Summary of the Horizon Report
Contributed by Michael Gough, Instructional Technologist and Coordinator of START
The Horizon Report, a joint publication by the New Media Consortium, and Educause Learning Initiative, reports the results of an extensive and pervasive evaluation of emerging technologies and their uses in Higher Education. Each year, the report includes the top 6 technologies based on their impact on higher education. They focus on two that are only a year or so away from wide scale option, two that are 2-3 years away, and 2 that are four to five years away from adoption. The report makes a strong effort to realize the effect the technologies have in education as well as to what extent these tools are being used by our students. This year, the six technologies showcased are Mobiles (smart phones), Cloud Computing, Geo-Everything, The Personal Web, Semantic Aware Applications, and Smart Objects. The first four technologies which are labeled as 1-3 years away from adoption will be summarized. If you are interested in discussing these technologies as well as those left out of this summary, FITS has scheduled a Horizon Report Reading discussion on Friday March 6th from 11:30 - 12:30 in Instruction Room A. We invite anyone interested to join us. A link to the report can be found at the bottom of this article.
Mobiles
Mobile computing has made it in the report for the third time in a row and this time has made the top of the list. There is little doubt that mobile devices with their multiple functions and third party applications have become a part of our culture. Smart phones such as Blackberries, and IPhones are already carried by many faculty members, students, and staff on our campus. With a community that is constantly more and more connected to the world’s information, instructors must decide how to embrace this connectiveness by building activities that utilize these technologies.
The FITS newsletter also has one article on this topic:
The Mobile Classroom and The iPhone/Touch
Contributed by P. Foss Classical Studies
Cloud Computing
The cloud is a term that has been coined to refer to a platform that runs applications across multiple servers. Many web applications you use today are a part of “the cloud.” Applications including google mail, google docs, Flickr, and YouTube, and Facebook all utilize the cloud as its primary platform as opposed to one single computer. The cloud has the advantage to allow us to move into a more collaborative, machine independent workspace sometimes at the cost of private ownership of the data. Still, the potential of these applications for education has already been seen. Instructors have used wikis for example to allow students to collaborate on a project and track the contribution of each student. Others use blog systems such as wordpress or livejournal to quickly publish articles that are timely to the topic being taught.
FITS newsletter articles about cloud computing:
Two Web 2.0 Tools for Group Projects
Contributed by Michael Gough, Instructional Technologist and Coordinator of START
EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative’s “7 Things You Should Know About…” series
Contributed by Carol Smith, Interim CIO
Geo-Everything
A convergence of Geographic Information Systems into other technologies has sparked a sort of “Geo everything” as is described in the report. Now smartphones, cameras, and portable GPS devices allow for people to quickly grab coordinates and tie those with other data or media. Mashups between different data-sets have made trends in data easier to see over a given spatial range.
FITS newsletters of examples of Geo-Everything :
Romancing the Three Kingdoms in Google Earth
Contributed by Beth Wilkerson, GIS Specialist
GIS Day 2008
Contributed by Beth Wilkerson, GIS Specialist
The Personal Web
Because of the expansion of web 2.0 applications and cloud computing, it has become increasingly easy for one to create a personalized web space. RSS feeds can send up to date content directly to a home page and widgets that send and receive data without forcing the user to leave a page, allow for one to create a space that constantly feeds updated information to them. A good analogy might be to think of a newspaper as the old web. Perhaps before you had the newspaper delivered to your door, you went to a newsstand or a convenience store to get the paper, then you had to flip through it to find the information you like. Finally, to preserve relevant articles, you might cut them out and put them in a folder. You might multiply this several times with different papers to find relevant articles. The old web or web 1.0 works in a similar way, the act of going to the store to buy your paper is like going to a news site to look for articles, and cutting and filing articles is like saving the pages in your favorites or bookmarks in your browser. With web 2.0 and personal web technologies, imagine one newspaper that is delivered to your door, with articles that are all relevant to you from each of the papers you normally get at the newsstand, and instead of cutting and saving the most relevant articles, you can instantly put the article on reserve so that others can benefit from your find. The converging technologies of web aggregators, social bookmarking, and widgets are enabling people essentially do that with the web. Personalized web aggregators act like that special newspaper with all the articles you are looking for, and social bookmarking lets you share your bookmarked or tagged articles with your collegues or students.
FITS event about the Personal Web:
Bring the Web to You with RSS and Pipes
Fits articles about the Personal Web:
RSS Readers
Contributed by Veronica Pejril: Coordinator, DePauw University Music Instructional Technology Center
For more details on the technologies highlighted, or to read about the semantic web and smart objects, read the horizon report by directing your browser to the following link. Please join us on to discuss the impact these technologies have or should have on teaching and learning at DePauw.
Link to the Horizon Report:
http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/CSD5612.pdf
Horizon Report Discussion
Friday March 6th from 11:30 -12:30 (bring your own lunch)
Instruction Room A in the basement of Roy O. West Library