be a particularly useful tool when it comes to social-emotional learning in the classroom. Writing for EdTech Magazine, school innovation leaders Jeni Long and Sallee Clark expand on the importance of SEL and how teachers can use technology to integrate social-emotional learning seamlessly into their classrooms. Long and Clark recommend using apps such as Reflect to make it easy to check in with students daily. They also suggest finding “curated and customizable templates for SEL activities” on websites such as Canva and Microsoft Teams.
But wait- there’s more! Game-based learning is also a great resource when it comes to SEL. For example, the Healthy Minds Measures App we created with our friends at Healthy Minds Innovations. This app includes several mini-games that assess a player’s attention regulation, attitudes toward strangers, and sense of relatedness. For those looking to implement social-emotional learning into the workplace, there are games for that purpose too! For instance, the Demonstrating Respect Game we made in partnership with the Mental Health Association of Maryland teaches players how to better understand and successfully interact with older adults through simulated situations and conversations.
Don’t see a game or app relevant to your needs here? Our friends at iThrive Games are another excellent resource for SEL game-based learning. You can also contact us for a free consultation on the game you’d like to create!
K-12 Online Safety and Cybersecurity are More Important Than Ever
Technology keeps advancing, which means more complexity and versatility in areas like artificial intelligence, cloud computing, the metaverse, and more. New types of technology like these are becoming increasingly popular in schools, which is great! There are so many benefits of technology like game-based learning in the classroom. But this also means that there are more potential risks to student safety that need to be managed via cybersecurity. That’s why we predict that increased cybersecurity will be a trending topic in edtech throughout 2023.
EdTech Magazine web editor Rebecca Torchia reports that “K–12 schools are facing high stakes when it comes to cybersecurity. Cyberattacks not only put student and staff data at risk, but they’re also expensive and can threaten a district’s reputation. News of successful K–12 ransomware attacks spreads quickly, which may be one reason district IT leaders are looking for any way to mitigate the threats.” She writes that at CITE 2022, EdTech Magazine’s annual conference, K-12 cybersecurity was a hot topic. According to Torchia, some of this year’s biggest anticipated threats are ransomware, wiper malware, and weaponized artificial intelligence. That said, what can schools do to be on top of cybersecurity in 2023?
Experts at CITE 2022 suggested that districts be proactive and invest in cybersecurity resources to prevent attacks before they can occur. Torchia asserts that “It’s better to pay for a more comprehensive security solution because, while it might be more expensive, it won’t be nearly as costly as a successful cyberattack.” Experts also urged school districts to educate their stakeholders on cybersecurity risks and solutions.
While it’s not the sole measure school districts should take to prevent cyberattacks, educating the general public on safe internet and technology use is also imperative! Adults and children alike can learn more about cybersecurity and online safety through game-based learning. This blog itself has a variety of resources for you, like lists of quality games on cybersecurity, media literacy, and digital citizenship. We also have a post all about the measures we take to ensure that our games are compliant with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
Virtual and Augmented Reality Become More Mainstream
“Metaverse” was one of the biggest buzzwords of 2022, and it’s still a very relevant topic in and out of education! While not everything in the metaverse necessarily involves VR or AR, it often takes advantage of these technologies to explore new horizons in many industries, including K-12 education, the workplace, and elsewhere. There is a significant overlap between the rise of the metaverse and the rise of virtual reality solutions.
As Moonpreneur reports, VR and AR “provide children with a space where they can grasp complex concepts and gain hands-on learning experience in low-risk virtual settings. [From] STEM-related courses, medical simulations, arts and humanities materials, and technical education, AR and VR have the capabilities to enhance it.” We couldn’t agree more! Medical breakthroughs, immersive education for young learners, safer ways to learn on the job – AR and VR technology is making leaps and bounds, improving in quality and scope with each year.
More people are beginning to see the potential of AR and VR for learning. In August of 2022, Tech Informed reported that “54% of teachers and 41% of parents want an increased usage of virtual and augmented reality solutions in the classroom.” Axon writer Anna Sursaieva also affirms the burgeoning popularity of VR and AR in the classroom by mentioning already successful educational apps such as Vonderscope, Mondly, and JigSpace.
At Filament Games, we’ve also built a variety of VR solutions for education, including VR Explorations, Webby Award winner Breaking Boundaries, and soon, RoboCo! Want to create an educational AR or VR game? Let us know and we can bring your project to life!
That concludes our edtech predictions for 2023! We’ll be back in January 2024 with more – but until then, what do you think? Will our predictions come true? Only time will tell!
Previous edtech prognostications: