If you are interested in e-learning and how technology can be used. Two recent reports gives us a glimpse of future technology trends and strategies for e-learning. The first report is the 2010 Horizon Report [pdf] created by the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative and the New Media Consortium. Each year, the Horizon Report identifies 6 emerging technologies or practices that might make an impact on e-learning within the next 1 to 5 years. The technologies identified in the 2010 report are: mobile computing, open content, electronic books, simple augmented reality, gesture-based computing, and visual data analysis. In addition, it listed several key trends in e-learning: abundance of free resources via Internet - our roles as educators in sense-making, coaching, and credentialing; work, learn, and study whenever/wherever; increasingly cloud-based; and learning is more collaborative, and multi-disciplinary in nature.
The second important report is the 2010 National Education Technology Plan (draft) issued by the US Department of Education. In this 80 page document, it outlines the United States’ vision of 21st century model of learning - powered by technology. The document mentions using technology to create “engaging and empowering learning experiences for all learners…” with an emphasis on “all” and computer accessibility. It also suggests “leveraging technology to provide personalized learning not one-size-fits all curriculum…” The future will “replace solo practitioners…” with multiple educators providing guidance and advice to students. Learning will no longer in just inside the classroom. There is a concept of “always on” learning. To support this learning resources and online communities must be available for both educators and students. In terms of technology, the plan mentions open education resources (such as the Open CourseWare Consortium), software as a service (SaaS), cloud computing, open source technologies, and mobile devices.
At CityU, I would like us to promote an “openness” in our e-learning environment. Although we centralize on BlackBoard (Bb) as our e-learning platform, we do encourage our teachers to explore additional learning tools to create a blended learning environment that is most suited for your specific pedagogy needs. For example, some teachers supplement Bb with Ning social network, wikis/blogs, SlideShare, Moodle, etc. Our CityU Bb implementation now provides BuildingBlocks to connect your students to Google Apps, iPhone, Facebook, etc. allowing them access to course information via different channels and provide new modes of collaboration to support “always on” - anywhere and anytime - learning.
