Lists. Lists are engaging and easily trick your mind into a feeling of accomplishment. The quick and dirty nature of the Educause 7 things articles appeal to the time-crunch culture propagated by technologist blogs.
7 Things’ approach, a 2 page PDF published throughout the year, allows for analysis of trends as they arise as well as updates to previously covered material. This provides current, easily consumable information. The willingness to update previous overviews is beneficial as emerging technology does not always follow a predictable path. The main benefactors of this approach are people looking for an overview of current trends. With the basics of the article available in an abstract, the viewer is given the chance to reflect on the usefulness of the information before clicking through.
For any education professional making a pitch to a committee or potential employer, these articles provide an excellent base of knowledge. The case study introductions provide theoretical real-world situations to which the article contents pertain. These can be somewhat contrived, however, they serve to ground the full text for someone who is not well versed in the field and may question the relevance or practicality of the featured technology. While great for introducing ideas to more technologically removed individuals, Specialists may find it’s a good place to send people who ask annoying questions but will probably seek out more in-depth sources to further understanding and spark dialogue within their communities.
I would definitely use this as a starting point for research on a particular topic. The article publication date serves as a good indicator on when the technology first came to relevance within the Educause community, providing a timeline for research. Because of the approachable and concise nature of the articles, I feel it is a viable resource for anyone interested in education technology.
Hello Adam, excellent overview of 7 Things. I agree that the grounding of these predictions with a scenario, a standard set of questions, and accessible means to follow up significantly adds to the “nutritional value” of these concise documents (to use a term from our module content), for discussion, teaching, thinking and learning. The writing style is engaging, and they’ve also done a good job on linking the articles using their taxonomy and keywords. It’s interesting to take a walk down memory lane, as the publication dates back to 2005 – some of the earlier trends are now taken in stride (for example, wikis and blogs), yet others are still very much under development (augmented reality). And yesterday the publication celebrated it’s 100th edition with suggestions on how to use 7 Things itself.
We are all pressed for time and anything that can help to keep us connected to emerging trends is useful for those of us involved in exploring options to enhance the effectiveness of differentiated instruction.
I agree with you, David. I think that the infographic report has been getting a bit of a negative rap on the blog because it is not in-depth enough. I love short, to-the-point things for giving me starting points – I don’t think I would ever pursue all of the trends in any of the reports – no time!
Sometimes short and to the point with graphical representations are exactly what people need to see in order to get hooked or to draw their attention. I think info graphics will be around for a long while!
What I love about lists, particularly compact overviews like 7 Things, is the ability they give you to think about “unlisted” opportunity. These nuggets are valuable, but they’re also like well-defined circles on a Venn diagram – they oblige people to look inside the circles. Call me a contrarian, but I like to look in the spaces between the circles…