There was also the question of- where do old computers go? For past, present and emerging technologies people need to analyse this information and get up to date in what is relevant and coming to light in new technology. We eventually started discussing the Horizon report.

This is the one from 2011. It takes a look at six technologies the Advisory Board agree are going to be widely adopted in the coming years. The report covers mobile devices, electronic books, game based learning, augmented reality, learning analytics, and gesture based computing. Most of the time, the Horizon Report hasn’t been too accurate in predicting, but it is still interesting to see what they are thinking up for educational purposes.

Some technology in school are wired to mobiles- although from some schools principals are against the idea of phones in classrooms. Parents want students to carry them for safety, so as a teacher sometimes your hands are tied.

Another concept- digital textbooks. They are helpful and last a lot longer. Although, they have to be updated every 3-4 years and they cost the same as a normal textbook. Most schools would buy the textbook and that would be the end of it. No going back and updating it, they could use the same book for years and years.

References:
NewMediaConsortium (2012) The 2011 Horizon Report. Retrieved March 31st 2012 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHUufQm_gdA

Published by EducationNews.org – Education-technology leader Angela Maiers talks about the promise and future of ed tech — and how we integrate it into our classrooms.

Self-described Ed Tech expert Angela Maiers just returned from a 3-day authorspeak Conferencein Indianapolis. In total, ninety-nine education-related authors gathered to hear innovation-expert Daniel Pink give the keynote. They broke into normal conferency sessions to discuss 10 different “idea strands.” But they also blogged, tweeted, and did whatever ed-tech nuts do to communicate internationally with 12.1 million other people, mainly educators. Techies keep track of such numbers. Together they talked, shared their books, stories and work, and modeled techniques for e-teaching right there on the spot.

Interestingly, the 10 “idea strands” were education’s most hardy perennials – assessment, special populations, instruction, leadership, school improvement. The usual.

The “21st-century skills” strand has been a hot topic since the late 1980s. Big deal.

But Maier makes the point that for all the talk about technology’s impact on the classroom, educators and policy-makers pay little attention to what’s barreling down at us from the e-horizon. Who knew smart phones were coming? And what happens when kids can learn whatever they want, on the go? Most adults past a certain age didn’t grow up reaching for a computer instead of a map, a recipe book or a dictionary. These folks – including me – automatically try to fit new technologies into our existing mental framework for teaching and learning. Square mindset in a round portal.

Maiers says, “We make millions of dollars of stupid decisions, because the decisions are related to technology and not to learning. The people making decisions about school technology and how to use it are not themselves digital learners. We aren’t looking at impact of the new technologies on the web itself. We tell teachers to bring these devices into their classes without having a clear idea of what’s happening out in a very dynamic, dramatic landscape.”

So districts spend big bucks for shipments of i-pads, shiny new computer labs or Maiers’ favorite bete noir, whiteboards.

“The number one trend in learning is the rise of mobile. Mobile means ‘on the move.’ Now learning can take place anywhere, anytime. But we buy these expensive, 300-pound things (whiteboards) and mount them on the wall. They are archaic dinosaurs designed to deliver content – glorified monitors. They are not transforming learning.” Mostly, teachers use them as tools for stand-and-deliver instruction, just like they would use a periodic chart or show a movie. However shiny, this is passive learning.

Today, Maiers says, “computing is ubiquitous. You don’t go to a pencil lab. You carry the pencil with you. As educators, we need to help kids adapt to the ubiquity of digital learning. This is not about technology. It’s about being fluent with multiple tool sets. Sometimes the best tool is a pencil. And if you took my post-it notes away, I would be crazed. But when I forget my phone, I limit my ability to participate as a learner.”

The tools – the hard and software – are only part of the e-changes. Consider the kids. Right now virtually every kid has a mobile device in his pocket. In Central Falls, Rhode Island, a town of distilled poverty where I consult, the kids all have phones.

Even phones that are not “smart” are powerful portals to the larger world. Student learning isn’t dependent on teachers or textbooks; they can always text someone for an answer. Phones connect kids to networks of flesh-and-blood pals. Ubiquitous information feeds kids’ interests in cars, music, politics.

Granted, the phones are fabulously annoying to the adults. Way too many kids use phones to stay connected to anything but the world of school, distracting everyone from the work at hand. It’s hard enough to grab kids’ TV-trained, 4-second attention span without competing with texting under the desk. Sharing test answers across the school and within the classroom is now almost impossible to stop. Online bullying is a new social disease.

But these things aren’t going away. Maiers says, “We put these devices in kids’ hands and teach them no competencies. Those most at risk of being influenced are those who most need to know how to receive information.”

Allow me to jump back into my own comfort zone for a moment. We need to collaborate WITH the kids to figure out how adults, kids and smart phones are going to live together in peace. Until we do that, those phones are just AK-47s in kids’ fight for adolescent freedom. The fight is developmentally appropriate, but technology changes the rules of engagement. Without the kids’ participation, we’ll never successfully create moral or social codes regarding phone use in public and at school.

Besides, those phones could be powerful learning tools. Maybe. At least, Maiers insists, the issue demands study.

She recommends starting with the Horizon report. Since 2002, a consortia of thinkers has studied the e-landscape, forecasting what will be available in one year, three years, and even into the sci-fi land of five years from now. This year their report focused on education. Their examples and mindset skew towards higher education. But if the goal of K-12 is success in college and post-secondary training, now is when all educators need to prepare for a technological future.

But what does it mean to be a digital learner anyway? I thought I knew. Next week we’ll return to Maiers and her colleagues to see how they describe it.

Julia Steiny is a freelance columnist whose work also regularly appears at GoLocalProv.com. She is the founding director of the Youth Restoration Project, a restorative-practices initiative, currently building a demonstration project in Central Falls, Rhode Island. She consults for schools and government initiatives, including regular work for The Providence Plan for whom she analyzes data. For more detail, see juliasteiny.com or contact her at juliasteiny@gmail.com.

I have to put myself in the patron’s shoes when I  have lost some of my personal course notes to the “black hole” in my computer and ask myself “where is that document file… didn’t it save?”  (Heck, would it have been better to have written my notes with a pen on good old fashioned paper?)  Or, as I sit on a plane and concentrate on not holding my breath upon landing because I don’t have the luxury of distraction from a printed book.  (I’ve been told that my Kindle must be turned off for landing since it is an electronic device).

BUT, I realize that without the discomforting and inevitable “two steps forward, one step back” reality, we would not have the mindblogging (Freudian slip)… I mean mindboggling emerging tools such as augmented reality (AR). Augmented Reality is the overlaying of digital data on the real world. The Horizon Report further explains AR as an active, not a passive technology; students can use it to construct new understanding based on interactions with virtual objects that bring underlying data to life.  A cool article I found that will help the reader put a face on this emerging technology is “10 Amazing Augmented Reality iPhone Apps”.

Check out #3 “Pocket Universe:  Virtual Sky Astronomy,” which I was introduced to by my kid’s school principal who was showing his students at a nighttime school bonfire how this overlaying AR iPhone app could identify which planet in the sky was which with a mere pointing to the sky.  Blogger Michael Stephens explores adapting AR to readers’ advisory in his article “Scanning the Horizon”,  and reminds us that “learning does not have to wait until everyone is assembled in a classroom at an appointed day and hour.”

I think librarians need to delve into the latest tools if they are wanted, well thought out and evaluated, while keeping some traditional tools handy.  Good old pen and paper were what even the most technologically advanced users in Orange County, California wanted when yesterday’s visit to my Apple store revealed that hundreds of PAPER sticky notes were posted on the storefront window with handwritten messages paying tribute to Steve Jobs.

Ironic, yes.  Human, absolutely.

Even the cynic and traditionalist in me has to admit that the “two steps forward, one step back” image of technology also has proven to exude the exploding exponential growth as a means for producing, say, “32 steps forward and 16 steps back.”  (With this view, the wide gap between the frustrations and the benefits appear well worth it to me – especially if we can lessen “the steps back ratio” with evaluation and constant adaptation to change).

Incidentally, when I left the Apple Store and the enormous South Coast Plaza mall, I suddenly wished I had the 8^th Amazing Augmented Reality app:  The Car Finder!

References:

http://mashable.com/2009/12/05/augmented-reality-iphone/

2011 Horizon Report: http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/HR2011.pdf

Stephens, M. (2011) Scanning the Horizon:

http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/community/libraryeducation/889249-272/scanning_the_horizon__office.html.csp

Evans based her article on The Horizon Report (http://wp.nmc.org/horizon2011/), which was published earlier this year, and sponsored by HP. While HP made this year’s report possible, the actual research was provided by The New Media Consortium and EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI). As a species with critical thinking skills, we frequently question research that exists due to corporate grants, although the information provided in the report is also in agreement with many experts.

The following are the top six emerging technologies to watch with their “time to adoption” in parenthesis:

• Electronic books (1 year or less)
• Mobiles (1 year or less)
• Augmented reality (2-3 years)
• Game-based learning (2-3 years)
• Gesture-based computing (4-5 years)
• Learning analytics (4-5 years)

One of the concepts that all of these technologies have in common is that they all (at least in part) enable information access “whenever and wherever”–which users are coming to expect. With so-called “alternative lifestyles” becoming the social norm, people are placing high priority on the luxury of working, studying, and relaxing on any day, at any time, anywhere in the world. In addition,  making and communicating with global connections is an increasing trend that is also dependent on “whenever and wherever” technologies. It is imperative that technical communicators not only know what these technologies are, but also where they are going–and most importantly how they work!

Electronic books (eBooks) and mobile devices most likely top the list because they are already so prevalent. Personally, I have a two laptop computers and two cell phones–and I know of many people who easily own twice as many mobile devices. In fact, we it would be difficult to find someone who doesn’t own a single mobile device when we throw eReaders, iPads, and MP3 players into the mix.  In order to be successful, technical communications have to understand at least the basic functionalities of these devices. The newest question most technical writers have when they write documents is: How will this look on multiple devices?

Compared to eBooks and mobile devices, augmented reality, game-based learning, and gesture-based computing all seem like wild concepts. The definition of augmented reality in the report and this article is pretty vague, as the boundaries of this field are still very undefined. It seems like this technology will begin to appear by being integrated into the learning process. Many schools already use textbooks which include CDs of interactive globes and images which are the beginnings of the augmented reality trend. This trend really feeds into game-based learning, and in many ways the two are actively promoting the well-being of the other. In recent years, teaching has shifted from the traditional “lecture and read” style to an interactive approach where games and roleplay are used to encourage students to think critically, and come to their own conclusions about topics. This trend has been gaining a lot of momentum in the past few years, and it is on track to be at the forefront of teaching and learning in the near future.

Gesture-based computing is more of a means to an end and is involved with most of the technologies present in the report. Put simply, this is the way in which we interact with interfaces by using pressure and motion. Evans uses the interfaces of the iPad, iPhone, and Wii as currently example of how gesture-based computing is present in the market today. Like emerging technologies 3,4, and 6, the extent to which this technology will impact the world of computing is still widely unknown–although the prospects are interesting and very promising.

Besides eReaders and mobile devices, learning analytics is one of the most important technologies for technical communicators to watch in the coming years. This emphasis on learning analytics comes at a time where many technical writers are making the transition to instructional design, and instructional design itself is becoming an important field for research and study. These analytics will enable teachers to tailor learning to the needs of the individual. They can also use the data that is collected to make a great deal of informed decisions from speaking to parents to making promotion determinations.

Evans, Jeanette. “Six Emerging Technologies to Watch.” Intercom, July 2011. http://intercom.stc.org/2011/08/six-emerging-technologies-to-watch/ (accessed October 6, 2011).

2009 Horizon Report (32 s, pdf) diskuterar

• mobiltelefoner
• molnet
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• den personliga webben
• semantiska applikationer
• smarta objekt

Via Friends-bloggen 

The Code4Lib Journal ”This mission of the Code4Lib Journal is to cover “the intersection of libraries, technology, and the future.” We hope that this journal can be one more contribution to the developing culture of collaboration around library technology…”

Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication ”The Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication (JCMC) is a web-based, peer-reviewed scholarly journal. Its focus is social science research on computer-mediated communication via the Internet, the World Wide Web, and wireless technologies.”

NextSpace The OCLC Newsletter

The Horizon Report 2007 edition (.pdf) a collaboration between The New Media Consortium and the EDU CAUSE Learning Initiative

Evidence Based Library and Information Practice ”EBLIP is an open access, peer reviewed journal published quarterly by the University of Alberta Learning Services and supported by an international team of editorial advisors. The purpose of the journal is to provide a forum for librarians and other information professionals to discover research that may contribute to decision making in professional practice.”

Trendwatching ”trendwatching.com is an independent and opinionated consumer trends firm, relying on a global network of 8,000 spotters, working hard to deliver inspiration and pangs of anxiety to business professionals in 120+ countries worldwide.”