eLearning Coach “Learning Technology Trends To Watch in 2012”
How, and how much, is it useful and valuable to the broader community of educators, as well as learning technologies specialists and venturers?
Today I reviewed a post from the blogazine (a new term for me, used by the author of this blog) eLearning Coach, titled “Learning Technology Trends To Watch in 2012”. My first question was about the author Connie Malamed. I wanted to learn about her background and possible bias? I googled her and learned that she is a well known technology consultant who has worked with some large corporations such as Johns Hopkins Interactive Learning and the American Board of Pediatrics. Although she has vast experience and has written a book in the technology area, she remains a single voice. I regard this as a weakness of this resource.
Malamed’s post is easy to read and organized alphabetically which is helpful. The trends she focused on pertained mostly to learning technology specialists and high school educators or higher education.
The following trends were discussed:
- Backchannel
- Content Curation
- Developing in the Cloud
- Expanded Instructional Designer’s Role
- Flipped Learning
- Gamification
- HTML5 for Mobile
- New Blended Learning
It is unclear if she had data to support her selection of the trends to watch, or if it was simply her own opinion. For each trend, a general overview was given. She highlighted some specific examples, citing either recent books or providing links to programs. If you are looking for a quick snapshot of the trends, this is the resource to read as it does not go into any depth as to how these trends can be used in the classroom or otherwise. I would only recommend this resource as a beginning point for venturers as the trends were described only in positive terms and no weaknesses were mentioned. I was able to understand each of the trends but found her definition on blended learning left me with questions. She wrote “For example, someone might attend a workplace webinar on how people learn, then participate in a video-based Google+ hangout with a cognitive psychologist”. For a someone who is not up on all technological programs, I do not know what a video-based Google+ handout is and found it hard to envision.
Do you expect to seek out future versions of this report to help drive your own professional success, and also to recommend it to others in this regard?
As the blogging format is easy to read and her blog post was informative, I may read this resource in the future. Although given my background in Elementary education, I believe the Horizon Report for K-12 would be a better resource for me personally. I might recommend this resource to the technology consultant in my district as he might find it useful when working with educators at the high school and in adult education. I wished there were more examples of how some of these trends could be used in the classroom.
Posted in: Week 02: The Edtech Marketplace
avninder 10:05 am on September 12, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I reviewed the same article and would have to agree with your critique. Like you, I also mentioned that a venturer would have to do a lot more research before having enough information to make sound decisions.
tomwhyte1 12:49 pm on September 12, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I would have also liked to have seen examples on potential use of these technologies. Like was mentioned in the Educase article. For I have found, that by providing teachers with a concrete example of how the technology might be used, provides a strong foundation for future brainstorming sessions.
Thoughts?
jenbarker 5:47 pm on September 12, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I think she is unable to provide specific educational/classroom setting examples because I do not think her reviews are meant for K-12 educators. Perhaps I am wrong, but I don’t see how backchanneling could be used in Elementary schools (at least at the primary level).
tomwhyte1 8:11 am on September 13, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I can see that, with tools like twitter and Facebook. However, our division has begun successfully using Edmodo to instruct some of our classes, which could facilitate a back channel like atmosphere for younger students.
Thoughts?
jenbarker 5:49 pm on September 12, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Another challenge would be that most students don’t have laptops or mobile devices at their disposal. As schools move to BYOD (bring your own device) this hopefully will change.
tomwhyte1 8:14 am on September 13, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
True, but by having enough technology to facilitate a back channel for students, potentially creates the issue of this occurring during class, a modern version of note passing I guess.
Thoughts?
Mike Rae 9:11 pm on September 12, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
in the to 5 Ed Tech predictions for 2012 article of ZDnet (not the 2011 one critiqued by this class), BYOD is one that Chris Dawson sees coming. Dawson sees K-12 schools becoming more like universities in this sense.
Ranvir 6:30 pm on September 15, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I agree that the predictions are valuable only if they are based on factual data to support them. Although, I haven’t gone through the article myself, the list provided does seem to align well with Horizon Report from last few years. Having said that, educators and venture capitalists need more concrete information such about the market size, who is using it, competition, etc in order to decide whether they would like to invest their time and money. In fact I really liked the Cube framework and look forward to reports that follow that paradigm.