In the 2008 Horizon Report technologies that are likely to have a large impact on teaching and learning in the future are identified and described. The six emerging technologies/practices that are likely to enter into mainstream use in learning-focused organisations include:
- Grassroots video – amateur videos taken by anyone for the purpose of learning can be used as a way of engaging people and making learning more interesting. The fact that people can so easily capture videos with even their mobile phones means that this technology is highly accessible. It is a form of popular media, and as seen on YouTube, can be easily shared.
- Collaboration Webs – anywhere that is collaborative and free to share. This open sharing source is flexible and free and is a way for people to: access and edit common documents, conduct online meetings, and share and swap information an data.
- Mobile Broadband – is used more in America as Australia has slight issues with technology. Not all people have access to mobile Internet, but in theory this would mean that information could be delivered to mobile phones, which would mean that leaning could become portable.
- Data Mashups – pulling pages from other sites, subscribing to things. Data Mashups is a way of making things easier for the user. If information from various sources is sucked in and shown to the learner, then the learner will find it easier and will be able to use more efficient technology.
- Collective Intelligence – if knowledge within a group is greater than a indicidual’s knowledge then having people collaborate means that there is more information being created.
- Social Operating System – sites such as facebook and youtube are examples of where content is user generated. The user is able to generate what happens next.
Which Technologies am I familiar with? The only technology that I am familiar with from the list of technologies above are Social Operating Systems, however a lot of them I have only used for personal use and not for learning. I would be interested in fining out more on how grassroots video can be produced and used in teaching and learning contexts.
Significant Trends as outlined in the Horizon Report 2008: -
- Web 2.0 and social networking tools are increasingly being adopted for educational use.
- There is an increase in the availability of tools to connect learners and scholars all over the world.
- Courses are now incorporating connections between classrooms in different areas of the world so that international students can meet online.-
- Content is becoming more portable as new powerful devices are being invented. Vast amounts of information can now be carried around in small packages.
What was identified in the 2007 Horizon Report 6 Emerging Technologies from 2007:-
- User-Created Content-
- Social Networking-
- Mobile Phones-
- Virtual Worlds-
- The New Scholarship and Emerging Forms of Publication-
- Multiplayer Educational Gaming
2007 vs 2008
In my current technology experience, I believe that many of the emerging technologies from the 2007 report have emerged as in class I am hearing a lot about user-generated content and social networking websites. Sites such as Facebook, Youtube and also various other online blog sites are all accumulating content from users and Facebook is purely focused on connecting people through social networking.
I believe that I am yet to see developments in the areas of Virtual Worlds and mobile phones because 1. I have never heard of virtual worlds before and 2. I don’t have Internet access on my mobile hone, and don’t know many people who have. With emerging forms of publication, there are new ways for academics to create, critique, and publish work but I am unaware of any of this happening at the moment. Also I have not seen any Education Gaming around at the moment. I wonder if these technologies will develop in the future.
