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Seven higher-ed tech trends: The Horizon Report
Yesterday, I had a chance to visit the VisLab at the University of Texas at Austin for a presentation on The Horizon Report, an annual write-up from the New Media Consortium and the Educause Learning Initiative.
The 2009 report (PDF) looks at technology and is meant “to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, research, or creative expression within learning-focused organizations.”
The presentation at UT was by Laurence F. Johnson, CEO of the New Media Consortium
You can check out the full write-up in the report above, but here were the seven “Metatrends,” in handy list form:
- Computing in three dimensions — this includes 3-D visualizations, 3-D printing, interactive gaming (say, “Second Life”) and any other applications of 3-D graphical technology.
- Serious games — Again, using “Second Life” as an example, we’re looking at the concept of using games for education, for artistic expression or using gaming spaces in social ways.
- Intuitive, seamless interfaces — Virtual guitars, the Nintendo Wii and the iPhone are all examples of devices with interfaces that don’t require a manual. Increasingly gadgets will be pick-up-and-play, requiring very little instruction and using the less-is-more design aesthetic. The Amazon Kindle is another example of an instantly-understandable tech tool.
- User content — Rather than relying on static Web pages presenting information, we’re increasingly interacting with online content that is dynamic. Crowdsourced Google Maps (say, with geographical information or supplemental videos from the masses), artistic remixes of existing content and YouTube videos are all examples of this.
- Collective intelligence — Similar to crowdsourcing, it’s the way that information from varying sources can improve existing information. Tacit collective intelligence is, as Johnson describes, “Stuff that’s just out there.” Explicit collective intelligence includes Wikipedia; it’s information that is purposely put on the Web to increase knowledge. And then there’s the semantic Web, which attaches meaning and context to information. The Web site TripIt, which organizes data to build you an itinerary, is an example of this.
- The network is everywhere — Beyond just the Internet “cloud” concept, this is what happens when cell phones are more pervasive than electricity. The world’s cell phone technology often trumps ours in the U.S. and more than a billion phones are manufactured every year.
- The people are the network — As Johnson explains it, “Instead of organizing the network around files of folder, we’re now organizing around people.” Knowing not only who we are, but who we are connected to, networks can assess credibility, something that could greatly improve security and allow people to connect with others even more easily.
Johnson said after the presentation that these are trends to watch over the next five years, and that while these remain similar to ones the Horizon Project has cited in the past, the nature of what they mean and how the tech tools are being used changes from year to year.
Laurence F. Johnson
Some of the tech demos on display during the presentation at the VisLab.
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By Derek
May 21, 2009 1:52 PM | Link to this
The "mobile computing" trend in the Horizon Report stood out to me. The fact that more students will have smart phones with them in the classroom opens up some great new classroom dynamics--bringing the outside world into the classroom (like students making use of Wolfram|Alpha, www.wolframalpha.com) or using smart phones as sophisticated classroom response systems (http://derekbruff.com/teachingwithcrs/?p=74).