New Trends, Challenges  and Technologies in Armenian Educational Context

The Horizon Report 2018 highlights six developments, six challenges, and six trends relating to educational technology and practices that are probably to enter mainstream use within their focus sectors over the next five years (2018–22).  Moreover, these new trends, challenges and technologies are already making real changes in education, particularly in learning strategies and in the development of progressive pedagogies,  as well as in the role of the teacher. In other words, the roles of educators and higher education change simultaneously with educational technology trends.

Furthermore,  as this technology-enabled approaches are becoming more and more popular,  many institutions are rethinking the main responsibilities of the educators. Thus, it is becoming more and more essential for the educators to position themselves in a way that to be able to respond to rapid changes in technology, as well as its impact on the learning and teaching process.

However,  before implementing these new trends, developments relating to educational technologies into the teaching and learning process, it is essential to take into consideration the educational context, as well as the EFL professionals, who are going to make use of these new trends.  In other words,  before implementing these new trends in the teaching process, it is crucial to understand whether these new trends, technologies are relevant for EFL professionals and for the particular context. For instance, EFL professionals in Armenia can make use of the Long-Term Trend: Driving Ed Tech adoption in higher education, by examining the ways how institutions can nurture cultures that promote experimentation. Namely, it will give the EFL professionals the opportunity to keep pace and change their evaluation methods to remove the obstacles that limit the development of new ideas. In other words, EFL professionals by doing this examination will understand that higher education should accept failure as a common part of the learning process.

Regarding challenges, EFL professionals can make use of 'authentic learning experiences.' Namely, authentic learning experiences will give them the opportunity to connect students with real-world problems and work situations, as they will be able to bridge the gap between particular applications and academic knowledge by establishing relationships with the community. Furthermore, it will give learners the opportunity to experience the future that awaits them outside the university.