Research #2

I chose to read the 2008 Horizon Report and I focused on the nearest "horizon", that is changes coming in the near future of one year or less. Those were "Grassroots Video" and "Collaboration Webs".

First of all slogging through the extensive executive summary was enlightening in that it explained the big picture as well as the purpose of the report. This was probably the first time I had ever seen an authoritative view of the future of technology in the classroom after years of hearing rumors, hunches and outright wild guesses - some of which were way off the mark! These guesses are certainly documented to be fairly accurate, at least at the university level.

What surprised me the most about the two "near horizon" concepts is that I thought they were already here. Given that the report must have been done a few months ago in order to be ready for 2008, that's a pretty close call on timing. I think some things get "outside" help to speed them along. Also factor in that the field of education is often a bit behind the "real world".

Grassroots video has gotten a tremendous boost with YouTube. There's nothing like capitalism run rampant to advance technology. Like the rest of the web, there's a lot of crap to wade through but there is serious content as well. The fact that new devices like the iPod View have a built in YouTube button helps to speed adoption. Toss in the access to free or inexpensive software, web based publishing access and relatively accessible cameras and everyone has a forum for their creativity or timely luck - as well as their stupidity. The wonders of the technology world never cease but the education world seems to benefit as well.

Classroom use seems to be obvious. Any number of possibilities exist. Content posted already is valuable. A creative teacher can easily add custom made content for viewing. The greatest feature of this is "persistence". The work can be viewed repeatedly and over long periods of time from anywhere. This is great for special education students and regular education students alike. Place, equipment, and scheduling are no longer a big issue. Access to a computer is the only limitation and it is easy to see where YouTube might not be allowed through some filtering systems.

Collaboration Webs are springing up all over. Blogs and Wiki's alone are widening the acceptance of this concept. The more people use it, the more flexibility they will look for. Distance is no longer a barrier and new tools are adding to the mix. Free tools like Skype and Google Docs only add to the abilities of long-distance or even next-door collaborators. Throw in the fun stuff like Flickr or Picasa and users again expand their reach into new areas that educators can use.

The concept of collaboration itself is probably the biggest barrier. We older folks grew up in a world where kids were not supposed to look at each other's work. We are more resistant to new technology anyway so new applications on-line get past us sometimes. However, the ease and power of collaborative applications on the web are hard to ignore once we see them. More and more the adoption process depends on the level of confidence the user has to "make stuff happen", rather than the level of wizardry involved in mastering difficult codes, as in the "olden days".

The Horizon Report gives a good "heads up" about what is coming at us. Add a few years for making any of this technology to become "normal" at the secondary level. Yes, there will always be the geeks who try things way ahead of others. I'm referring to a whole staff. Add a few years for school boards to pay for any of the infrastructure behind this (labs, laptops). None of this stuff is any good if the whole school does not have regular, sustainable and predictable access to any of it. By then these issues will all be old news and we'll be on to the next thing anyway. And the cycle will continue...