The New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative recently released their annual Horizon Report, the product of a five-year qualitative research effort that seeks to “identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, or creative expression within learning-focused organizations.” The report groups six emerging technologies into three “adoption horizons,” predicting likely timeframes for their entrance into mainstream use for teaching and learning.

The first adoption horizon, which assumes the likelihood of entry within the next year, includes grassroots video and collaborative webs—two technologies that are already in use on many campuses. The Report asserts that, currently, virtually anyone can capture, edit, and share short video clips, using inexpensive equipment (such as a cell phone) and free or nearly free software. Similarly, collaboration no longer requires expensive equipment and specialized expertise. The newest tools for collaborative work are small, flexible, and free.

The mid-term adoption horizon, assuming the likelihood of entry within two to three years, includes applications of mobile broadband and data mashups. The Report suggests that mobiles are quickly becoming the most affordable portable platform for staying networked on the go, and new displays and interfaces make it possible to access almost any Internet content. Also visable on the mid-term horizon are data mashups—custom applications in which combinations of data from different sources are “mashed up” into a single tool.

The third adoption horizon includes collective intelligence and social operating systems, which are projected to become pervasive within four to five years. The Report claims that in the coming years we will see educational applications for both explicit collective intelligence—evidenced in projects like Wikipedia and in community tagging—and implicit collective intelligence, or data gathered from the repeated activities of numbers of people (search patterns, cell phone locators over time, geocoded digital photographs). Using these implicit connections and clues we leave behind as we go about our lives, social operating systems will organize our work and our thinking around the people we know; this will obviously have profound implications for the academy and for the ways in which we think about knowledge and learning.

For an detailed analysis of the future of new media in the academy, be sure to check out the full Horizon Report.

Linda Briggs of Campus Technology posted an interesting article today, discussing the University of Washington’s installation of collaborative computing “studios.” Catalyst client services, an IT group serving the university, set-up a number of studios in libraries and classroom buildings around campus that are frequented by students, faculty and staff.

Briggs reports that UW’s collaboration areas are fairly basic; they consist of a table, a few chairs, a simple whiteboard with markers and a large 50-inch plasma computer display. The primary appeal of the studios and the key to facilitating the interactive, small-group meetings is a networked computer at each area that is running collaborative computing software from Tidebreak called TeamSpot.

Through the TeamSpot software, group members have remote control of the shared desktop on the plasma computer display through their own laptops. They can also share files and information between the shared desktop and any of the group member’s computers, using a simple click and drag operation. Karaleen Woody, director of Catalyst, asserts, “If there are six students [in the space], they could be in three different groups of two, sharing back and forth on their laptops, while simultaneously contributing to a shared group space up on the plasma screen.”

The potential of this collaborative technology is particularly exciting considering the way wireless networking on campuses has changed the nature of technology-enabled learning spaces. Briggs reports that currently TeamSpot software doesn’t support remote collaboration, however, to make remote collaboration possible at UW, Catalyst has created a tool called ShareSpace that allows online collaboration. “Using both TeamSpot and ShareSpace, groups can begin the collaborative process together at one of the stations using TeamSpot, then load the shared content into ShareSpace and continue with the collaborative process later online. Thus, students who want a combination of in person and remote collaboration capabilities are accommodated.

It is interesting to consider the manner in which this software might be utilized with converged mobile devices to dissolve the boundaries of the college classroom by increasing opportunities for collaborative educational exchange.

Speaking at the FETC conference last week in Orlando, Chris Dede—Timothy E. Wirth professor in Learning Technologies at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education—suggested that educational evolution has created a gap between what he termed “Classic learning and knowing” and “Web 2.0 learning and knowing.” Dede asserted, “Thinking is now distributed across minds, tools and media, groups of people, and space and time.”

Web 2.0, Dede noted, is “centered around Web-based communities, where the central theme is to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing.” It is an environment where knowledge is gained through bottom-up, individual methods, rather than top-down, traditional forms. “Web 2.0,” he said, “is a major paradigm shift in the way people think.”

Dede stressed the need to integrate these new modes of learning into educational objectives. “What we really want kids to graduate with,” he said, “is knowledge about knowledge; meta-knowledge.” Education, he insisted, should foster meaning making; it should emphasize the ability to convey ones own understanding to others.

In a related post, Xplanazine’s Susan Smith Nash discusses a variety of Web 2.0 applications that are being combined to create seamless and integrated user experiences. Like Dede’s presentation, Nash’s article explores the manner in which new software tools might be mixed and mashed together to achieve educational objectives.

A mashup, of course, combines web applications so that several can be integrated and viewed at the same time. Typical mashups import data that somehow relates to each other. Nash suggests that mashups might be used to pursue educational objectives in a number of ways; including:

• Quality control of information, sharing methods, etc.
• Increase participation and interaction within social networking spaces
• Create interesting interactive activities as a project
• Display for presentations

For more on Web 2.0 technology and education, check out T.H.E Journal’s summary of Dede’s FETC presentation and Nash’s full post at Xplanazine.

In a relatively recent post on O’Reilly Radar, Peter Brantley speculates about the future direction and utility of ebook readers. In the post Brantley suggests that the key to ebook reader success is the utilization of mixed media. He asserts that apart from the advantage of portability and more extensive support for visually handicapped readers, the impetus to migrate from print to digital is essentially weak.

Brantley argues that until text-based book production, as a creative process, turns more mixed media and lends sufficient scaffolding for user generated content, reuse, and republication, the appeal of any dedicated, standalone device will be limited. He suggests that ultimately it will be easier to generate marginal cross book-sector penetration with converged devices (iPhone/gPhone) in which reflowable text/html formats (such as epub) are a straightforward application.

Brantley asserts that with the ability to merge multiple mediums, converged mobile devices will “most readily support the envisioning and enactment of new forms of creative expression, ranging from discursive texts which mutually engage authors and readers; location-sensitive rich-media manga with self-selected forking plots; narratives with multiple entry points and randomized outcomes; hybrid reality games where communication, collaboration, and interaction occur in a combination of physical and the digital spaces.”

In today’s blogging, commenting, tagging, social networking world, interactivity might be the most exciting potential feature of ebook readers for Higher Education. With converged mobile devices, students and teachers might have the opportunity to interact with texts in ways that we have yet to imagine.

A couple of weeks ago we posted a discussion of the growing number of universities that are currently teaming up with YouTube to expand their audiences. As a follow-up, here is Open Culture’s great collection of universities on YouTube. OC asserts that they have put the more “meaningful” collections at the top of the list.

1.) University of California - Berkeley:Launched in October, this channel contains over 300 hours of academic programming.

2.) MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology): This is a new collection and it already has some great material.

3.) UChannel: Spearheaded by Princeton University, this video service presents talks on international/political affairs from academic institutions all over the world.

4.) EGS (The European Graduate School): Includes talks by important theorists/philosophers of the past generation — for example, Jacques Derrida and Jean Baudrillard. There are also some filmmakers mixed in — take for example, Peter Greenaway and John Waters.

5.) Vanderbilt

6.) USC (University of Southern California)

7.) Duke University

8.) Purdue University: Mostly used for promotional purposes.

9.) Oxford University Saïd Business School: So far this is highly tailored to marketing the b-school and helping students through the application process.

10.) Auburn University: This collection is in its “infant stages” and plans for new, less promotional content are in the works.

In a recent eWeek.com article, Stan Gibson suggests that although the corporate world is generally keeping the iPhone at arm’s length, “with a few tweaks—some major—the iPhone could be a very serious contender for corporate personal device of choice.” This article provides a handy follow-up to our post yesterday concerning the growing pressure placed on corporate and university IT departments by the unslaught of converged mobile devices. As in yesterday’s post, many of Gibson’s observations of and predictions for the corporate world concerning the widespread implementation of the iPhone are just as applicable in Higher Education.

Citing Forrester Research analyst Ben Gray, Gibson suggests that corporations are keeping the iPhone at bay for a number of reasons. Among them:

• The iPhone doesn’t natively support push e-mail or over-the-air calendar synchronization.
• There is a dearth of third-party applications for the iPhone.
• The iPhone does not support file or disk encryption.
• IT administrators cannot set password policies.
• Should it be lost or stolen, the iPhone cannot be remotely locked or wiped.
• The iPhone’s battery is not removable. A dead battery calls for a new—and expensive—iPhone.
• The touch-screen user interface means slower typing than with a tactile keypad.

Of course, these concerns are just as relevant to those of us interested in employing the device to enhance social and academic exchange in the academy. As discussed in yesterday’s post, the development of corporate applications for the iPhone will be a critical factor in determining the device’s success or failure in the enterprise. Fortunately, Apple is preparing for an SDK (software development kit) release in February.

Gibson goes on to highlight other iPhone developments that could change the corporate equation. “AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson has said publicly that an iPhone with features that can be exploited by third-generation wireless networks will roll out this year. 3G capabilities include higher speeds, advanced multimedia support and global roaming.”And despite extensively cataloguing its deficiencies, Forrester’s Gray asserts, “It’s only a matter of time before the iPhone filters down the corporate pyramid, and IT should have a strategy to handle these requests.” Certainly the same is true for Higher Ed.

Stan Gibson of eWeek.com recently wrote an interesting article about the growing pressure placed on corporate IT by the proliferation of personal devices. Gibson suggests that “corporate IT hasn’t seen anything similar to this since the early days of the PC, when renegade machines began showing up on desktops like mushrooms after a heavy rain.” It is the challenge of securing and integrating these multifunctional devices that places IT at the center of the deluge. Of course, the challenges presented by the converged mobile phenomenon are not confined to the corporate sector; obviously, Higher Ed. administration must face similar issues.

Perhaps the most compelling aspect of Gibson’s report for Higher Ed. is his extended discussion of the application development for these devices. In both the corporate world and the academy, multiple platforms create an unattractive development environment, keeping many worthy applications from being released. Gibson suggests that “with a single development platform, a company [university] could create a single corporate application for a range of devices.”

He asserts that plenty could change on the application development front if Google’s Android takes hold as an industry-standard platform. Likewise, the expected emergence of an Apple SDK for the iPhone in February also poses some interesting possibilities. Such an SDK could spur interest in the iPhone as a rival application platform.

Ideally, with a single development platform, an IT manager will be able to remotely configure a multifunctional device, load software on it, set policies governing passwords, implement encryption and wipe the device clean by remote control should it be lost or stolen.

As Gibson suggests, the challenge for corporate and university IT is finding “the balance among application support, security and manageability that businesses [universities] require, while letting users [students] feel a sense of connection with and ownership of their own devices so that they use them to full advantage.”

StudentBerry has finally released their Blackberry tasking application designed specifically for students. A relatively long time in the making, the app. features:

• A complete daily, weekly or monthly breakdown of assignments organized by class and due date
• Easy to follow color coding that helps you prioritize activities and assignments
• Intuitive large project management
• Course Information; including, your class times, teacher’s office hours and contact information
• Tracking for important dates: exams, guest speakers, etc.
• User-friendly layout and hotkeys

You can download the application for $24.99 or go to m.studentberry.com on your blackberry to try it out.

EDUCAUSE recently posted an interesting excerpted interview discussing the future of mobile devices and social networking with Marc Smith, a Senior Research Sociologist studying Community Technologies at Microsoft Research. Gerry Bayne, EDUCAUSE multimedia producer, begins the interview by asking Smith to unpack his idea that we are moving from an ephemeral to an archival society.

Smith responds by asserting that approximately 1.5 billion humans carry mobile devices and that another 1 billion will be able to afford these devices at some point in five to ten years. Consequently, 2 billion to 2.5 billion humans will be carrying supercomputing radio stations that will be able to recognize each other. Smith suggests that in the near future these mobile devices are “going to sprout sensors like a Swiss Army knife, and our lives are going to be self-documenting in a way that they have never been before.”

The remarkable outcome of using these tools is that at the end of the day, the tool tells you who you’ve been talking to and for how long. “Oh, you bumped into Marc seven times, but you never talked to him for more than two minutes at a time. Oh, but you bumped into so-and-so, and you talked to him for forty-five minutes, and that was the longest conversation you had at this conference, and here’s all the contact information for that person.”

Smith goes on to state that in the not-too-distant future we’ll be dealing with a population of hundreds of millions of people leaving terabytes and terabytes of data behind, and thus we will have become an archival society rather than an ephemeral society.

He suggests that social networking is crucial in this transition because services like MySpace, Linkedin and Facebook “are soon going to be in the physical world, not just online.” Smith states, “At this point I can get to your MySpace page on my phone, and in the not-too-distant future you might be emitting the information necessary for me to automatically go get your MySpace page simply by standing near you. And so this is a new form of costume or a new kind of body adornment.”

We wonder how the conflation of physical and virtual selves through mobile technology might play out in a university setting. In what ways might this general societal transition enhance our campus communities?

The full podcast of EDUCAUSE’s interview with Smith is available in two parts: Part 1 and Part 2.

T.H.E. Journal recently posted an interesting article by Dr. Ruth Reynard that discusses the benefits of using chat software (text or media-based) in the classroom. Reynard suggests that chat provides an excellent tool in supporting academic dialog, critical thinking and knowledge building because it offers an immediacy that gives students a direct connection to the instructor as well as other students.

In the article, Reynard presents the main concepts for the instructional use of chat software:
• Chat is conversation software and therefore lends itself well to the support of academic exchange;
• Chat is a real-time connection, therefore takes the learning experience outside the classroom but retains the real time connection and, thus, the interactive dynamics of real-time exchange;
• Chat is collaborative and not directive in essence so should be used to promote collaboration and idea sharing;
• Chat is an Internet tool, therefore provides flexibility in scheduling working sessions to suit students’ life challenges and provides direct access, which means students can schedule their own sessions online together without the instructor’s involvement.

She suggests that the best instructional design for digital learners is multidimensional with diverse inputs and diverse outputs. Reynard writes, “any digital tool must be designed into an entire course and supported well with learning resources and strategies.” Essentially, using chat software as part of an overall instructional design is effective if the learning outcome is academic exchange through critical thinking.

Reynard’s article offers important considerations about the implementation of chat software in an academic setting and presents a compelling picture of how the employment of converged mobile devices like the iPhone might help instructors facilitate the multidimensional digital learning experience that Reynard identifies as crucial to effective instructional design.