Emerging Markets Poll Results & A2 Teams

Dear mob –

The Emerging Markets Poll results have been analysed and you all should now have received an email introducing you to your A2 assignment and EMT team-mates.  Please let me know immediately if you haven’t received your A2 assignment.  Here is the roll-out of the Emerging Markets covered in this session of ETEC522:

Week 5:   Apps

Week 6:   Cloud Learning

Week 7:   Visual Intensive Learning

Week 8:   Personalized Learning

Week 9:   BYOT

Week 10:  Digital Textbooks

Week 11:  Touch, Gesture & Voice

Week 12:  Open Learning Environments

I believe I managed to match just about everyone with their preferences, soI trust you’ll enjoy the A2 experience.  The first groups are up in just a few weeks, so don’t delay.  The private group area and other tools are ready for you to dive in, if you wish, but use any tools that are most productive for your EMT.

I guess my only overview comment on the poll is that I suspect too many of you are voting with your heart rather than your head, which is an even greater danger when considering ventures and markets.   How you feel about something is often unrelated to how viable it is, or how valuable it might be to you.

For example, very few people even looked at the “Learning Analytics” market, despite how viable it is, probably because the traditional view is that these technologies relate to a remote, numbers-driven ‘big brother’ future for education that few people can warm to.   However, if you just flip your perspective and imagine how such technologies could be put in every teacher’s hands to make their classrooms run more smoothly, or into every student’s hands to give them just-in-time responsive guidance, the value horizon may seem different.

For a couple of years now I’ve wanted to insert a “Robot Teacher” emerging market in the poll, but I know it would be a wasted effort because it would never get positive votes, despite the fact that automated tools and software could be fabulous teacher’s aides rather than teacher replacements.   Of course, I could change the titles and descriptions of any emerging market to make it more palatable for you, but that’s not the point – I’m trying to encourage all of you to look beyond the pipe-dreams and myopia of technology developers to distill out learning potentials that wouldn’t occur to them.

Thoughts welcome,

David

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