Where are they now? The technologies highlighted in the 2004 Horizon Report
Listed below are the six technologies highlighted in the 2004 Horizon Report, with a short description of each. Where are they now? Are the horizons associated with them still accurate? what may have changed? Let us know your thoughts...
Near Term: Mainsteam campus use within a year.
Learning Objects
Learning objects are assemblies of audio, graphic, animation and other digital files and materials that are intended to be reusable in a variety of ways, and easily combined into higher-level instructional components such as lessons and modules. The primary purpose behind the development and use of learning objects is to increase access to quality content, and to avoid wasteful replications of effort by making that content usable in a variety of contexts.
- I think the jury's still out on this. The specifications are in place, but it's not clear to me just how mainstream this technology may become. I think the use of LO's may accelerate as CMS standards become more open and there's more interoperability between them. Malcolm Brown
Scalable Vector Graphics
SVG uses XML for describing two-dimensional graphics, holding the information needed to draw an image in a text file. Scaling is smoothly achieved without jagged edges. Graphical objects can be styled, transformed, grouped, or placed into previously rendered objects. Text is searchable and selectable. SVG is an especially powerful tool for instructional developers on college and university campuses, with potential applications in virtually any discipline, but especially the sciences and engineering.
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Mid-Term: Mainsteam campus use within one to three years.
Rapid Prototyping
Rapid prototyping refers to what amounts to 3-D printing, e.g., building three-dimensional physical objects from digital data files. These files may be created in a variety of ways, such as computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided tomography (CAT), or even X-ray crystallography, then output to a rapid prototyping machine that creates a physical model of the object. This technology already is widely used for a variety of manufacturing, design, and engineering applications, but as cost decreases, is finding new applications in the arts and the classroom.
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Multimodal Interfaces
Multimodal interfaces provide ways for humans to interact with computers beyond the traditional mouse and keyboard, using inputs and outputs that target not only each of the five senses, but also take advantage of nonverbal cues common in human conversation. Considerable development is taking place in simulations that use multimodal techniques (haptics or force feedback, for example) to great effect.
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LongTerm: Mainsteam campus use within three to five years.
Context-Aware Computing
Context-aware computing refers to computing devices that can interpret contextual information and use it to aid decision-making and influence interactions. Contextual cues may include what the user is attending to, the user's location and orientation, the date and time of day, lighting conditions, other objects and people in the environment, accessible infrastructure in the immediate vicinity, and so forth. Context-aware applications can make decisions based on such information without the need for user input.
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Knowledge Webs
Knowledge web is a term that describes a dynamic concept of individual and group knowledge generation and sharing, with technology used to make connections between knowledge elements clear, to distribute knowledge over multiple pathways, and to represent knowledge in ways that facilitate its use. Work in knowledge webs overlaps considerably with that going on around communities of practice, and holds the potential to help such communities share, create, analyze, validate, and distribute existing and emerging knowledge.
I think this item was/is on target (though one could argue it's hitting the mainstream a bit ahead of schedule). Indeed, it sounds very similar to the Web 2.0 discussion, the social web. I note that in the 2005 report, this item included the term 'social networks,' which I think accurately describes the direction this is headed. The way it was described in the 2004 report was vague, and today I think we are seeing ways in which it is being realized: not only blogs and wikis, but delicious, flickr, etc. The theme of supporting work teams is also a significant item in the course management space. Malcolm Brown