Hi everyone!

This article is packaged in an accessible and appealing way.  There are colourful visuals and directional arrows that guide one through the emerging Ed tech trends for 2013.  This document is designed to be a brief overview of some of the trends anticipated this year and it provides that, with little surprises or depth of information.  Nevertheless, the document manages to provide several examples regardless.

I thought it was interesting to start with SMS.  This is not an attention grabber and did not seem to be as relevant as technologies such as social media or free online university courses.

I was also surprised to see 3D printing presented so prominently.  I had not previously considered the connections between 3D printing and classroom practice.  Although a few examples are mentioned, I am somewhat skeptical, without more information, about the likelihood that my classroom (or any classroom that I visit regularly) will be equipped with a 3D printer this year (or next year for that matter).

I found my personal interest drifting to those technologies included as footnotes at the end of the page.  BYOD, game-based learning and e-books (particularly those with integrated accessibility options such as text-to-speech) are much more relevant to my work as a learning support teacher.  Perhaps links to more details regarding each of the topics to further information would have allowed those interested to explore specifics in more detail and perhaps learn from experiences of those who have worked with the technologies already.

Overall, I thought the document is interesting to browse through and easy to navigate, though lacked some key details, more examples and background information that many professionals within different organizations would be interested in.

If this sort of document were improved in the manner suggested above, I would definitely subscribe and recommend it to other educators as well.  As it stands now, the document would be a great discussion starter for professional development, staff meetings and Ed tech workshops.  These could be venues were details, suggestions for implementation and examples of use in classrooms could be explored in greater depth.

Ed tech venturers might require a document with a little more depth in order to make decisions about the creation, direction and implementation of technologies.  This might be something that might be shared through social media with colleagues rather than become the basis of a complex development process.