Lower-priced technologies combined with a youthful passion for sharing guide the predictions in the annual tech-trends Horizon Report. Published by the New Media Consortium (NMC)’s and Educause, the report identifies six emerging technologies for learning-focused organizations, timelines for adoption, and critical challenges.
Key trends for higher education and other educators to watch are:
* Grassroots Video
* Collaboration Webs
* Mobile Broadband
* Data Mashups
* Collective Intelligence
* Social Operating Systems
The report details observations of each trend, its relevance to instruction and related resources. One of many resources for the Grassroots Video section, for example, points to Custom YouTube Channels for the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; and the University of New South Wales.
The challenges foreseen in relation to the trends are:
* Significant shifts in scholarship, research, creative expression, and learning have created a need for innovation and leadership at all levels of the academy.
* Higher education is facing a growing expectation to deliver services, content and media to mobile and personal devices.
* The renewed emphasis on collaborative learning is pushing the educational community to develop new forms of interaction and assessment.
* The academy is faced with a need to provide formal instruction in information, visual, and technological literacy as well as in how to create meaningful content with today’s tools.