1. What do you think textbooks will look like in 10 years?
Textbooks are going to become less important. First, teachers will bring in more (if not all) open (free) content into their courses through digital media. This information will have be more current and pertinent information for students. It will be brought into digital repositories through RSS or similar mechanisms. Second, more content will be brought in by and created by students. Third, the content will become more interactive when appropriate through 3D and AR technologies.
2. What do you think the textbook experience should ideally look like (which could include both the physical and electronic platforms and how they interact?
As briefly discussed in question one, textbooks will become digital, interactive, mobile, and free. Textbooks will become digital and will be constructed by teachers and students by accessing open content on the Internet and bringing that content into a web repository. This content will be interactive integrating augmented reality, 3D, and other technologies to enhance student learning. Further, they will have “touch” interactive capabilities. These “textbooks” will be on mobile devices such as tables and smartphones that can be brought into the physical classroom, if necessary, or very appropriate for online courses.
3. What is the future of social media in the classroom? Are there innovative ways to use it beyond classroom management tasks?
Social media will blur the line of education and social realms even further. Teachers will look to bring in students social experiences as experiential activities to increase their learning. Social media will provide more opportunities for experiential learning through the access to people, places, organizations, and resources unaccessible with current technologies. We will see less of a divide between professional and personal identities.
