Thursday, March 27, 2008

"Which Technologies Will Shape Education in 2008?

The article, “Which Technologies Will Shape Education in 2008?” written by Dave Nagel for the online publication, “The Journal” is a synopsis of a new report which was released in the 2008 Horizon Report, by “The New Media Consortium and the Educause Learning Initiative.”

The Horizon Report discusses six key technologies that have been identified by researchers that will most likely have an impact on education within the next five years. Each of the technologies are broken up into categories of near-term, being adopted within the next year, mid-term being adopted within two to three years, and further down the road meaning within four or five years.

The technologies that will have a significant impact on education within this year or by next year include grassroots video and collaborative Web technologies. Grassroots video is user-generated video created on inexpensive consumer electronics devices, which can be edited and encoded. The second near-term trend is collaborative Web technology. This technology is already in wide use in education at all levels.

The technologies in the mid-term category are mobile broadband and data mashups. Mashups, according to the report, will largely impact the way education institutions represent information. "While most current examples are focused on the integration of maps with a variety of data," the report said, "it is not difficult to picture broad educational and scholarly applications for mashups." Mobile broadband too is in the early stages of adoption for educational purposes, from project-based learning activities to virtual field trips.

The last category of technology, which is projected for adoption in four to five years, according to the report, is "collective intelligence" and "social operating systems." Collective intelligence includes wikis and community tagging.
The report also addresses the challenges facing education institutions and the trends--or "metatrends"--that have emerged since the launch of the Horizon Project in 2002.

I found it particularly interesting that information is gathered for the Horizon Report from more than 175 Advisory Board members in the fields of business, industry, and education and the topic presented were drawn from many published resources, current research, and practice. This study was well researched with a gamut of resources.

From the moment I first discovered video news reporting on the online New York Times publication, I was hooked. I found it fascinating, engaging and I easily absorbed the material quickly. When entering the Educational Technology Masters Program at LIU, CW Post, I was able to teach myself certain technology tools by watching the various videos provided on line by the mentors. The popularity of You-Tube demonstrates the grassroots technology that has spread so rapidly. Incorporating grassroots video and collaborative Web technologies into educational settings is an ongoing process. It will be interesting to watch the growth of the particular technologies discussed and their impact on education now and within the next several years.