These questions will guide our selection of emerging technologies and ideas for the 2006 Horizon Report. The first three correspond to the three horizons that are used to organize the report: one year or less; one to three years; or three to five years before the technology or idea reached the mainstream. The last two, new for 2006, are intended to help us focus our selections on the report's foci of teaching, learning, and creative expression.
Please add your thoughts liberally here – ideas for things to include in the report, descriptions or lists of technologies you think are going to be important, or just musings on the questions.
For a detailed description of the 12 technologies listed below from 2005, see the 2005 'Short List'.
What would you list among the established technologies that colleges and universities should all be using broadly today to support or enhance teaching, learning, or creative expression?
2005 Advisory Board initial responses:
– Enterprise-Level Tools for Learning
– Ubiquitous Wireless
– Hybrid Learning (Blended Learning)
– Students' Communication Tools
2006 Advisory Board initial responses:
– Ubiquitous networks – not just wireless, but also high-speed networking, and especially highspeed networking to rurual areas, via powerlines (Diana Oblinger) Might push this further ahead in time. New Pew study finds broadband adoption nearing a plateau, after barely 1/2 of Americans signed on (Bryan Alexander)
– Community Networks – is the Internet a utility? (Diana Oblinger)
– Grid computing and e-Science – the ability to easily move and share large data sets, and to put authentic data int hehands of students could be transformational (Diana Oblinger)
– RSS – Has done much to foster individual expression – but we are only beginning to tap it for learning (Diana Oblinger)
— Also, syndication of more then text content (images, audio, video) and tech to mix feeds from multiple sources into something new (Alan Levine)
--video production and sharing - this has become much easier, and is already exfoliating into numerous delivery mechanisms (DVD, vlogging, OurMedia) (Bryan Alexander)
— putting Torrent technology to educational use? (Alan Levine) See also IP issues, below (Bryan Alexander)
--audio production and sharing - see video preceding. Think of connections with other technologies, such as syndication (podcasting) and mobile devices (Bryan Alexander)
– net documents shared writing environments, documents that live on the network, not the desktop, wikis come to prime time (Alan Levine)
– web standard content creation tools It's time to stop making content not up to modern web standards that can be used on multiple devices, address accessibility (Alan Levine) Does this include microcontent? (Bryan Alexander)
– screen casting audior ecording captured over screen action; to do more than just explain how to use software, but to deliver advanced concepts (Alan Levine)
– add your thoughts here ... click the 'edit page' link ...
What technologies that have a solid user base in consumer, entertainment, or other industries should colleges and universities be actively looking for ways to apply?
2005 Advisory Board initial responses:
– Technologies for Searching and Finding
– Open Source (as an Enterprise-Level Strategy)
– Affective Computing (rename Multi-sensory? )
– Pervasive/Context-Aware Computing
2006 Advisory Board initial responses:
– Cellphones and other mobile devices – with much improved software, video & Flash capability, plus social interaction tools, (SMS, chat)(Diana Oblinger)
– Virtual Groups and Collaboration – these tools are very widely used in business, and their ability to support distributed work and processes is improving all the time (Diana Oblinger)
– 3-D Scans and Projection – these hologram-like tools increasingly allow visualization of context (Diana Oblinger) - and 3d printing (Bryan Alexander)
--Digital gaming - a domain which already defines a generation, constitutes a global industry, and has transformed media literacy, with no signs of stopping. New forms, fluencies, communities develop rapidly. (Bryan Alexander)
– Also, maybe rise of game console/media center as educational tech platform (Alan Levine)
– Tivo Apply same primciple to educational content, ability to capture learning, timeshift?? (Alan Levine)
– Instant/Text Messaging move from class annoyance or add-on to applied use, perhaps usurp email as primary communication tool (Alan Levine)
–
– add your thoughts here ... click the 'edit page' link ...
What are the key emerging technologies you see developing to the point that colleges and universities should begin to take notice during the next 3 to 5 years? What institutions or companies are the leaders in these technologies?
2005 Advisory Board initial responses:
– Knowledge Webs
– Social Networking and Connection Tools
– Gaming
– Augmented Reality - there's a light form of this, which we've already seen with art projects like YellowArrow. A heavier form depends on wearable computing and intensive graphics rendering, which has been piloted, but isn't mature in 2005 (Bryan Alexander)
2006 Advisory Board initial responses:
– Haptics and other multi-modal technologies – gesture recognition, especially (Diana Oblinger)
– Next generation presence-awareness – your technology knows what you are doing, where you are, and delivers information to you based on that, eg. my phone is not ringing because it is linked to my calendar and knows I am in a meeting – but if my spouse were to call, that call would come through. (Diana Oblinger)
– Seamless Connection of Student Owned technology transparent handoffs, authentication. Non computer devices begin to dominate as content access point (Alan Levine)
–
–
– add your thoughts here ... click the 'edit page' link ...
What do you see as the key challenge(s) related to teaching, learning, or creative expression that colleges and universities will face during the next 5 years?
2006 Advisory Board initial responses:
– Information Literacy – in the way librarians use the term. Do students have the cognitive basis to know good information when they find it? Info Literacy has three components: technical, cognitive, and ethical – the last one, ethical, is especially challenging in a remix culture where attribution is less valued than in the past (Diana Oblinger) How will librarians practically keep up with the digital? (Bryan Alexander)
– Digital Divide – while not a new trend, still very importabt socially (Diana Oblinger)
– Support – All of us are becoming less expert. Are we growing that cadre of people that ww will need to support the great ideas coming our way? (Diana Oblinger)
– Science and Technology Leadership – we are not graduating or attracting the numbers of people we need in the sciences, and are falling further behind all the time. We need a "Sputnik" episode to wake us up. (Diana Oblinger)
--IP issues - we're returning to the medieval theme of cloisters, by walling off campus digital environments. At the same time, global projects and functions increase in ease of use, scope, and importance (Web 2.0, GoogleEarth, etc. etc.) How to respond to this enormous division? (Bryan Alexander)
– Student/Teacher Gaps In Tech Use it may grow wider and create more discomfort and dis-satisfaction (Alan Levine)
– Technology Churn Can we live with technologies that recycle, grow, change on a monthly, daily basis, rather than yearly basis? Can we accept not being masters of technology? (Alan Levine)
–
– add your thoughts here ... click the 'edit page' link ...
What trends do you expect to have a significant impact on the ways in which colleges and universities approach their core missions of teaching and research?
2006 Advisory Board initial responses:
– Timeshifting – technology is allowing us more and more freedom to choose when and where we want to have an experience (Diana Oblinger)
– Distributed Cognition/Social Networking (Diana Oblinger)
– Visualization – 3-D can hold more info than 2-D (Diana Oblinger)
– Increasing Individualization the explosive growth of self-publishing is just one example; Flickr and other online communities also encurage individualization of the experience; peer-to-peer has some interesting social dimensions that faciliate this as well (Diana Oblinger)
– Mobility – People increasingly want their technology to go (Diana Oblinger)
– IP again - see previous notes about walled gardens versus open content (Bryan Alexander)
–
–
– add your thoughts here ... click the 'edit page' link ...