New Media Consortium 2012 Horizon Report
I found my thoughts to be well aligned with those from the NMC 2012 Horizon Report in terms of emerging markets. Of the key trends they mention here are a few that I felt necessary to share:
1) Ability to work, learn, and study whenever and wherever: As a MET student, I already see huge advantages in this capacity and with Kahn Academy, Codecademy, and others, I see potential for other great ventures that may soon become critical to some curriculums as we adapt their use to students’ course work.
2) Collaborative learning is changing the way student projects are structured: As collaborative efforts increase, the use of wikis, Google Docs, Skype, Dropbox, and other tools should see their fair share of interest. There could be a few untapped markets in this treasure trove of a learning trend. My fear is that this market may saturate quickly with all the recent tools that have emerged.
3) Certifications: Already at the high school level we are beginning to see trends with certifications lining up for students in various capacities. I could see some attempts to break away from our course based delivery to a more certification based education delivery and some strong markets could emerge from this trend if it is to continue.
4) Learning Analytics: another area with strong possibilities although my personal interest level is probably not as high as compared to some of the other items mentioned.
5) Gesture-based computing: Although the technology looks to be quite promising, I find the market likely to be too expensive to enter and not profitable enough to truly explore in the relatively near-term. Hopefully I’m wrong as I do have some interest in the field.
7) The Internet of Things: I can see some potential in this area but I still feel as though this might not be primed for the near future in education. It will likely explode in the consumer markets though some early research may lead to great returns in a consumer environment and eventually latch onto the education market.
As for the 2nd part of this assignment, I definitely have this report on my watch list as I find myself aligned with many of their suggestions and can see some significant value for remaining on top of technology trends and their potential.
Posted in: Week 02: The Edtech Marketplace
visramn 4:40 pm on September 16, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Patrick,
I think many of the points you highlighted are extremely valuable. Sometimes certain technologies seem great but they may not be suited to a certain time and place as of yet. Evolution is continuously occurring with learning and technology. Many of these technologies may not be adopted right away but there is definitely room for them in the future. The main thing is to have them in our radar because when they do surface we will all have a better understanding. That is why articles like this one are so important. They keep us informed about the direction education will be heading in. i agree with you, this is a good article to keep on hand and the refer back to.
Ranvir 5:57 pm on September 16, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Collaborative learning and learning analytics areas I may like to invest as a venture capitalist. Analytics are gradually catching interest and institutions including ours are thinking of ways to better manage and mine data for informing teaching and learning. One of things we are exploring is the value of SCORM and TinCan API to track informal learning and behaviour patterns. Anybody else interested, exploring similar areas?