News and Trends
Technologies To Watch
1/1/0001 By:
NEAR-TERM HORIZON (WITHIN THE
NEXT 12 MONTHS)
Cloud computing: More schools
are employing cloud computing solutions
all the time. What still remains
to be developed is the capacity for
the cloud to help students engage in
real research and participate in global
learning communities.
Collaborative environments:
Whatever tools are chosen, collaborative
environments give students
tremendous opportunities to interact
with peers and mentors, experience
other worldviews, and model the kinds
of work patterns that take place in an
increasing number of professions.
SECOND ADOPTION HORIZON (2–3
YEARS OUT)
Game-based learning: Interest in
game-based learning has grown in
recent years as research continues to
demonstrate its effectiveness for learning.
Games for education span the
range from single-player or small-group
card and board games all the way to
massively multiplayer online games and
alternate-reality games. For a variety of
reasons, the realization of this potential
is still two to three years away.
Mobility: The story of mobiles is no
longer about the devices themselves
but about the blurring of the boundary
between the cellular networks
and the Internet. Mobiles represent
an untapped resource for reaching
students and for bridging the gap
between the learning that happens in
school and out in the world.
FAR-TERM HORIZON (4–5 YEARS
AWAY)
Augmented reality: Augmented
reality (AR) has become something
anyone can use, thanks to the convergence
of three technologies —
GPS, video, and pattern recognition
— and the applications seem endless.
Combined with mobile technology, AR
becomes a portable tool for discoverybased
learning.
Flexible displays: Flexible displays
are seen as an important enabling
technology in development. Touchbased
interfaces and flexible displays
are converging in interesting ways;
though applications for schools are
still several years away, we can expect
to see integrated interactive displays
becoming part of many common
objects in the not-so-distant future.
SOURCE: COSN’S HORIZON REPORT, PART 2. FOR A FULL
REPORT, VISIT
WWW.COSN.ORG/HORIZON/