The midden » connectivity

Handbook of Emerging Technologies for Learning

Will Stewart — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:15:14 +0000

Billed as “a resource for educators planning to incorporate technologies in their teaching and learning activities”, this handbook written by George Siemens and Peter Tittenberger at the University of Manitoba, is a lot more than this. It starts from the premise that Higher Education, whether individual institutions know it or not, is in the midst of fundamental and large-scale change that will see the transformation of teaching and learning on a scale that we haven’t experienced since the Industrial Revolution.

At the heart of this change is the fragmentation of information. No longer does information only exist in a pre-packaged format, such as books, CDs, newspapers or even as a course. Information is now available in a whole range of formats, and this information can be “personalised” by editing, adding, re-designing so the user ends up with information in a format that makes sense to him.This creation of “personal frameworks of coherence” by users is one of the most important drivers for transformative change within the HE sector. No longer is the creation, delivery, validation and dissemination of information under the control of the lecturer, expert or university. The growth of user-generated content, Google, Wikipedia, Open Educational Resources, Web 2.0 technologies, social software and mobile technologies means that the individual is now in control.

Information Fragmentation and Coherence

The Handbook gives a good overview of the pressures bringing about change and how these impact on the learning process. The discussion on the role of technology in teaching and learning goes a long way to summarising where we are at at the moment and provides some useful guidelines on its effective use. The use of technology by lecturers and departments can help bridge the gap between the traditional and the, as yet undefined, role of education in the future.

The final paragraph really brings home what we in HE are all trying to grapple with:

“Through a process of active experimentation, the academy’s role in society will emerge as a prominent sensemaking and knowledge expansion institution, reflecting of the needs of learners and society while maintaining its role as a transformative agent in pursuit of humanity’s highest ideals.”

Horizon Report 2009

Will Stewart — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:22:50 +0000

The latest Horizon Report, that looks at the likely impact of emerging technologies on teaching, learning and research, features six examples of tools, applications and devices that will change the way we operate. Two of these technologies, i.e. mobile devices and cloud computing, are already with us and used extensively. With the advent of the 3-G iphone and Google’s Android phone the potential for new and innovative forms of learning, assessment and collaboration is huge. Anyone who uses Google Docs, Flickr, YouTube and Mobile Me is already linked into a “cloud”. Educational institutions, certainly in HE, probably don’t yet realise the extent to which their students and, indeed, their workforce are making using of cloud computing.

The other four technologies covered in this report are:

geolocation technology
the personal web
semantic aware applications
smart objects (see recent post on QR codes)

The report describes the relevance of each of these technologies to teaching and learning, as well as providing some useful links to examples of educational applications.

5 myths about Cloud Computing

Will Stewart — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:35:10 +0000

This article in ZDNet Technology News looks at some of the claims being made about Cloud Computing and also gives a good update on where this technology is up to.

There is also a good review of MobileMe, Apple’s successor to .Mac, for those considering Apple’s cloud offering.

Techno-bedouins: nomads of the 21century

Will Stewart — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 13:32:18 +0000

This Special Report in the Economist highlights the impact of an increasingly connected world on the way we live, work, communicate and generally spend our days. All those gadgets (mobile phones, laptops, PDAs) that we have been carrying around for years, and which tantalised us with promises of quick and easy access to an online world ( but only if you had a techy friend who knew the 40 steps needed to achieve this) are now finally delivering the goods. Thanks to the arrival of faster and reliable cellular networks, getting connected through our mobile phones is now straightforward. Through an ever increasing number of wi-fi hotspots, connectivity from anywhere is finally happening.

The digital nomad is defined not by the gadgets and devices that they carry, but by what they leave behind. The analogy with the Bedouins is an interesting one. The nomadic Bedouins do not carry water because they know that they will be able to get some at the next oasis. The digital nomad doesn’t carry his documents because he knows that he can access them online when he gets to his destination.

This is a useful report describing the likely consequences of this long-awaited connectivity on the way we lead out lives.