
- Image by TimboDon via Flickr
I’ve just read the executive summary and skimmed over the rest of the 2009 Horizon Report which aims to report annually on 6 emerging technologies or practices that are likely to enter education over 1-5 years, also outlines challenges and trends. The project centres on applications of emerging technologies to teaching, learning, research and creative expression.
3 horizons of adoption – 1 is 1 year, 2 is 2-3 years, 3 is 5 years.
1. Mobiles and Cloud Computing
- Mobiles
- Another component of network
- Multiple uses
- Internet
- Cloud computing
- Networked computers – where applications and data are held/stored on the network rather than on a single computer to enable users to use clouds of computers. Changes the way we store, use and access files and software. Increases opportunities for sharing, collaboration and tracking versions.
2. Geo-everying and the personal web
- Geo Everything
- The ability for devices to log their geo location, and link these to information, data and other stuff. Eg automatically tagging a photo with a location. Use in sciences – logging observation locations, gathering other information about that place, etc
- Personal web
- Ability to reorganise online content, aggregators. Widgets. A collection of technologies that are used to configure and manage the ways in which one views and uses the internet that supports ones social, professional, learning and other activities.
- 3. Semantic aware applications and smart objects
- Semantic aware application
- The use of meaning by applications rather than just syntax. Apps that interpret what we are searching for rather than just taking keywords.
- Smart objects
- Objects that can be tracked, that know where they are. People, devices, objects. Eg an artefact in a museum is tagged, scanners give viewer information about that artefact and provide other data about it. People in a conference to put people in touch with each other – eg who am I sitting by
Key Trends affecting the practice of T&L
- Increasing globalisation continues to affect the way we work, collaborate and communication. – increasingly those who use technology to expand their global connections are more likely to advance.
- The notion of collective intelligence is redefining how we think about ambiguity and imprecision. Collective intelligence leads to multiple answers. Redefining scholarship. Today’s learners want to be active participants in the learning process.
- Experience with and affinity for games as learning tools is an increasingly universal characteristic among those entering HE and the workforce. Games offer increased opportunity for interaction and active participation.
- Visualisation tools are making information more meaningful and insights more intuitive. Visual literacy becomes an important skills that needs to be taught.
- As more than 1 billion phones are produced each year, mobile phones are benefiting from unprecedented innovation, driven by global competition – multiple uses, indispensable tools.
Critical Challenges
- Growing need for formal instruction in new skills, information literacy, visual literacy and technology literacy.
- Students are different, but a lot of educational material is not. Adapt to students needs, identify new learning models for engaging younger generations, change assessment practices.
- Significant shifts are taking place in the ways scholarship and research are conducted, and there is a need for innovation and leadership at all levels of the academy. Academic review and rewards out of sync with practice of scholarship.
- We are expected to measure and prove through formal assessment that our students are learning.
- HE is facing a growing expectation to make use of and deliver services, content and media to mobile devices. Not just an expectation to provide content, but an opportunity for HE to reach its constituents in new and compelling ways – in addition to the anytime anywhere argument.
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