ETEC 522 – September 2012

Analysis of the Educause: 7 Things You Should Know About report

Selecting one (1) of the reports, review it in sufficient detail to post a concise critical analysis of it in the ETEC522 course blog, focusing on the following general criteria:

How, and how much, is it useful and valuable to the broader community of educators, as well as learning technologies specialists and venturers?

Upon reviewing the reports found in the Emerging Learning Technologies Market Projections Library in section 2.1 of this module, I have chosen the Educause: 7 Things You Should Know About report (n.d.) for the purpose of this assignment.  The report is divided into two general categories: Campus-Wide IT and Learning Technology Topics. Its contents are organized in a format using seven guiding questions:

• What is it?
• How does it work?
• Who’s doing it?
• Why is it significant?
• What are the downsides?
• Where is it going?
• What are the implications for higher education?

The usage of these questions provide quick referencing to answers that  educators, learning technologies specialists and venturers may seek to find during the initial planning stages of a project. For the educator, the questions “What is it?”, “How does it work?”, and “What are the downsides?” supply answers to implementation needs. For the learning technologies specialist, all of the answers provided in the report enable further discussions on how economical and accountable a particular learning technology may be upon incorporation into the school/district. For the venturer, the report provides a quick overview of the learning technology’s market, trend, and more to aid in the decision making process during the initial stages of a potential investment.

From an educator’s perspective, I feel that this report provides information that is comprehensible enough so as to enable linkage of its contents to the incorporation of a select technology in educational settings. With the provision of real world examples, educators can gain a better understanding of how the technology is currently being used by other educators, and be prepared to meet and overcome challenges that others have experienced.

I am a novice when it comes to the business side of things, but from what I understand the downside of the Educause: 7 Things You Should Know About report is that it does not seem to provide sufficient statistical data (like those found in Ambient Insight’s 2012 Learning Technology Research Taxonomy report) for venturers and learning technologies specialists to examine during the initial planning stages in order to create a sound analysis of the market for a potential investment in a particular learning technology.

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?

One of the interesting features about this report is that its contents are provided under a Creative-Commons license. This would allow the sharing of a report amongst peers, colleagues and investors to enable efficient knowledge dissemination and collaboration on a particular topic. I will definitely recommend this report to others and continue to refer to it in the future for the breadth and depth of its coverage on a wide selection of learning technologies.

James

References:

Ambient Insight. (August, 2012). 2012 Learning technology research taxonomy [PDF document]. Retrieved from http://www.ambientinsight.com/Resources/Documents/AmbientInsight_Learning_Technology_Taxonomy.pdf

Educause. (n.d.). 7 Things you should know about. Retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/research-and-publications/7-things-you-should-know-about