THE TRENDS
Esports – It’s what literally EVERYONE is talking about, and for good reason! In Texas school districts alone, esports programs grew from about 20 to more than 300 in the span of a few months leading up to TCEA 2020. Teachers and students are getting increasingly excited about the STEAM curriculum possibilities both in esports themselves and the supporting activities like management, content creation, shoutcasting, promotions and more.
Artificial Intelligence – Automating the simpler processes that take place in schools – like checking papers for plagiarism or checking test scores – will allow teachers to focus on human-specific skills like emotional intelligence, creativity and invention. According to Online Education for High Ed, AI use in US classrooms will grow by 47.5 percent in the next three years.
AR/VR – Augment Reality can bring more abstract ideas to life for students by adding digital elements by using a camera on a smartphone. This increases the interactivity of both classroom lessons and homework, as fun facts, audio snippets or videos from teachers can pop up in their books. Virtual Reality takes things to the next level with an even more immersive interface. Through VR goggles, students can explore significant place, times and cultures that have existed throughout history. Plus, the market for virtual reality continues to grow, making products more affordable in the edtech sector.
THE EMERGING TECH IN STEAM SHOWCASE
Douglas Stewart partnered with select vendors to showcase emerging tech products that support STEAM education. We featured five main categories, including Creativity, Virtual Reality, Esports, Robotics + Coding, and Fabrication + Invention. Over 100 teachers got to explore new and cutting edge solutions for the classroom. For a full breakdown of featured vendors, click here. A big THANK YOU to our vendor partners!
VARconnection 