New Media consorts on Horizon Report

It is a beautiful thing, seeing text evolve from print to PDF to Web version, and the New Media Consortium played a large part in upping the ante while presenting these appealing predictions.  The fact that users can download this report in other languages such as German and Japanese, with an (even riskier) option to have Google translate into dozens more, is evidence that the Austin Texas report group had more in mind for developments in education and technology than what will happen within USA’s borders.  Each page of the Web version has a comment box floating alongside the report, making it easy to see what others make of the report.

Setting their sight from One Year or Less to Four to Five Years gives educators and venturing MET students enough of a scope to catch on to possible trends, knowing that later editions will take us farther into the future.  Just by skimming over the table of contents, I can find plenty of information of eBooks (my assignment #2 topic), Augmented Reality (a personal fave) and Gesture-Based Computing (very curious to know more on this).  With many links and user-friendly features, I would feel confident in pitching an idea based on the knowledge gained here.  While teachers and researchers are at the forefront of the report, I also liked that the NMC consider creative inquiry an important part of developing technology.  With such a well-designed resource as the Horizon Report, the potential for new media also gets a much-needed boost for the 21st century learners.

Posted in: Week 02: The Edtech Marketplace