What is on the Technology Horizon for 2012?

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

The 2012 Horizon Report is useful to educators, learning technologies specialists, and venturers on a few levels.  First, it provides educators of all ages with an appropriate report applicable to specific age groups such as a K-12 Report or a Higher Education Report.  This report also outlines trends according to present time- ie. presently looking at technology, there are specific technologies outlined to become educationally relevant before others.  This report uses these technologies to predict short-term (one year or less), mid-range (two to three years), and long-term (four to five years) trends for the implementation and usefulness of several technologies.  For venturers, this can be particularly opportunistic when developing technologies for future use.  This report also provides educators with a summary of the technology and maybe more importantly, the educational value and practice of the technology.  Additionally, problems with the technology and its implementation are considered as well as the report provides several examples of the technologies use in practice or how it is being developed to be of educational use.  For specialists and venturers, these potential problems and uses can help develop technologies to their fullest potential before producing and implementing the technology.

The Horizon Report provides insight for educators as well as administrators.  A wide variety of technologies are examined from a viewpoint of an educator’s ability to successfully integrate the technology into a classroom and the practical use of such a technology.  Additionally, the educational benefit to students is considered by examining engagement and the ability of one to use a given piece of technology.  Several cost-effective technologies are presented as viable options for educators and administrators to consider when choosing technologies.  Specialists and venturers can take these considerations into account when developing and selecting technologies.

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?

I would read this report for ideas as an educator.  I enjoyed reading through the exploration of several different learning technologies and as I read through the educational uses, it got me thinking about how I could implement the various technologies in my own classroom.  I found the applications for teaching and examples of use in practice were very good at inspiring thoughts in my head about my own classroom and applicability.  When helping choose technologies for use in my own department, I feel like I could draw on this as one resource when investigating potential options as I consider the longevity of my choices.  I feel like this report could also be useful to other educators when looking for ways to incorporate technology into their classrooms.

Posted in: General