The 2013 horizon report talked about 5 new trends in education. the five trends are education paradigms shifting toward online learning, openness, social media changing our culture, technology price drops influencing education, and the internet challenging the role of educators in the classroom. From observing my mentee’s school environment I can definitely see these trends in the classrooms of primary education. The social media trend is most interesting because although it opens up children’s voices and networks it also makes them less sociable outside of the cyber world. When I was younger we were not allowed to use technology in the classroom and the little exposure we had was from teacher guided instruction whether it was learning how to type with our hands covered or following along with an overhead projector.
In terms of the six challenges “the demand for personalized learning is not adequately supported by current technology or practices,” according to the Horizon report in my opinion is very challenging to accomplish in our society. I say this because, children have a wide variety of learning styles in a single classroom and technology is not the only answer to these styles. A child who is naturally inclined by the environment can not get that outside experience on the internet or dealing solely with technology in a classroom. However, technology can be applied to outside work like GPS tracking systems and things of that nature. Perhaps if students were in classrooms based on their learning style they would perform better.
image citation:
Andrew Wales (February 9, 2011). Poster: Multiple Intelligences in Comic Education. Retrieved from http://comicsworkshop.wordpress.com/2011/09/02/poster-multiple-intelligences-in-comics-ed/
I think that mobile technology is the best to monitor right now because the most people utilize it and parents have become increasingly acceptable of it for their children. Mobile technology is essentially becoming a new way of our everyday lives. Students in the K-12 generation now have grown up during the technology boom so mobile devices seem like a natural, almost an extension of the hand to them. So I believe that mobile technology implemented in the classroom could be more engaging than other forms of technology.
Kelsi's Perspective 
I really liked your sentence that said “The social media trend is most interesting because although it opens up children’s voices and networks it also makes them less sociable outside of the cyber world.” This is something that I think is important to think about and recognize in the younger generation today. You also talked about the emergence of mobile technology in classrooms, which I definitely agree is something that we will be seeing more and more of in the years to come. Like other social media, I think educators need to be careful about how this is used in the classroom and make sure that students are still learning basic communication skills outside of the cyber and technology world.